2016 East Coast - Litchfield, CT

We took a day trip through Litchfield, CT on Sept. 13, a pretty little New England town that looks just like one imagines a New England town would look.  Churches, elegant old brick and frame homes, tree lined streets, cute little alley shops....

The surprise for us in Litchfield, was the Tapping Reeve House and Litchfield Law School, the first (?) law school founded in America.  Surprised?  We sure were. Tapping Reeve began practicing law in Litchfield in 1773, and the following year began instructing his brother-in-law, Aaron Burr, in the law.  As others began to come to him for instruction and his reputation spread, his simple classroom became the first formal school of law, according to the Litchfield Historical society. According to other articles I've since found, it is considered the second (College of William and Mary being first).  I'll let the historians among my readers figure that one out (Phyllis and Nelson? - Corrections?).  It was fascinating to see copies of many of the original documents that the Litchfield Historical Society has in it's possession, including student notebooks and students' correspondence with friends and family.

In the Litchfield Historical Society building we learned about the many stone walls scattered throughout New England - who knew there were so many types?  I LOVE those walls and would give anything to have one (an old, existing one of course) at home.

Litchfield also happens to also be home of Whiteflower Farm, one of the best-known purveyors of really excellent flower bulbs and perennials, so of course John humored me and we stopped there to purchase a few additions to the coming spring garden. I was hoping that they had developed a new deer-proof tulip variety that would only be available onsite, unfortunately my hopes were dashed. When I enquired whether I might try interplanting the tulips with daffodils (since deer do not like to eat daffodils), they smiled at me as tho' I were a bit simple and said: "Well dear, you can try...and it might work for a season or two. Or you could build a fence around them; if it is high enough that might work."  We did not buy tulips. Our old apple trees in fall and my garden in summer already provide more than enough food for the deer - why spend money on tulips as a spring delicacy for them?

We moved on to Maine and New Hampshire following Connecticut, but the entire time in Maine we had such weak cell/Wi-Fi signal that it just was not possible to post.  Our current campground in NH offers good Wi-Fi signal, so I am playing blog catch-up tonight while I am still able.  Stay tuned, there will follow a post for Maine and one for New Hampshire before we move on to Vermont tomorrow.