Ludlow Town Green 0005

New Mall turf braces for the onslaught of millions of inaugural feet

Today's headline comes from the Washington Post. Whenever I visit the Nation's capitol a smile comes to my face watching the various activities on the Capitol Mall. If one looks closely, one will see besides the tourists numerous individuals just enjoying this vast public space (1.9 mi. from the Capitol steps to Lincoln Memorial) - couples in love, frisbee throwing youth, children chasing butterflies, etc. The Mall is our National "Village" Green - a public space that is well used and available to all. Yes, the grass is well worn and some areas are a little shabby. But it is ours to use. We have many public spaces in America and none are quite so picturesque as New England's village greens. Just about every village has one and they are still used. In Ludlow our green, aka Veterans Memorial Park, is the frequent site of concerts, festivals, and memorial services. In this picture the town Gazebo is seen to the left, immediately behind and to the right is the First Baptist Church, and just visible up on the hill is the Black River Academy. Today the Black River Academy building is a museum but as a school Calvin Coolidge was among its graduates. Today was overcast and foggy and I knew from the beginning I would make a B&W image. I shot with my Nikkor 18-200mm@24mm, f8, 1/640 sec and then processed it in NIK Silver Efex Pro going for an "antique" look.