Nothing Says "Scenic Lookout" Like a Castle

We've seen more castles in Connecticut than should really exist in a place that never had to defend against the Saxon hordes.



This is Castle Craig. Really it should be called Turret Craig but alliteration is more important than accuracy when naming such things.

Castle Craig sits among The Hanging Hills of Meriden.



The view from the top of the ridge is pretty cool and worth the hike even when you meet such fellows as these on the way up.






The way down was less eventful creature-wise. But the trail was steep and littered with round and ready-to-roll rocks that had me flailing about more than once, much to Jay's amusement.

In birding news, we are now the proud caretakers of seven bird feeders.

We had to deploy our back-up finch feeder because waiting patiently for an open perch is not what finches do best. We had also purchased an extra tube-feeder before we realized how successful the Blue Jay Mafia had been at not only combating grackles but also acting as Jay's back-up alarm clock. Nothing says get out of bed more authoritatively than a blue jay doing its best impersonation of a red-tailed hawk.

I also got some awesome mail from two of the kids that I used to teach in Dallas, including this masterpiece entitled "Rainbow."




(I added more pictures from the park to my Around Connecticut Slideshow at Flickr.)