Roaming About

Lunch

2012-09-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Of course when you go shopping you have to find a place for lunch. Fran's was it! Fran standing on the top of her restaurant caught my attention. For a home-style hamburger, crisp fries and onion rings Fran's is the place to go.

Whimsy on the street.

2012-09-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

You never know what you will find walking down South Congress Street (SoCo), Austin, TX. Check out Casa when you come to Austin.

Bunnyboy?!

2012-09-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

You find this Bunnyboy on top of the sign for Uncommon Objects. SoCo (South Congress Street, Austin, TX) is quirky and eclectic. On Labor Day, Beth, Cassie and I took a stroll along the street. We were hoping for some local color and we were not disappointed.

South Congress Street (SoCo)

2012-09-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

You know your in Central Texas when you can bring your game to the capitol, Austin, and get it butchered!

I'm Back...

2012-09-07T12:02:00.000-05:00

So in my last post I optimistically said I'd be back the day after our move from Sugar Land, TX to Round Rock, TX. Silly me. Not only did moving in take over my life for two weeks but I also had a family emergency. Things are better back East and I am now in Round Rock again eager to explore my new home.

Tomorrow look photos from South Congress Street (SoCo), in Austin, TX.

Flower Girl

2012-07-19T20:54:00.001-05:00

I am moving from Sugar Land, TX to Round Rock, TX tomorrow so I may not post tomorrow and Saturday. I'll be back on Sunday for sure.

-vc

Hartford Habitat Build

2012-07-18T19:45:00.003-05:00

In May 2005 I had the chance to photograph a house in Hartford that Habitat for Humanity was building.
This happened over 7 days in May.

-vc

The story of the founding of Habitat for Humanity.

New Book About Ghana

2012-07-18T01:00:00.000-05:00

"My First Coup D'Etat" by John Dramani Mahama

"Sensitive, honest autobiographical essays… A wonderfully intimate look at the convulsive changes, and deep scarring, in post-colonial Africa."—Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus liked this book and this review magazine hardly ever gives a rave review. "My First Coup d'Etat" by John Dramani Mahama, the current Vice President of Ghana, tells of his coming of age while the new democracy of Ghana is also coming of age. If you want to know more about the first African country to gain it's independence you couldn't find a better book to read.

Listen to an interview on Morning Edition - African Politics, And Afros, In 'My First Coup D'Etat'.

Facebook page

-vc

Full Moon

2012-07-17T17:52:00.005-05:00

Join me sitting outside on an African night with a full moon.

-vc

Ghanaian Women

2012-07-16T20:26:00.001-05:00

Women in Ghana work hard. They get up early in the morning to start the fire. They cook on coal pots and grind their sauces and vegetables by hand. Most of the small businesses are run by women. My friend Perpetua had a bakery. She baked bread for 4 traders in town and two schools. She also ran a small provision store which is like a convenience store. She cooked three meals a day. Washed her clothes by hand in two large metal basins. When I was first at Sandema she had a small girl, Madua, who did the cooking, the wash and she sometimes watched the store but Madua left.

It's often the woman's income that clothes the children and sends them to school. They In "Half the Sky Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn say that men tend to spend their money to show off. They might throw a large party, or lavish robes but women usually reinvest their money in their families, businesses or communities. The book tells stories of women in Africa and Asia who have received aid and the good work they did with that help. Many of the stories in the book resonated with what I saw in Ghana.

Windsor, CT

2012-07-14T19:55:00.001-05:00

I loved downtown Windsor, CT, maybe because it was the first place I live on my own. In college I had roommates then I got married right out of college so in 2004 when I moved to Windsor was I living alone for the first time in my life. I think the first place you live alone is special. Like where you grew up or the towns your children were born in or the first house you bought. Anyway back to Windsor, CT.

My Apartment

Windsor's main street was Broad Street, from there you could go anywhere as this street sign indicated!

The buildings on Broad street were typical New England.

Masonic Hall

Town Hall

Post Office

CVS was on Broad Street and the Windsor Public Library. I found a lovely diner, Dom's that I visited for breakfast at least twice a week. The waitresses new I wanted my tea with milk and kept bringing me hot water until I finished the newspaper. A piece of Maine was on Broad Street as well. The local ice cream shop sold Gifford's Ice Cream. Gifford's is the best ice cream in the world. Better than Ben & Jerry's. Although they are in Skowhegan and not Madison, Gifford's Ice Cream still tastes like home.

Bart's Antique Auto Night

Bart's was a local drive in that expanded to an eat in restaurant as well. Bart's was located down by the river and once a month they had an antiques auto show.

If you are ever in Connecticut, north of Hartford, you should go to Broad Street in Windsor for a taste of a New England town.

Happy travels,

vc

For more about Windsor, CT try these books.

Green Leaves

2012-07-12T19:52:00.003-05:00

Sometimes the flora was overwhelming. This plant was on the back path from my house to the administration building at the school in Sandema.One day the sun lit it up and I just had to snap it.

Gigantic!

These plants were used as ornamental plants in Sandema. They greeted me at the door of my house in Sandema. They lined the foundation of the administration building. These plants were one of the few decorative touches in the harsh Upper East.

These berries grew on a bush that my landlord used to mark the boundary of his yard.

I was walking out in "the bush" one afternoon and found an almost dried up pond. This plant was growing all over the dried up area.

Okro (Okra) flower.

Before I went to Ghana I hated okra-the only time I would eat it is in Gumbo. Well there are very few green veggies in Ghana so I learned to eat okro, their name for okra. I learned to love Tee Zed and okro stew.

The first time I saw an okra flower I was enchanted. It was so delicate and rose like. Something so beautiful on something that for so long I disliked!

Click here to visit Craft And Vision.

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Topsmead State Forest

2012-07-10T19:10:00.000-05:00

Door of the English Tutor style cottage at Topsmead State Forest.

This was another field trip on my photography class. The forest is in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut.
-vc

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Hill-Stead Museum - Farmington, CT

2012-07-09T18:31:00.000-05:00

I took a photography class at the Farmington Valley Arts Center, the teacher was Eric Dreeke, alas they no longer offer photography classes but Eric does! Eric took the class on a field trip to the Hill-Stead Museum.

Typical New England stone wall, covered in ivy on a foggy day.

A fellow photographer left his bag here. I loved the bright red and then the echo of red in the reflector on the bridge.

The Hill-Stead is also used for functions and parties. Many wedding photographs have been posed in front of this gazebo.

The Hill-Stead was finished in 1901. Alfred Pope purchased the land and Theodate, his wife, was an architect and she designed the Hill-Stead. The Hill-Stead was a working farm that was recognized as a model of agricultural practices. In 1946 Theodate Pope Riddle dies and creates the Hill-Stead Museum in her will.

Hill-Stead Museum website.

-vc

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Fall

2012-07-07T17:24:00.002-05:00

The last time I was in New England for the fall colors was 2007. In Ghana, during the dry season, the grasses on the savanna turned golden but no yellows, oranges, maroons, reds, pinks and purples! Here in Texas you may find a color change to dull yellow. I am in exile from Autumn, therefore in honor of Autumn here are two photographs and a poem from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Next Door

The Autumn
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1833)

Go, sit upon the lofty hill,

And turn your eyes around,
Where waving woods and waters wild
Do hymn an autumn sound.
The summer sun is faint on them —
The summer flowers depart —
Sit still — as all transform’d to stone,
Except your musing heart.

How there you sat in summer-time,
May yet be in your mind;
And how you heard the green woods sing
Beneath the freshening wind.
Though the same wind now blows around,
You would its blast recall;
For every breath that stirs the trees,
Doth cause a leaf to fall.

Oh! like that wind, is all the mirth
That flesh and dust impart:
We cannot bear its visitings,
When change is on the heart.
Gay words and jests may make us smile,
When Sorrow is asleep;
But other things must make us smile,
When Sorrow bids us weep!

The dearest hands that clasp our hands, —
Their presence may be o’er;
The dearest voice that meets our ear,
That tone may come no more!
Youth fades; and then, the joys of youth,
Which once refresh’d our mind,
Shall come — as, on those sighing woods,
The chilling autumn wind.

Hear not the wind — view not the woods;
Look out o’er vale and hill —
In spring, the sky encircled them —
The sky is round them still.
Come autumn’s scathe — come winter’s cold —
Come change — and human fate!
Whatever prospect Heaven doth bound,
Can ne’er be desolate.

Autumn Leaf

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Wyoming Public Art

2012-07-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

There are 4 arches made out of antlers at each corner of a public park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Statues in Pinedale Public Library.

Statue in a public park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming honoring the Cowboy!

Another statue in Pinedale Public Library.

They LOVE cowboys in Wyoming!

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Student Portraits - SSHTS

2012-07-05T18:18:00.003-05:00

Sandema Senior High Technical School (SSHTS) students marching on 6th March.

Student athletics takes place during the hottest time of the year. This girl ran the 200 yard dash. She ran all out and just fell to the ground after she finished. She was fine after she lay there for a few minutes and had some water.

Sandema's uniform is a white top and a yellow pleated skirt. Luckily for the girls at SSHTS the uniform rules were not so strict as to tell how many pleats. In some schools this amount of pleats would be considered immodest. Holding hands is very common between people of the same sex, as a sign of friendship, in fact much more common than between the opposite sex. Public displays of affection between a man and a woman are frowned upon in Ghana.

The results of a Home Economics practical - Creme Brulee. Made on a coal pot in carnation condensed milk tins.

Three Form 3 (Senior) boys. Whenever I had my camera everyone would say "Madam Vicky take my picture."

These student's think that they might like to join the army. This group is like our ROTC. The student cadets patrol the school grounds during special events like athletics meets.

Students would come to visit me and cook supper for us. Like any institution the school food was marginal at best. Here Portia is stirring Tee Zed on a coal pot. Rofina was making ground nut (peanut) soup with chicken to serve with the Tee Zed. We at it out of a common bowl and dipped the forefinger and ring finger of our right hand in to scoop some Tee Zed and soup, then into our mouths. I do miss Tee Zed.

Masters and a Madam counting votes for the election of school prefects. Like Harry Potter Ghana schools are based on the English system. Student leaders are elected from the Junior (Form 2) class for the next year. At SSHTS there were about 32 prefect positions. Sixteen boys and 16 girls are elected to position like - agricultural prefect, house prefect, sports prefect, health prefect and the most coveted position, Boys Prefect and Girls Prefect. They are the leaders of the other prefects and the school.

The computer lab at SSHTS where I taught Form 3 and Form 2 ICT (Information and Communications Technology). I would say at least 70 percent of the students had not used a computer before but High School students take to computers like fish take to water! Some of them keep in touch with my on Facebook!

-vc

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Last Days of Dogtown

2012-07-04T00:30:00.000-05:00

3 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

If you can't travel to Gloucester, MA read The Last Days of Dogtown: A Novel by Anita Diamant. Diamant goes back to the 1800s and populates the now deserted Dogtown with a patchwork of outsiders. As usual Diamant brings the period to life with her details of daily life.

-vc

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Captain Thar Be Whales Here!

2012-07-03T20:49:00.000-05:00

Pictures from a whale watch in Gloucester, MA summer of 2006.

The tour guide told us we had a once in a lifetime experience. This whale left his pod and came to investigate our ship. The whale swam around our ship and under it. The guide was shouting over the loud speaker that "This rarely happens! It's never happened to me before! This one's a curious one!" We could have reached out and touched the whale.

-vc

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2012-07-03T00:02:00.000-05:00

5 Stars (out of 5)

Mike Dreyfuss, Sonya Dugal and Julie Nguyen were Peace Corps volunteers in Ghana. They came in 2009. Sonya was one of my trainees. If you want to see the REAL Ghana then Peace Corps volunteers will show it to you. They know the best places to get local food and not get sick. They have traveled all over Ghana and know how to navigate the transportation system from goat carts to air conditioned buses. Pick up The Ghana (Other Places Travel Guide) if you are planning a trip to Ghana.

-vc

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Granite Quarry, Halibut Point State Park, Rockport, MA

2012-07-02T18:21:00.005-05:00

Rockport. Mass is one of my favorite places on this earth. I try to visit it at least once a year when I am in the USA. I am feeling a little bit of withdrawal because I haven't been there for 4 years. I visited the spring of 2008 before I went to Ghana with the Peace Corps. So today I am taking you and me down memory lane to the Granite Quarry at Halibut Point State Park.

Let's take a walk down this wooded path to get to the quarry.

Just a moment while I stop and shoot the shadow and light on this fallen tree.

When you come to the quarry take a right. You'll see the water filled quarry and beyond the trees the Atlantic Ocean.

Not to far to the right I came upon this image. I loved the contrast between the granite, so solid and lasting and the branches, here in the spring and gone in winter.

Let's keep walking. About 1/2 way around you can see the museum and gift shop across the quarry.

I couldn't resist making a photograph of this weed/flower growing out of the granite slab.

We will take one last look across the water filled quarry before leaving and heading into Rockport. I'll take you to Rockport another day.

Oh but I couldn't resist returning that evening and taking a sunset photograph.

If you want more information about park and it's history check out their website. Halibut Point State Park

-vc

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All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

2012-07-01T18:33:00.001-05:00

Travel back to when Ghana gained it independence. Ghana was the first African nation to earn its independence after colonization. On 6 March, 1957 Kwame Nkruma became the first president of Ghana. He then called for the African Diaspora to come home. Maya Angelou heeded the call. She and her college age son went to Ghana where he attended Legon-The University of Ghana.

It was very interesting to read her reactions to the new African democracy and the reactions of the Ghanaians to Maya Angelou.

-vc

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"Cow" Boys Fishing - Sandema Ghana

2012-07-01T14:11:00.000-05:00

Early in my Peace Corps service in Sandema, Upper East Region, Ghana at Sandema Senior High Technical school, I decided to take a walk to a nearby pond. My landlord's son, Thomas, said he would come with me and be my guide.

Upon arriving at the pond the first thing I saw was this cow. I knew some "cow" boys would be nearby. In Ghana if a family has cows the boys of the family usually take them out to the savannah to graze.

Next I saw these lily pads.

Then I found the boys. They were all in the water with dried sticks. I asked Thomas what the boys were doing. He said they were using the sticks to fish. They would push the sticks along the shallow edges of the pond hoping to push something on to the shore.

The catch fit into this boy's hands. It was a frog. Thomas said they would roast it and have some meat to eat that day.

These boys are from the Bulsa tribe. The northern regions of Ghana are very poor. Since colonial time all the commerce has taken place along the coast. A chubby frog would be a welcome addition to their diet.

For a map of Sandema Upper East Region, Ghana, West Africa

-vc

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Bar Harbor, Maine Memorial Day Weekend 2005

2012-06-30T18:13:00.001-05:00

On Memorial Day Weekend in 2005 I went to visit Beth Young and her kids, Cassie and Landy in Winterport, Maine. We traveled to Bar Harbor for the day to visit Acadia National Park.

View from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, Maine.

Between Oct 7 and March 6 Cadillac Mountain is the first place in the USA that the sun rises on. It's the highest point along the North Atlantic coast.

Waves breaking along the the coast on the Acadia Park Loop Road.

Thunder hole at rest!

-vc

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West Cornwall Bridge, West Cornwall, CT

2012-06-29T18:22:00.000-05:00

I love this bridge. When I lived in CT I would photograph it at least once a year. It's a beautiful drive in Litchfield county and a chance to see the Housatonic River.

In the town of West Cornwall on the West Cornwall Bridge Road crossing the Housatonic River.

It's a Town Lattice and Queenpost Truss bridge, built in 1841.

From: http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/ct/w_cornwall.html

-vc

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