I have been taking the train to New Haven quite often in the last month. It takes about an hour. The train ride alternates between city, industrial and nature.
Today’s trip showed me another sign that spring is here. Looking at the salt marshes in Westport. I spotted my first egret. The egrets have returned. The nice thing about egrets is, they are easy to spot with their feathers being all white. They inhabit the marsh lands of the Connecticut coast walking in the marsh and fishing. Today I saw at least ten egrets.
There are lots of other birds in the marshes. You can also look for osprey nests. You will also be able to see herons looking for food.
New Haven is a great destination for a day trip. There is a lot to do, and IKEA is an easy walk from the train station.
Recently I wrote about the artwork “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. When I researched the painting, I learned that the artist had been walking on the boardwalk in the late afternoon. The sky was dark red. It felt the red of the sky brought out the terror in him, thus the scream.
Earlier this week I traveled to upstate New York to see the eclipse. Of course, the sky was clouded over. I did get one glimpse of the sun just before totality. Then darkness suddenly descended upon us.
I knew what was happening. My logical side of the brain said this is great. My other side of the brain wanted to scream “repent – the end is coming”. Luckily the darkness only lasted two minutes. Then it was daylight swiftly again.
All I could think is how did people in the past react when they saw an eclipse and did not know what is happening.
The birds in the area started singing when the darkness descended upon us. They were as confused as we were.
This is a picture of the shadow of the moon crossing over us. Even though, it was overcast, being there for the totality was an experience I will never forget.
What does the title mean to you? Is somebody screaming?
For me it refers to the painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. I have always been fascinated by it and someday I hope to see the original painting.
Today I got to see the next best thing. I was in New Haven for business, and I had some time before my train was departing back to Stamford. I went to the Yale University Art Museum. They are having a special exhibit,
Munch and Kirchner:
Anxiety and Expression
The exhibit is great. One certainly gets a feel for the style of Munch. There was a black and white lithograph of the scream.
The Yale Art Museum is always a nice place to visit and enjoy art. They have a great collection of famous artists’ paintings and sculptures.
New Haven is about an hour’s train ride from Stamford. Entrance to the museum is free, and two hours should give you enough time to enjoy the entire collection.
There are other museums in New Haven. The British Museum of Art is next to the Yale Art Museum. The Peabody Natural Science Museum has just reopened after adding additional space.
One can certainly spend an entire day in New Haven visiting the museums and there is a nice selection of restaurants to satisfy your appetite.
I recently walked the entire length of Wire Mill Road. I enjoy walking this road. It is definitely a country road. It is challenging to walk. There are no sidewalks and in some parts of the road it becomes very narrow.
My walk started at the High Ridge Entrance. I have the Rippowam River on my left and I soon approach the tennis courts and Vodka Alley. I call it Vodka Alley because there were Vodka bottles along that stretch. I finally went with a bag and picked up 52 bottles.
Since then, I have not found many Vodka bottles at that point. I may have to change the name I gave to it.
The road certainly gives a country look. As I mentioned, the river is on the left side and houses are on the right side. The river meanders to the left and houses start to appear on the left side.
There is a beautiful stone wall. I feel that is the most artistic stone wall in Stamford.
Next up is a dumping ground for rocks. They are all over the place and most of them are good sized. I assume a glacier melted here and left all these rocks.
Civilization rears it ugly noise. I hear the cars from the Merritt parkway way before I can see the parkway.
There are many beautiful and old houses on the road.
There is a beautiful stone house on the road. There are a few stone houses in Stamford, mainly in North Stamford. They are all worth viewing at some point.
As I have said Stamford is the city of rock and water.
Wire Mill has plenty of both.
At this point you can take a bus to either end and walk the road. I believe they are going to be replacing a bridge soon and the road will be closed at that spot.
Wire Mill Road. One of many nice roads to walk in Stamford.
My wife does not like to walk in NYC with me. I zig zag. When I leave Grand Central Terminal, I don’t go north then west, I go north a little bit then west then north. You know, zig zag.
The other day I left Stamford on the local train to NYC, and I got off the train at Fordham in the Bronx. My destination was the Hunts Point Produce Market at Hunts Point.
As usual I had consulted maps and had a general idea of my route. I was going to work my way east to the Bronx River and follow the river south to the point.
All I could say was it was extreme zig zagging. I went through Arthur Ave, skirted around the Bronx Zoo arriving at the river.
There was a path I could follow for a while. That ended and I had to cross over to the other side of the river and then look to where I could cross the river again.
It took 90 minutes of walking to arrive at the Hunts Point Produce Market.
The Market is huge. There are three buildings, each about 2,000 feet. Lots of activity. I had to pay $5.00 to get into the facility.
It is mainly wholesale. I am not sure if you can even buy individual produce. Needless to say, I won’t be going back there again.
One thing I have noticed when I walk through the Industrial parts of the Bronx are car repair shops. There must be hundreds of repair shops in the Bronx.
I finally did it. I have been wanting to go up the Hudson River by train for ages. The other day I finally accomplished my goal.
The trip was enjoyable. The train leaves Penn Station in NYC and takes a little over two hours to arrive in Hudson, New York.
The train left Penn Station at 8:40; the first ten minutes was just like leaving Grand Central Terminal. Underground and dark. We emerged from the tunnels around 130th Street.
Unfortunately, it was quite foggy.
Here is a view of the George Washington Bridge. After Tarrytown the sun burned through the fog, and it was blue skies the rest of the way.
Passing through Ossining we came upon Sing Sing Prison. I believe the phrase “sending you up the river” refers to Sing Sing.
Soon it was the Bear Mountain Bridge in view. A few minutes later West Point came into view. The hills were getting bigger.
There were many sightings of wildlife. Lots of ducks and I saw two Bald Eagles on the way up to Hudson.
Arriving at Hudson in a little over two hours I was anxious to explore the town. Hudson is having a revival. The town is full of restaurants and quaint shops. There is an emphasis on antiques and vintage. The town is quite walkable. I spent four hours in Hudson and enjoyed it.
This is a picture looking at the Hudson River from Hudson and seeing the Catskills Mountains in the distance.
I was amazed at how many lighthouses there are on the river.
At this point in my travels, I would say the trip up the Hudson and taking the train along Long Island Sound are two train trips you should do.
The only drawback to going up the Hudson is you either must go to NYC or catch the train in Yonkers.
Recently I rode train 190 from Stamford to Kingston Rhode Island. I have ridden this train often and it is one of my favorite trains.
The train leaves Stamford at 8:33 in the morning and heads toward Boston. The train makes four stops in Connecticut, Bridgeport, New Haven, New London, and Mystic.
Taking the train to New Haven is nice. The train ride is around fifty minutes. New Haven is a great town to walk around. You have museums, Yale University and a good selection of restaurants.
New London is also a nice stopping-off point. Next to the train station is the ferry station. You can take a ferry to Long Island, Fishers Island and Block Island in the summertime.
Mystic is the next stop. You have the Seaport, Aquarium and Shopping Village and downtown Mystic. The seaport is only a fifteen-minute walk from the station.
The views from the train are very nice. The train hugs the coastline. You get nice views of Long Island Sound and the surrounding marshes. In the summertime you can have the kids count how many egrets they see during the trip.
Mystic is about two hours on the train. If you buy your tickets three weeks in advance you can get a decent price.
Next week I am off to Hudson, New York. I will let you know how the view of the Hudson River compares to Long Island Sound.
I went to visit the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. I wanted to see the beautiful art they have.
I of course went by train, and I disembarked at 125th Street. Usually, I would take the subway down to 79th Street and walk across to the Museum.
This time I decided to walk the entire way.
Here is a picture of moss on the wall along Central Park. The picture only captures a little of the art of the moss. I find it so enjoyable to see the beauty of moss. This segment reminds me of modern art so much.
The museum visit was great. My favorite painting is Washington Crossing the Delaware. If you haven’t seen it, you should go and view it. The other paintings and sculptures are well worth it.
Train fare, admission and buying lunch on the street came to fifty dollars total.
You know the situation. you are coming to a stop sign. No one is approaching from the other Roads. Do you stop or roll through the stop sign? The same applies for right turns on red. Do you stop or just roll through the red light.
My observation is, more of us are not stopping and to make it worse, we seem to be going faster through the stops and right turn on red.
What do we gain by not fully stopping. Five, ten seconds at most. Is it worth it? I was almost hit when a driver made a running right at a stop sign. Needless to say ,he had to stop at the next traffic light. He gained absolutely nothing.
The worse thing is, I was in the crosswalk well before he arrived. He was so concentrating on turning he never saw me.
I am assuming the driver was a male. I don’t know. I couldn’t see the driver. All the windows were heavily tinted including the front windshield.
To stop or not to stop should not be a question. We should be stopping at stop signs.
Stamford By Foot 