In the Land of Nod

Spring and Fall in Connecticut are spectacular, with intense, varied colors. Winter and Summer, on the other hand, are largely monochrome. Winter is brown, colored by the trunks of barren trees, and Summer is an unremittant green, the result of dense reforestation of Nineteenth Century fields.

This was not always so. As the painting reproduced below illustrates, rural Connecticut, including Weir Farm, was, at the turn of the Twentieth Century, open, with fields cleared for crops and grazing.

Road to the Land of Nod

Road to the Land of Nod, was painted in 1910 while Childe Hassam, a friend of Weir and fellow Impressionist, was staying at Weir Farm. Weir and his friends often referred to the farm and its surroundings as “The Land of Nod” and today Nod Hill Road, the “road” in the painting, bisects the site.

As the photographs below show, the Land of Nod appears much different today. Summer photography is difficult; finding color in the midst of green is a persistent challenge. But each of these images finds something, even if it is only a patch of dried grass.

Looking Northwest from Burlingham Barn

Trail to Weir Pond

Northwest from Field Below Burlingham Barn

Weir Farm - Main House and Barn