Weekend Wanderings!

This weekend was good and bad. On Saturday we stayed home, it was raining and we had to wait for my wood to come in, so Bill could work on that. Well, it did not come until 7:30 at night, so too late to use it and that didn't matter, because the wood is junk. I wanted rustic wood, but this was so rough, Bill got a splinter, picking one up. Their were 8 boards in a box, and they were all crooked, so they went back today. We will just get our own wood and do the sanding and painting, not worth the cost of finished when they did a horrible  job on the wood.

Sunday was our day to get out. The bad thing was, I was sick, a combination of fighting off the latest flu and inhaling toxic smoke. I could hardly breath and I was coughing, so I took some med and headed out for the day. The med cleared up my lungs but I am still sick, but at least I can breath a lot better.

We headed to the apple orchards in Connecticut, but our first stop was an old prison building. We always see them on the way and I wanted to get a few photos. There are several building complexes along the road, but this is the only one without fencing. It is falling apart and all the windows are broken, such a shame to let buildings like this go to waste, lots of beautiful architecture on them. Also a bit creepy.

Of course we stopped at the orchard next and I got a large bag of apples and a few pears, they weren't as good as last time. Golden delicious are Bill's favorite, so half the bag is filled with those.

Afterwards I noticed a pull over at the river and then a sign, I can't pass by a historic cemetery. We walked around and I took a few more photos, sadly a lot of the graves are sinking into the wet ground. 

Since I was feeling better, I decided to head down to Groton and enjoy the views from the beaches. On the way I saw a tall stone tower, so we took a side road and headed up to see what it was. What we found was Fort Griswold. It was the site of a battle in the Revolutionary war, involving Benedict Arnold. This is the tower that I saw, it was erected later, as a monument to the men who fought in the wars.

We walked through the gates and entered into a large depression surrounded by earthen mounds. There was a door and an opening, so we checked it out.

It was a tunnel, that led to the other side.

On the other side was the area were the men were stationed with the guns and lookouts for enemies coming up the river. The tunnel was their escape route, they could run up and through, to the area we started in, to protect them from incoming fire.

On the edge of the banks, we could enjoy the views of New London and the ferries.

Some of the buildings are still there, the old furnace, where they heated up the canon balls, so that they would burst into flame, when they hit.

And the powder house, were they stored the munitions. It was a fun place to visit and I left a rock at the gate and it was found by a wonderful family, so they posted a photo of their little boy on DSmiles4miles on Facebook. It is fun for us too, when someone posts and we get to see the smiles.

Our last stop was  Eastern Point beach, it is at the end of the Thames River, so it is a nice spot to relax and enjoy the views and of course the boats and ferries, come and go.

A fishing boat coming past the Haunted lighthouse.

And to end the journey, a funny story. Maybe not for one seagull though. I was taking photos of these two guys, fighting for some reason and the other gulls seemed to be egging them on. Just as I was readjusting my focus, the one gull threw the other one off the roof and the gull went falling down the side. It was comical, especially when the poor guy got up and walked off, the flew away, no harm done. I also left a few rocks on some ledges on the house, on the backside, rough sea areas are not good places to hide things.

I hope you all had a good weekend. I am working on finishing a few more pillows and a new stitchery of the month.

Sunday Stroll Giveaway!

This weekend was beautiful and the perfect weekend for some outings. One of the places I have been wanting to go is Bluff Point in Connecticut. It has trails that go around the peninsula and you can also go biking and kayaking from the park.

We decided to try a hike around the trail and it gave us a chance to see how good the trails were for biking, which I will try next time. There is also a nice area for parking at the boat launch with sandy areas to launch from, so that is also on the to do list, this year.

The trail follows the river that runs in and out of the Long Island sound. Beautiful views right from the start. The trails are perfect for biking too.

Lots of areas to stop and walk along sandy beaches.

It come out to a long sandy beach, perfect for when we go paddling. A great way to paddle at the ocean but still be in protected waters.

The trail comes out to Bluff Point, the perfect place to enjoy the views and the islands.

You can also see the Ledge Lighthouse, it is said to be haunted by a former light keeper. Now it is automated and run as a museum and learning center.

And here is where you can enter the giveaway. Tell me about a haunted place in your area and I will pick a winner on friday and announce it that night. The winner can have their choice of any one of my epatterns. If you don't have a haunted comment, any comment will get you entered.

On sunday we went to the bird sanctuary and saw an amazing variety of sea and land birds, but none of my photos were good enough to show, my zoom can only go so far before getting fuzzy. I did get a fun shot of the new arrivals at the pond, this guy has a good start on hopping.