Woodstock and Windsor - in the Middle of Vermont

A ride through Vermont today, and a few views from the middle of the state.  Above, here's the common and town center of Woodstock.

Across from the common is where you drop your letters to Santa.  But not this time of year.  A relic akin to the old hitching post.

Eastward and nestled beside the long Connecticut River (Connecticut actually meaning: long tidal river), is the town of Windsor, where we take advantage of a good day for some spring planting.

Both towns are in Windsor County, both have populations of a bit over 3,000 people, but one thrived in the Industrial Revolution, and the other remained largely agricultural.  Windsor is where those rebellious free thinkers wrote themselves a Constitution, broke off from Mother England, and declared the Republic of Vermont.

We previously covered the Windsor-Cornish Covered Bridge here, one of the longest covered bridges in the world, where you can slip over to New Hampshire if you want to.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Revolutionary War Grave - Coventry, Connecticut

In honor of the coming Memorial Day holiday, a lonely windswept hilltop grave in Coventry, Connecticut.  Here lies Major Thomas Brown, who saw action in the Revolutionary War, and survived the conflict.

Leavitt Theatre Silent Movie Series - Ogunquit, Maine

The Leavitt Theatre in Ogunquit, Maine, which we featured in this previous post on my Another Old Movie Blog, will be showing a series of silent films this summer, beginning, June 5, with futuristic sci-fi “Metropolis” (1927), and running through October with  Lon Chaney's “Phantom of the Opera” (1925).


The films will be accompanied by live music by Jeff Rapsis, who specializes in scoring silent films.


Other films include  “The Lost World” (1925), “Peter Pan” (1924), ‘Tarzan and the Golden Lion’ (1927), and tributes to Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd.   For more on this series, have a look at this Seacoast Online article, or the Leavitt Theatre website.

Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry - Storrs, Connecticut

They are the cast in full costume and makeup, standing silent, but ready to perform in an instant.

There is much history of the most beguiling art form of puppetry here at the Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry.  These actors are the progeny of a long heritage stretching through the ages of human expression.

They may take a crude or avant garde form, or they may, as the assembly above, assume the garb of English operetta.  This is the cast of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, H.M.S. Pinafore.

The Ballard Institute is named for Frank Ballard, one of the most preeminent puppeteers in  America, and professor and founder of the puppet arts program at the University of Connecticut at Storrs in 1965.   UCONN is one of the few schools in the world that offers degrees in puppetry, and has become a mecca for students of this art.

Especially charming are the displays illustrating Professor Ballard's full-scale puppet productions of musical theatre shows.  Here is the Caliph's procession in the "Night of My Nights" scene from Kismet.

The Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry is located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs, Connecticut.

Have a look here at their website for more information.  Then come out to Storrs and have a look for yourself.