Official Connecticut State Sites, Seals and Symbols
Robin our bird, "Yankee Doodle" our song, the Great Oak our tree, Mountain Laurel our Flower.
Details about these and so much more are found at this link The Official State Website.
There is an overview, each one with a dynamic link to full page descriptions and histories.
UN-official Seals, Signs & Symbols
These are the ones that most who grew up here might think of, if asked. And if you visit DO ask! You won't need to wait long for one to share it with you!
Things like the Rolling hills and Waterfalls, not unlike Tolkien's shire. The Shoreline on Long Island Sound, wth its famous Marshes, beaches and lands ends; the experience of all of the Four Seasons, and just about the best experience of it - we think - winters with enough challenge to brag, and yet not really bitter; Springtimes full of flowers and showers and breezes from sea and woods; Summertimes full of fresh bounty, warm days, some even actually very hot; And Golden Autumns, and the blaze of colors, rolling along the horizons of the hillsides, and the Thanksgiving times with a full table of local plenty! Friends and neighbors famous for nice ways. Parties on good days, 'shoulder to shoulder' at work and 'side by side' when challenged.
"If God is not from Connecticut, why is the sky Connecticut Blue?"
To me, loving Connecticut was about its being "home". I have called other states "home" as well, and loved them as much, but not the same as the place of my birth and rich family ties.
New Years full of snow and snow angels, and toboggans and skates, and snowballs so much fun that we would put some in the freezer and hope Mother would not throw them away, even though,frozen rock-hard, they were not ok for snowball fights, or snow-eating...a safe and fun treat, once upon a time! Getting freezing and then getting all warm and cozy again! Staying in and getting out, more special when the weather makes it a happy challenge!
Crocuses growing through the snow, telling us that "spectacular" was natural!
Forsythia and Pussywillows and Mother's Birthday and Saint Patrick's Day fun all day long!
The falls and brooks rushing more passionately with spring thaws, and the skies showing a truer blue, and talk about the gardens to come.
Connecticut has been about: Walking to school with friends, with the weather warm enough in April for chat and social fun, rather than scurrying thru the cold, with no desire to linger.
Everything about May in Connecticut a celebration! You could feel it in the air, and even if you did not know it was State Constitution month, somehow you knew!
Flowers everywhere, and laughter! Mother's Day and The Dogwood Festival and the Grange Fair, whose origins paid for America, in early days; standing on a hill that gave a view of Connecticut's gentle blue-green hills and valleys, and towers reaching up through the trees; then running or rolling down the hill.
Shows and dances and dinners and weddings in June! The weather always "just right"! Happiness forever insured under such skies.
Summer Vacation, and tying sweaters at our waists and necks when it was too warm to wear them! Delicious jams and jellies, and the fun of making them , allllll afternoon, in loving company!
Fireworks and beaches, and swimming pools, and clamming and fishing and boating parties to the islands.
The rockier shoreline trips no issue - there were for all of us, the little rubber beach shoes, for our feet.
From home on the sound, there were plenty of excursions up to the hills and their lakes, and friends and cousins in happy gatherings, for work and play!
Ghost stories and romantic dreams and girl talk and guy talk and wonderful things to say and hear!
Watermelon, toasted marshmallows and steamed clams and their buttery broths, and singing and making daisy chains, and great summer storms that were more an adventure than a threat.
Sleeping on the porch in August, singing at the fan to make the voice sound funny; trips to cooler country, with windows open for the breeze, and "counting blue cars", was a game played for fun and for real.
And then, back home, and buying winter coats,and school books and clothes, autumn plaids with white trims, red sweaters, and the smell of new pencils and papers! Anticipation!
Enjoying the smell of burning leaves when leaves and burning leaf were of the legal sort.
The ashes would feed the new growth in Spring, and all of it with a nice of message of the rightness of things.
School and new work projects and the feeling of happy change in schedule.
October's Bright Blue Weather was not just poem, but a gift!
"Indian Summer", just as things might cool, summertime stopping back for an encore, to universal applause!
Taking down the screens, smelling of the sun and dust of the season past, and putting up the storm windows, each one shiny and scrubbed and the smell of Windex and vinegar.
Mother, Sister, helpers and myself, singing as we shined up the whole house and yard, in preparation for the cold weather to come.
Ready for a party, after all that work, and the airs getting chilly and crisp, then the crisp, crips as the apples in Bobbing for Apples, not to be missed, in costume at Hallowe'en, after "trick or treat"-ing when there was no fear for danger in the treats
Tucking down the garden, and planning for the Thanksgiving feast, and the delight in the huge tables full of bounty of friends as well as food.
Christmas and its secrets, holiness, surprizes, gathering and swagging running pine, and christmas carols, and choir practice and the hush of anticipation and adoration, and "better not shout" fears that we might err and not be good enough for Santa, and almost too much celebration, and needing Allllll Twelve days of Christmas to visit with friends and relatives, not to be missed!
Mistletoe first-kisses, and candles and wishing we had a fireplace at the Post Road house, like the one at the Redding Road house, and loving visits to homes that did.
Skating, plain, at the pond, or fancy, at the rink, and teaching it, and snobbing off skis, unless we felt like some. Painting snow scenes, and Christmas cards and angels and the Infant and the Virgin! Hushed moments of true love and respect for the mystery of it all, and its connection to us, through the ages.
Winter games like "fox-and-geese" tag circles in deep snow and coats and sweaters and mittens and hot cocoa and popcorn and not at all in a rush for Spring!
In good days and bad, feeling safe, and free - we all enjoyed the feeling of our home being truly ours, and the very best there was to be!
Even today, these are as much the Signs and Symbols of Connecticut as the Official ones at the State website. And, I'm told, I've plenty of company.
Brazilian botanists Marie-Anne Van Sluys (L) and Mariana Cabral de Oliveira check over the DNA map of the Xylella fastidiosa bacteria that causes Pierce's disease, a plague that attacks grapevines, in the University of Sao Paulo's Bioscience Institute, February 24, 2003. At the request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a Brazilian team of 30-odd researchers led by Van Sluys and Cabral de Oliveira has achieved the monumental task of mapping the DNA code of the bacteria that is threatening the livelihood of California's $2.7 billion wine and grape industry.
REUTERS/Rickey Rogers/FEATURE/SCIENCE-BRAZIL-WINE 
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