A Movie Comes to Town

Noah's Restaurant became the Nor'easter Diner
Photo by Plush Duck

Yesterday afternoon, I drove down to one of the seaside towns near my house to have lunch with my daughter.  The traffic, which is normally quiet, was crowded and crazy.  There were also signs everywhere that read "GHS Base Camp" and "GHS Crew Parking" and just plain "GHS."  Orange traffic cones and barricades had been erected at almost every intersection heading onto the main drag where I had planned to grab a bite to eat, and large moving trucks filled with equipment had been strategically placed throughout town, along with personnel communicating into small walkie-talkies perched on shoulders or held in hands.  What in the world was going on?  It was as if the entire borough had been transformed.

Well, the community ( and the restaurant where I had planned to enjoy a long, peaceful lunch) had been renamed for the day to film some scenes for an upcoming movie titled Great Hope Springs (hence, all those "GHS" signs).  Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep, the comedic flick tells the story of a long-time marriage gone stale (possibly):

Many years of marriage have left Maeve wanting to spice things up and reconnect with her husband.  When she hears of a famed relationship guru in the town of Great Hope Springs, she must persuade her skeptical husband to get on a plane for an intense week of marriage and sex therapy.  Getting there was hard enough...now shedding their bedroom hang ups, learning some new moves and rediscovering their youthful spark is when the real adventure begins.

So, hopefully, my general geographic locale benefited, economically and otherwise, from the film crew activity today.  I am told the movie will hit theaters around December 14, 2012.  I, for one, will be attending just so I can see how they did making a small seaside town in Connecticut look like a small town in Maine.  From the looks of what went on today, I am guessing they did a great job.

If you want to see another movie that was filmed around here, check out Mystic Pizza (1988).

A Friendly Visitor

After the last snowstorm, my daughter and I noticed that a pair of deer began visiting our yard on a fairly regular basis. We were at a bit of a loss to determine what was attracting them until, one day, we saw this individual (not certain if he/she is male or female) munching on one of the azalea bushes in the backyard. Since I did not do anything to stop or discourage the friendly beast, I will probably not have much of an azalea bush left by spring. Oh, well. I have a pretty healthy collection of azaleas in my yard. Losing one to a hungry deer may not be so bad.

Finally, Fall Photos

Over the past month, my daughter and I have been collecting some photographs of the fall foliage around our part of southeastern Connecticut. I thought I should share them before the snow starts to fly and fall photos are no longer applicable.

The pasture off Route 85 North in Waterford, Connecticut.










An antique home off Route 184 in Old Mystic, Connecticut.