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New England Reflections 2014 (Cont.):The Platypus Travels Part XLIX

Who says you can't go home?

Connecticut is called "The Land of Steady Habits" both by those that inhabit it and by their neighbors.  Going back, even after sixteen or seventeen years doesn't mean that you're going to find much in the way of change.  There may be a few new houses and a few new faces, but things mostly stay in their place -the trees grow taller.  Not all change is bad, however, and it's always a delight to pop back in to a place you know and love and find that its beauty has been carefully tended and enriched.  Below, is one of my favorite places: the old library.  The town I grew up in once had a Tiffany glass factory and that factory provided a beautiful set of stained glass windows(ok, it's not actually stained glass, but a modern technique [rolled glass?] that Tiffany pioneered) for the town library.  These turn-of-the-century windows were damaged long ago and moved to the musty recesses of the attic so that I never saw them while I was growing up.  The library board recently partnered with an offshoot of the original Tiffany factory that remains in the town to refurbish two of the windows and install them in the reading room.








  The two figures represent Art and Literature.  There are two other panels(non-representational) still awaiting restoration as well as the original light fixtures (So much better than the present florescent monstrosities!).  Something else to look forward to...

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