Wednesday Night Acoustic Cruises with the Seaport Association

Having made it through Monday and Tuesday, come Wednesday some folks need a little extra motivation to get to the weekend!   The Seaport Association in Norwalk is offering a series of adult only acoustic cruises through Norwalk Harbor and Islands every Wednesday in June, July, August, and September to get you over the hump!  For tickets click here. 

This two-hour cruise departing at 6:30 p.m. and returning at 8:30 p.m. has the added attraction of a beautiful sunset on the water.  Imagine listing to the serene sounds of music while watching the sky fade into dusk amid the glimmer of city lights.  The views are fantastic and so is the music…it is like attending your very own private concert on the water with 48 other friends!


On July 10th and 24, join the New Orleans Beatniks on an evening cruise and relax to the music of New Orleans with a little bit of funk and a lot of soul!  Their unique musical style and the way they interact with their audience will make this cruise unforgettable.

On July 17 guitarist Glen Roth will dazzle you with his fingerstyle guitar work.  His compositions suggest multiple guitars, but it really is just the talent of one man and his ten flying fingers and one instrument.  You may have even run into Glen when in Grand Central Terminal or on one of the tunnel platforms because he is a licensed performer in the MTA’s Music Under New York program.  Tonight though, he is there to entertain just you and 48 other lucky people.

On July 28, Joni and the Keepers are sure to lift your mid-week blues spirits with their entertaining set. Joni's sound was originally rooted in Country and Gospel, but over the years, her repertoire has expanded to include blues and rock as well any genre where great songs for great women singers can be found. Joni has fronted several bands in her career in the Midwest and on the East Coast, opened for Nashville acts in the New York area, and continues to evolve her music by surrounding herself with eclectic and outstanding musicians, like The Keepers.  This is a cruise not to be missed!

How to Book the Cruise

The Seaport Wednesday Acoustic Cruise is available in July, August, and September.  The vessel leaves the dock at 6:30 p.m. and returns at 8:30 p.m.  Passengers should arrive 30 minutes before departure, boarding begins at 6:15 p.m. Passengers are welcome to bring snacks and their favorite bottle of wine or beer aboard…don’t forget to bring plastic glasses!  The vessel leaves from the Sheffield Island Lighthouse Dock located at the corner of North Water Street and Washington Street in historic South Norwalk.  Parking is available adjacent to the dock and the Norwalk Maritime Garage.  Tickets for this Adult cruise are $30 per person.  For your tickets click here.

Music on a Cruise of the Sound every Wed. in July

Having made it through Monday and Tuesday, come Wednesday some folks need a little extra motivation to get to the weekend!   The Seaport Association in Norwalk is offering a series of adult only acoustic cruises through Norwalk Harbor and Islands every Wednesday in June, July, August, and September to get you over the hump!  For tickets click here.

This two-hour cruise departing at 6:30 p.m. and returning at 8:30 p.m. has the added attraction of a beautiful sunset on the water.  Imagine listing to the serene sounds of music while watching the sky fade into dusk amid the glimmer of city lights.  The views are fantastic and so is the music…it is like attending your very own private concert on the water with 48 other friends!

On July 17 guitarist Glen Roth will dazzle you with his fingerstyle guitar work.  His compositions suggest multiple guitars, but it really is just the talent of one man and his ten flying fingers and one instrument.  You may have even run into Glen when in Grand Central Terminal or on one of the tunnel platforms because he is a licensed performer in the MTA’s Music Under New York program.  Tonight though, he is there to entertain just you and 48 other lucky people.

On July  24, join the New Orleans Beatniks on an evening cruise and relax to the music of New Orleans with a little bit of funk and a lot of soul!  Their unique musical style and the way they interact with their audience will make this cruise unforgettable.

Fun Time Family Cruise to Sheffield Island July 20, 2019

We all know that family time is important. Taking the time to connect and play together is an essential way of bonding - so why not plan a fun night out with the kids on Sheffield Island. The Seaport Association of Norwalk has just announced a new special event, “Family Night” that is taking place on July 20 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. that spells summer fun on a private island!

On this expedition get ready to hold all your calls and, to use your cell phone only for family photos! This scenic boat trip will take you through Norwalk Harbor, past seaside homes, and private islands to Sheffield Island. On the way, have your kids look for birds that make Long Island Sound their home.

Once on the island take a guided tour of the historic Sheffield Island Lighthouse and the Light Keepers Cottage to learn about the lore and legends of this maritime landmark. Both boys and girls will be thrilled with the variety of face painting designs available on the island that adds an element of extra fun and creativity. Good, old-fashioned family fun is a highlight with volleyball, and badminton competitions, and potato sack races. And, for a quieter time, there will be plenty of opportunities to collect shells on the beach as you watch the sunset.

Since this is a family night out, the Seaport Association is suggesting that guests pack a picnic dinner and beverages because there is nothing more memorable than a family picnic on your very own private island! Picnic on a blanket on the beach or use one of our tables in our new wood frame pavilion, whatever spot you choose the views will be incredible! A family night on Sheffield Island wouldn’t be complete without stories around a campfire and s’ mores, an activity that is as much fun as it is memorable.

For tickets visit www.seaport.org/Tickets or call 203- 838-9444. Tickets are $28 for adults, $16 for children 4 to 12 and children under 3 are $7, to get tickets click here. Advance ticketing is advised because this is expected to be a sell-out event for 49 people. Please be at the dock 15 minutes prior to departure for seating.  Snacks and beverages are allowed. Parking is available at the dock at 4 North Water Street as well as at the Maritime Parking Garage.

From Butterflies to Battleships: Selections from the Bruce Museum Photography Collection

On view beginning, Saturday, June 22, 2019, From Butterflies to Battleships draws from the Bruce Museum Photography Collection to present a selection of work by four singular American photographers: Margaret Bourke-White, Carl Mydans, Patrick Nagatani, and Brett Weston. The exhibition will showcase the diversity of artistic and documentary approaches taken by photographers in the twentieth century and demonstrate how they expanded on earlier experiments in portraiture, scientific record, and photomontage.

Although renowned for her breathtaking photo essays for Fortune and LIFE magazines, in which she captured the glories of the industrial age, Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) had a lifelong interest in the natural world. Selected for this exhibition is a collection of small insect portraits made in the 1930s in which butterflies, moths, and praying mantises are hazily depicted in various stages of metamorphosis. A far cry from the epic scale of her images like that of the construction of Montana’s Fort Peck Dam, these photographs show a surprisingly intimate and experimental side of Bourke-White’s oeuvre.

First trained as a reporter, acclaimed photojournalist Carl Mydans (1906-2004) captured landmark events in the United States, Europe, and Asia over the course of 36 years as a staff photographer for LIFE magazine. There he skillfully honed what would become his trademark, the ability to capture the enormous gravity of an event with a single image. The exhibition includes two iconic photographs taken in 1945 while on assignment during World War II with General Douglas MacArthur and his regiment.

By the time photographer Patrick Nagatani (1945-2017) moved from California to New Mexico in 1987, he had already demonstrated a remarkable talent for a clever layering of imagery to construct surreal photographic satires. He found an ideal subject for his particular brand of politicized artistic intervention in the discordant Southwest landscape, where Native American ancestral grounds rest alongside nuclear weapons test sites. On view in the exhibition are a number of works from the resulting series, Nuclear Enchantment (1989-1993), in which Nagatani makes a powerful statement about the environmental and spiritual consequences of nuclear technology.

The son of the pioneering photographer Edward Weston, Brett Weston (1911-1993) began taking pictures as a teenager while living in Mexico with his father. The young Weston displayed an extraordinary eye for subject and form from the start. Over time, Brett would reach beyond the modernist aesthetic championed by his father, to the brink of abstraction, as shown in a series of stunning photographs taken around 1970, in which natural elements such as sand, trees, and water are transformed into expressionistic compositions.

According to the show’s curator, Stephanie Guyet, Zvi Grunberg Resident Fellow 2018-19: “It’s been fascinating to spend the past nine months working at a Museum that functions as a space for both scientific and aesthetic inquiry. This is a first for me, having worked previously at museums and galleries that are exclusively dedicated to fine art. I wanted therefore to develop an exhibition that would reflect the multifaceted, idiosyncratic, and extremely generative space of the Museum itself. Given that the Bruce has a wide and varied photography collection, and that photography lies at the intersection of art and science, this seemed like the perfect subject to explore. I hope that Museum visitors will be as excited and inspired as I am by the beautiful and provocative work on view.”

From Butterflies to Battleships: Selections from the Bruce Museum Photography Collection will be on view in the Museum’s Arcade Gallery through September 1, 2019. The Museum is grateful for exhibition support from The Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund and the Connecticut Office of the Arts.

How to Win Tickets to Iceland and More!

White Memorial Foundation is the State's largest nature preserve located in Litchfield. Each year this non-profit hosts Family Nature Day in September, this year it is September 28 on the grounds of the Foundation.  They also host the annual Family Nature Day Raffle with only 1,000 tickets printed.  The tickets are only $10 with three lavish prizes that are sure to put a smile on anyone's face!  Drawing is at 4PM on Saturday, September 28, 2019, at The White Memorial Conservation Center. Ticket holders do not need to be present to win but it sure is fun if you are.... just to see the expression on your face! Priceless!

Last years winners!

Three destination prizes are up for grabs this year! The first prize is a one week trip for two to Iceland donated by Krummi Travel www.krummitravel.com June 13 - 21, 2020: Includes eight days / seven nights accommodation, breakfast, and dinner daily, round trip airfare from Boston or New York, and transportation while in Iceland. Enjoy this glorious time of year when the midnight sun teases you into staying up far later than you ever did as a kid and Iceland is alive with Nature!

 

The second prize is a $1500 gift card to the incomparable Winvian Farm in Morris, Connecticut! Winvian is our neighbor and a great supporter of White Memorial. We love them! Choose from their menu of whimsical, architect designed rooms...will it be the Tree House? The Helicopter? The Beaver Lodge or another of these breathtaking cottages? Your gift card covers two nights plus breakfast for two making for one of the grandest weekend getaways that we can imagine! www.winvian.com

 

This year's third prize is a doozy as well! Choose three friends, pack your camping gear (a tent is provided) and head out to The Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem , New York where you will spend a night under the stars listening to the howling residents which make this destination one of the greatest education and environmental centers in the United States. "Sleeping with Wolves": Included in your $300 gift card is a pizza party and breakfast and a talk from the Center Staff about their precious residents. www.nywolf.org

 

All proceeds from the raffle benefit programming expenses at the Conservation Center.

All online purchases will receive their ticket stubs in jpeg form via email. The originals can be picked up at the Museum where they will be stored in a file. Tickets can also be purchased by phone: 860-567-0857 and in person at the Gift Shop. To purchase online click this link https://whitememorialcc.org/product/nature-day-raffle

 

Silver Tea in Derby - July 8, 2019

On July 8, 2019, the Derby Historical Society is hosting its annual Silver Tea from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the La Sala Banquet Hall in Derby.

This festive tea is the main fundraiser for the Derby Historical Society that promises to be a stellar event.  At this festive tea party, guests will be entertained by singer and actress Patty Carver.  Her one-woman show called Women of History - This Old Hat - Patriots of Liberty has been called a tour de force musical that is sure to entertain and educate.  Famous women featured in the show include Betsy Ross, Deborah Sampson Gannett, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Amelia Earhart.

Tickets are $30 per person and can be purchased by calling 203-735-1908 or 203-676-0324.  You can also email info@derbyhistorical.org for tickets.  Your tickets include tea sandwiches, baked goods, beverages, and entry into door prizes.  There will be over 45 door prizes given out.  Additional raffle tickets are available on the day of the event.

A Pet Parade to celebrate the fourth in Litchfield Hills

The Litchfield History Museum located in the heart of this bucolic village is celebrating July 4th  with a Pet Parade and Turn-of-the-Century Fest!  Everyone is welcome to take part in the Pet Parade that begins at 12:15. Please make sure your pet is on a leash or in a cage and is up to date on immunizations.

This is your chance to show off your favorite pet and to celebrate Independence Day at the Litchfield Historical Society's annual Pet Parade and Turn-of-the-Century Festival on Monday, July 4th from 2:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Visitors are welcome to join the festivities with or without pets.

After the parade, enjoy an ice cream social generously sponsored by Arethusa Farm Dairy.  There will also be a Turn-of-the-Century Fest where you can try your skills at old-fashioned lawn games on the Green. Fest participants will have the opportunity to compete in egg and spoon races, a tug of war, sunflower seed spitting contest, and three-legged races. 

Rare Amur Leopard Cubs Made Debut @ Beardsley Zoo

Two of the rarest (and littlest) of the big cats on earth made their official debut today at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo! The Zoo’s Amur leopard cubs (Panthera pardus orientalis), a male, Orion, and a melanistic (an extremely rare black color variant) female, Kallisto, have slowly been acclimating to their new habitat, and are now available for Zoo guests to view from 9:00-11:00 a.m. and again from 2:00-4:00 p.m. daily.

Amur leopards are critically endangered, which means they face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, with approximately 80 animals remaining there. There are approximately 200 in human care worldwide, with slightly more than 100 in Russia and Europe, and slightly fewer than 100 in the U.S.  With such a small population, each Amur leopard born is extremely important to the survival of the species. So far in 2019, there have been five births in accredited zoos, with only three cubs surviving, including Orion and Kallisto. 

 “We’ve worked with the cubs for the past few weeks, gradually acclimating them to the outdoors, their new surroundings, and the sounds, sights, and smells they’ve encountered for the first time,” said the Zoo’s Deputy Director Don Goff, who as exotic cat expert and co-chair of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)’s Felid Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) has overseen the care of the cubs from birth. “Our guests and supporters have anxiously awaited a chance to meet Orion and Kallisto, and we appreciate everyone’s patience. As always, the physical, emotional and mental welfare of the cubs is our first responsibility.”

The cubs will be out in their habitat from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. and then again from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. each day, but Goff cautioned that the cubs will have free choice to their holding areas, and they may choose to go inside where they can’t be seen. “We want everyone to have a chance to visit these precious and rare leopards, but they’re still quite young and may need rest time out of sight of our guests,” he explained. “If they’re not visible from the viewing window, visit other parts of the Zoo and make another trip to the leopard habitat at a later time,” he advised. 

About Amur leopards

A rare subspecies of leopard that has adapted to life in the temperate forests from Northeast China to the Korean peninsula and the Russian Far East, Amur leopards are often illegally hunted for their beautiful spotted fur. The Amur leopard is agile and fast, running at speeds up to 37 miles per hour. Males reach weights of 110 pounds and females up to 90 pounds. 

They prey on sika, roe deer, and hare, but the Amur leopard has to compete with humans for these animals. They live for 10-15 years in the wild, and up to 20 years in human care. In the wild, Amur leopards make their home in the Amur-Heilong, a region that contains one of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world, vast steppe grasslands, and the unbroken taiga biome. http://www.beardsleyzoo.org

Last Weekend of June @ Litchfield's White Memorial

White Memorial Foundation, the state's largest nature preserve located just off Rte. 202 in Litchfield has two big programs and a kids get in free week planned to end the month of June.

The Foundations popular "Star Party" takes place on June 28 and is organized by the members of the

Litchfield Hills Amateur Astronomy Club and the Mattatuck Astronomical Society. Weather permitting; there will be stargazing after the program. 8:00 p.m.,   Meet at the A. B. Cedar Room. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. You are invited to bring your own telescope or binoculars. FREE… Donations will be accepted to help defray the Conservation Center’s programming expenses.

Starting on June 29 and going through July 5, kids under 12 will get free admission to the museum when accompanied by an adult.  There is so much to see and do in the museum before heading out to explore the grounds of this beautifully preserved sanctuary.

On June 29, David K. Leff will present a talk on Ash trees called Twilight for Ash Trees: Shadow on Craft and Culture.  Ash trees are noted as “one of the greatest gifts with which nature has endowed man … over the course of human history,” ash trees are rapidly disappearing from our roadsides and forests. Discover why they are dying and why the loss will likely have a larger impact on culture than ecology. Join award-winning author and former Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Commissioner David K. Leff for a slide-illustrated talk that will take you from forests to the workshops of craftsmen who fashion everything from snowshoes to museum-worthy baskets commanding tens of thousands of dollars.  Explore the deep connection between nature and culture! 6:00 p.m., A. B. Cedar Room, Dinner is included. Please BYOB and your own place setting. Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857 or register online: www.whitememorialcc.org.  This program is $35.00 for both Members and Non-Members.