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.

7th Annual Danbury Railway Day – Free Train Rides

The Danbury Railway Museum is pleased to host the 7th annual Danbury Railroad Day on Saturday, August 3. A day full of educational activities and FREE train rides for the whole family is planned. The fun will begin at 10am and end at 4:00 PM, with train rides hourly from 10:25 to 2:25. Admission to the museum is $7.00 for ages 3 and up. The museum will be operating the Railyard Local a short FREE trip being pulled by the GE 44-Ton switch engine, built in 1947, with locomotive cab rides available. Ride in vintage caboose or a 1920's coach. The train will stop at the old New Haven RR turntable, built circa 1914, where visitors can detrain and take a ride on the only power-operated turntable in Connecticut. Leaving the turntable, take a tour of the Tonawanda Valley, a 20th Century Limited observation car a restoration in progress. This car recently took part in the Parade of Trains display for the Grand Central Terminal centennial celebration. As a special visual treat, periodically during the day a vintage freight train will be running. At 11:25 and 1:25, visitors can ride in a special caboose train. In the Danbury museum building, visitors can explore railroad history exhibits, operating electric train layouts, static model displays of the station and railyard, many one-of-a-kind artifacts of railroading history, a wonderful gift shop, and many other items of interest. Outside in the historic railyard, guests will find walk-through exhibits, an operating New Haven RR forge with a blacksmith on duty and a vast assortment of train cars and locomotives, many that ran in Danbury during its railroading heyday. A recent restoration project, the old water tank pump house and water pump originally situated near the Danbury Fair Mall, will be open for inspection. About the Danbury Railway Museum The Danbury Railway Museum is a non-profit organization, staffed solely by volunteers, and is dedicated to the preservation of, and education about, railroad history. The museum is located in the restored 1903 Danbury Station and rail yard at 120 White Street, Danbury, CT. For further information, visit the Web site at http://www.danburyrail.org, email info@danburyrail.org, or call the museum at 203-778-8337. For area information www.litchfieldhills.com

Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum Hosts Victorian Tea May 6

Lockwood Mathews Mansion Norwalk CT

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum at 295 West Avenue will host its fourth Annual Victorian Tea, May 6, 2012 at 2 p.m. in the Rotunda of the Mansion. The event will feature English tea ceremony expert and celebrity caterer Carol Timpanelli, owner of the Royal Tea Company of Trumbull, CT. She has catered for Martha Stewart and Tommy Hilfiger among others. Ms. Timpanelli’s English tea will include a wide selection of desserts, sandwiches, traditional scones and cream and her signature chocolate toffee trifle.

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is one of the most significant Gilded Age mansions in the U.S. and a very elegant venue for a formal tea,” said Publisher of Cottages & Gardens Publications, Marianne Howatson, event chair. “LMMM's annual Victorian tea is also a delightful event where families and friends get together to enjoy a cherished tradition while supporting a National Historic Landmark.”

The event will also feature harpist Katie Critelli. Katie has received two prestigious Gold Cup awards for excellence from the American Harp Society at Fairfield University’s Young Musicians Festival. Before leaving Darien to attend University of Pennsylvania, she was a harpist with the Norwalk Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra for three and a half years, played in the Western Regional Orchestra in 2009 and was a member of the Darien High School Orchestra.

For reservations contact: info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or call 203-838-9799 ext. 4. Admission: $45 non-members $35 members.