Shelton Historical Society's Vintage Vehicles Antique & Classic Car Show June 17

Enjoy a day with Dad and Granddad peeking under the hoods of the cars they remember from their youth at the Shelton Historical Society's Vintage Vehicles Antique and Classic Car Show on Father's Day, June 19th.  Two wheels or four, from Model T's to muscle cars, there's bound to be something that will trigger a memory or maybe a chuckle from every visitor.  The event will take place at Shelton History Center, 70 Ripton Rd. from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Best In Show 2011

Past shows have featured everything from a 1928 Rolls Royce Phantom, to a restored rickshaw that was used as an ambulance in the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, to a 1911 wood paneled Model T. A Locomobile produced locally in Bridgeport in 1921 was a one-of-a- kind entry last year. Nearly every decade of automotive history from the 20th century has been illustrated on the shaded grounds of the Shelton History Center with more recent muscle cars, Mustangs, and Army Jeeps joining many Ford Model A’s and T’s. All vehicle owners generously share information, their cars, and their hobby with the public.

There is still time for owners of antique and classic vehicles of all kinds to register to participate in this special event. Entry forms may be found at www.sheltonhistoricalsociety.org or by calling (203) 925-1803. Pre-registration costs $8.00 but will be $10.00 on the day of the event.

Awards in five categories will be presented to crowd favorites. Visitors will enjoy tours of the buildings at Shelton History Center, refreshments, and voting for their favorite vehicles. Admission is $1 for dads, $5/adults and $10/family. Proceeds will benefit the educational programs of the Shelton Historical Society. For additional information including directions, please call (203) 925-1803 or visit www.sheltonhistoricalsociety.org.  For more area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

BRING THE KIDS FOR HOLIDAY LIGHTS, DELIGHTS IN WESTERN CONNECTICUT

Imagine a park wonderland aglow with thousands of twinkling lights and a show every half hour when glittering lights dance to holiday music. 

That is the thrill awaiting families when Lake Compounce, New England’s family theme park, inaugurates its first Holiday Lights season on weekends beginning November 29. The park, located in Bristol, in Western Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, is one of a trio of special events for families in Litchfield and Fairfield Counties.

Lights are not the only fun planned at Lake Compounce. Family rides and Kiddieland rides will be in operation, strolling carolers will fill the park with song, an ice carver will create frozen sculptures, and the park’s train will be transformed into the North Pole Railway, operated by a certain special bearded conductor dressed in red.  Indoor activities will include cookie decorating, gingerbread house making and the chance to send a letter to Santa, with a guaranteed reply to come in the mail a few days later. Santa himself will be waiting in the Starlight Theater to pose for pictures with his young fans.

Holiday Lights will be open 5 p.m. to 9 pm. on Friday, and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, November 29-December 1, and December 6-8, 13-15 and 20-22. For more information, see www.lakecompounce.com

                        See Santa’s Village, Meet Santa’s Reindeer

No need to travel to the North Pole to visit Santa this holiday season. Every year since 1947, Santa and Mrs. Claus have been at home in Torrington’s Christmas Village, greeting friends in a “living room” where a log fire crackles in the fireplace and the ceiling sparkles with tinsel and lights. After a chat with Santa and a small gift, kids can head for the toy-filled workshop where local “elves” from the Parks and Recreation Department are busy with toys destined for youngsters in the town hospital. Live reindeers are waiting in a pen outside.

It is wise to come early as families do line up for this special event, but all declare it is worth the wait. The Christmas Village is located at 150 Church Street in Torrington.  It will be open daily from December 8 to 23 from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and on Christmas Eve from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Entrance is free.  For information, check www.torringtonct.org

Santa and his reindeer do get around in December. Over in Fairfield County, the 5th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa's Workshop will be on from November 29 to December 24 at McArdle's Florist & Garden Center, 48 Arch Street in Greenwich. Santa and his reindeer, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Blitzen, arrive on November 29 at 2 p.m., riding down Greenwich Avenue to the Garden Center where refreshments are served to welcome the start of the festival. They remain for all to enjoy through Christmas eve. Feeding times for the reindeer are 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. For more information, see www.greenwichreindeerfestival.com

For more information about holiday activities and a free copy of UNWIND, a full-color, 152-page booklet detailing what to do and see, and where to stay, shop and dine in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties in Western Connecticut, contact the Western Connecticut Visitors Bureau, PO Box 968, Litchfield, CT 06759, (860) 567-45606, or visit their web site at www.visitwesternct.com

GREENWICH, CT SHOWS OFF ITS EXCEPTIONAL HOMES IN 26th ANNUAL HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR

Many communities have popular house tours during the Christmas season, but few can equal the five spectacularly decorated homes to be seen at the Holiday House Tour on Wednesday, December 11^th in Greenwich, a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut famed for its fabulous residences.   

The tour, now in its 26^th year, is the grand finale of the annual Antiquarius fund raiser, a series of events to benefit the Greenwich Historical Society, which also includes the Greenwich Winter Antiques show and Design Forum December 7 and 8 and a Holiday Boutique December 10 and 11.

                                               

 Homes to Tour, Holiday Boutique

The House Tour, chaired by mother/daughter designer team Sandra Morgan and Laird Morgan Tolan, will feature homes from wooded backcountry Greenwich to the shore. Among the show-stoppers are a Hamptons-style seaside home that was featured on the cover of House Beautiful Magazine and a Gustavian-styled Federal era residence surrounded by formal gardens and filled with Swedish antiques, fine art and textiles and rugs hand-loomed by the owner. 

Also included in the five homes are a 1930s Georgian with classical details and decor done in collaboration with well known interior designer Bunny Williams, a magnificent Normandy-inspired guest cottage that has been described as “jaw-dropping,” and a post-Civil War jewel with a barn addition showcasing a surprising combination--collections of both American scrimshaw and hot rod cars.

All of the homes will have lavish holiday decorations sure to inspire visitors with ideas for their own homes.  Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

The Holiday Boutique, with many original gift ideas, will take place at the Christ Church Parish Hall, 254 East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich on the evening of December 10 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and on the day of the House Tour, Wednesday, December 11, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Fine Antiques, Designer Forum

The house tour will be preceded by Winter Antiques Show on December 7 and 8, at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center in Old Greenwich. The event, which always attracts top exhibitors, this year will feature period to mid-century antiques, fine art and exceptional jewelry.  Hours are Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Design Forum, with talks by designers and celebrity guest speakers is a popular feature each year. On Saturday from10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mary McDonald, a celebrated Los Angeles-based interior designer will talk on  A Life in Design, The Honorary Chair of Antiquarius 2013, Ms. McDonald has been ranked as one of House Beautiful’s Top 100 designers, and her work for international clients has been featured in major publications. She will be available after the talk to autograph her book, Mary McDonald Interiors, The Allure of Style.

On Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., editorial director D.J. Carey of CT Cottages & Gardens will lead a panel discussion with three of today’s most sought-after New York-based designers Amanda Nisbet, Matthew Patrick Smyth, and Ashley Whittaker.

Tickets for the Holiday House Tour must be purchased in advance at www.greenwichhitory.org.  Admission to the Holiday Boutique is free. Tickets for the Greenwich Winter Antiques Show may be purchased at the door on Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8. Space for Designer Forum talks is limited and advance reservations are strongly advised.  Further information is available online or by calling (203) 869-6899, ext. 10.

For more information about holiday activities and a free copy of UNWIND, a full-color, 152-page booklet detailing what to do and see, and where to stay, shop and dine in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties in Western Connecticut, contact the Western Connecticut Visitors Bureau, PO Box 968, Litchfield, CT 06759, (860) 567-4506, or visit their web site at www.litchfieldhills.com

Bee Aware at Fairfield Museum and History Center

The Fairfield Museum Shop located on 370 Beach Street in Fairfield is all abuzz with a new selection of bee-related items including honey produced by their own honeybees!  

This year, for the first time, the Museum raised bees near the 1750 Ogden House in keeping with their mission to explore the past and to imagine the future.  The museum has used bees to pollinate the colonial garden and has harvested the honey in much the same way as our ancestors did.

The Ogden House located on 1520 Bronson Rd., is an authentic saltbox home with a colonial kitchen garden containing plantings dating back to the home’s origin. Visitors to the garden can see replica straw bee skeps that represent the importance of beekeeping in the colonies in terms of pollination and wax production, as well as the medicinal, culinary, and household uses of honey.  In fact, apple trees and honeybees used to pollinate trees were brought across the Atlantic in the early 1600s so settlers could make cider because water was not considered portable.  Honey was used to preserve  food, weatherproof  leather and medicinally to help prevent infection.

Today, visitors to the gift shop at the Fairfield Museum will find the museum's newly harvested honey along with bee-themed tea towels, coasters, and pure beeswax candles. In addition to these "sweet" products, the museum shop offers an interesting selection of locally made items such as art by Michael Michaud and beach inspired jewelry.  

In conjunction with the Museum's current maps exhibit, There’s a Map for That! the Museum Shop  offers map themed pieces such as passport covers, journals, and flasks. Specialty jewelry items from CHART metalworks, including pendants, earrings and key chains, exclusively designed for the Museum, feature maps of Fairfield Beach and Southport Harbor.

The Fairfield Museum Gift Shop is open daily from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and weekends from 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. For more information visit www.fairfieldhistory.org.

Frolic at French Farm in Greenwich

French Farm - Greenwich Historical Society

French Farm on 516 Lake Ave. in Greenwich was the first property in the town to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975; and just recently it was designated as a Local Historic Property that will preserve it for future generations.  

Originally, the house was designed by H. VanBuren Magonigle and was built in 1911-1915 for Mary Billings French.  Today, this four-acre, 100 year old property has beautifully restored farm buildings and a rare plant collection that creates a series of distinctive gardens designed by late owner, David Wierdsma making this landscape a living work of art. Wierdsma inherited the property in 1972 and endeavored to preserve the original structures on the property and to create beautiful and whimsical gardens.

The farm is not always open to the public, however on Sunday, September 15, on behalf of the Greenwich Historical Society, the entire family is invited to visit French Farm for an afternoon of art and nature from 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., rain or shine.

This is the perfect place to celebrate the final days of summer and explore this unique private landscape that is part gentleman’s farm and part living work of art.  Kids will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the farm’s animal occupants, enjoy a scavenger hunt, press cider, climb the “pterodactyl nest” tower, explore the fossil garden and enjoy nature crafts and activities on the lawn.

Adults have the option of two tours–one led by Florence Boogaerts, focusing on the horticultural aspects of the property; the other by farm manager Jacek Nidzgorski who will talk about the property’s cultural landscape, its collections and its origins and development. Artists are invited to set up their easels during the event, and photographers will be free to snap.

Buffet refreshments, served on the main lawn, will include an artisanal cheese board, seasonal bites and sweet and savory pastries, all created by celebrity chef John Barricelli of Sono Baking Company and Martha Stewart Everyday Cooking fame. Advanced reservations are required no later than September 11 and made be made http://www.hstg.org/adult.php#frenchfarm. 

Admission to this event is $35 for adults, Children 4 to 12: $10. No charge for children 3 and under.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com