2021-1-27, Holy Family Retreat Center, Burnt Hill, Farmington, CT

 On 2021-1-27, I parked in a Holy Family Retreat Center parking lot and explored the area.  I made an interactive map with location numbers to show where I took the pictures below.  Here's a static screenshot of the interactive map.


Here's a link to the interactive map on which you can turn off various layers including LIDAR, aerial imagery, contour lines, and historical USGS maps: https://arcg.is/0aif4T


1.  Next to the parking lot I parked in at the Holy Family Retreat Center there was this free-standing wall with a sculpture in a niche.  People had left candles at the feet of the statue in the niche.


2.  I was on a section of a highway interchange built in the 1970s that has never been used.  Behind me, you can see I-84 and the towers of downtown Hartford.


3.  This was along the path I followed from the Holy Family Retreat Center parking lot.  Actually, the property is owned by the State of Connecticut.


4.  This structure on the Holy Family Retreat Center property seems to be about to fall down.


5.  "This empty circle at the labyrinth's center reminds us to empty ourselves so that we might be filled with Christ's peace at every moment of our lives."  That sounds Buddhist.

Near 5.  The labyrinth with its empty circle.


6.  There used to be a sign that said, "Path to tranquility," and another that said path to something else.  Bliss?


7.  If we had forty days and forty nights of rain, this should become a temporary lake that will retain water to avoid flooding downstream.

8.  I think this canal used to be part of a system that transported water from what was then Reservoir #4 to Reservoir  #1.  Reservoir #4 is now Batterson Park Pond in Farmington and New Britain.


9.  Another area that should become a lake if we get unusual amounts of precipitation.  This is looking southeasterly towards Burnt Hill.


10.  This bug was scurrying about on the snow.  There are several families of insects that include species of insects that are active in the snow, according to https://thedragonflywoman.com/2010/12/24/whitechristmas/ .  According to several people on iNaturalist, this is in the non-biting midges family, Chironomidae.


11.  There are no trails on this town-owned land.  The sign is at the north end of Burnt Hill Road, near the top of Burnt Hill.


12.  Another old canal.  This is a good place to cross the waterway.  I did not walk on the board, but, instead, stepped across the canal on rocks.

13.  I actually took this picture on 2020-12-19.  Behind me is a large yellow birch.  Note the vertical coil of bark above my head.


14.  Water is emptying out of this pipe and flowing towards where this small stream empties into Woodridge Lake.


Near 1.  This is near where I parked at the Holy Family Retreat Center.  It looks like a maypole to me, maybe more evidence that the Retreat Center is open to religions other than Christianity.













David Reik

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