Sunday, June 16, 2013

Celebrate Strawberries at Jones Family Farm in Shelton

Strawberries at Jones Family Farm
This summer Terry Jones of Jones Family Farms is celebrating a tradition he began fifty years ago as a young teenager: setting out thousands of baby strawberry plants. Jones refers to this as the "Strawberry Red Anniversary" rather than the more typical "Golden Anniversary " because it honors a half of a century of tradition as well as two years of plant production.  
In 2013, Jones Family Farms is recognizing the 50th anniversary of planting the ‘Queen of Fruits’ and 2014 will mark the 50th harvest!

According to the Connecticut Commissioner of Agriculture, Steven K. Reviczky, Terry Jones may be the state’s oldest commercial grower having continuously planted strawberries for 50 years.

Two aspects of strawberries have remained constant over the last half-century, according to Jones.  First, the consistent challenge of the weather.  This spring is no exception.  The last week of May started with 28 degrees and frost at Jones’ ‘Valley Farm’ and ended with three days of highs in the mid-90s.  In both cases, the plants and fruit were protected by irrigation sprinklers.  The second constant  is the excitement and passion of farm guests to harvest and to taste the sweet goodness of the first, ripe strawberries of the season!  Jones’ strawberries are ripening now, as they normally do in early June, in contrast to last year’s record early start in May so it won't be long  before it is strawberry shortcake time!

Jones’ strawberries are ripening now, as they normally do in early June, in contrast to last year’s record early start in May.

Jones Family Farms is located in Shelton, Connecticut, off Route 110.  For more information regarding hours of operation, picking locations, picking tips, and other information, visitors can call the Farmer Jones crop info line at (203) 929-8425, visit www.jonesfamilyfarms.com/farm/strawberrieswww.jonesfamilyfarms.com/farm/strawberries, their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/jonesfamilyfarmswww.facebook.com/jonesfamilyfarms, or follow them on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jonesfamilyfarmwww.twitter.com/jonesfamilyfarm.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

Friday, June 14, 2013

The Gary-The Olivia Theater Announces Summer Season

Side view of the theater



The Gary-The Olivia Theater is located in Bethlehem Connecticut on the grounds of the Abbey of Regina Laudis. This lovely open-air theater built in 1982 seats 300 people. The theater is covered but opens at the back to the woods of the Abbey land, and the trees and birds are often a feature of the theatrical world that is created on stage. The link between drama and monastic life is an ancient one, but The Gary-The Olivia Theater in particular owes its existence to Reverend Mother Dolores Hart, the actress, who in 1963 gave up a successful Hollywood career to become a nun at the Abbey. Each summer several annual performances are given in this theater. 

The Pitman


The Pitmen Painters written by Lee Hall and loosely based on a book written by William Feaver will be performed June 14 – June 23.  The Pitmen Painters is an inspirational story about a close-knit group of miners in Northeast England in the 1930’s who enroll in an art appreciation class as a way of bettering themselves. The story follows members of the group as they interact with a university art instructor, experiment with actual painting and gradually build a body of work that establishes them as The Ashington Group, a briefly celebrated group of painters in the 30’s and 40’s. Receiving critical acclaim in London and on Broadway, The Pitmen Painters is a humorous, thought provoking and moving testament to friendship, human aspiration and the transforming power of art.

A second show, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical Fiorello will be performed from August 1 – 11.  Fiorello follows the dynamic professional and political career of Fiorello La Guardia. Elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930 La Guardia served as Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 and was a major influence in the making of modern day New York. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest mayors in American history. Only five feet tall, he was called "the Little Flower" (“Fiorello” is Italian for "little flower"). The original Broadway production opened at the Broadhurst Theatre in 1959, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.




General admission seats ($20 Pitmen. $22 Fiorello) for these shows are available now online at www.thegarytheolivia.com! For special group rates (10 or more) please contact Susan Hackel 860 355-5553 or e-mail pr@thegarytheolivia.com.

The opening night gala/fundraiser for The Gary-The Olivia Theater is on June 14th (opening night, The Pitmen Painters-$25 pp) and on August 1st (opening night, Fiorello-$28 pp) with wines from Walker Road Vineyards in Woodbury, CT paired with local farmstead cheeses and a meet and greet with the performers.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Garden Club of America House and Garden Tour Celebrates 100 Years in Litchfield CT


“Garden of Margaret Hicks Gage, Litchfield Garden Club Archives, Litchfield Historical Society, Helga J. Ingraham Memorial Library.”
To fete their 100- year anniversary, the Litchfield Garden Club is hosting a flower show and house and garden tour including two Smithsonian Gardens on June 15 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The Flower Show will take place at the Litchfield Community Center located on 421 Bantam Rd. (Rte. 202) in Litchfield and will feature outstanding horticulture and three exhibits one on garden history and design including details on four Smithsonian gardens, a second on the history of the Litchfield Garden Club and a third conservation exhibit on organic food.  A boutique offering special garden items will also be a highlight. The Flower Show at the Community Center is free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the Flower Show, the Litchfield Garden Club has organized a very special house and garden tour of five members’ homes and gardens that includes judged design classes in each home.  Tour tickets and maps are available for purchase at the Community Center and are $50 per person.  Tour goers may also purchase a box lunch at Breeze Hill Farm Gardens for an additional $18 and enjoy lunch on the grounds of this spectacular garden. For tickets in advance visit www.litchfieldgardenclub.org for a printable registration form.

Houses featured for this very special tour include some of Litchfield’s most interesting homes and gardens.

The Ozias Lewis house, built in 1806 is a perfect example of a late traditional center chimney, 5 bay Federal style dwelling. The garden has newly installed stonewalls, terraces and imaginative gardens, including extensive beds of peonies.  The gardens provide extensive views of Chestnut Hill to the east.

The Lismolin House named after a castle in Tipperary in Ireland is a gracious Colonial Revival style house complete with a Palladian window.  The gardens with elegant stonewalls and garden beds afford wonderful eastern views and contain a former owner’s pet cemetery.

Perhaps one of the most interesting houses featured on this tour is the Oliver Wolcott House, built by Oliver Wolcott, Senior, the Colonial High Sheriff of Litchfield, a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Connecticut, in 1753-1754, is the oldest house in the Borough of Litchfield.  Many of the leading figures of their day, including General George Washington, Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton were entertained here.  During the Revolution, the statue of King George III, torn down by a mob from its pedestal in Bowling Green in New York City, was brought by oxcart to the orchard behind the house, where the women and children of Litchfield melted it and molded bullets for the Continental Army. 

The current owners bought the house in 1978 and carried out extensive renovations under the direction of expert restorers.  The house has the original, hand-routed, beaded clapboards on its exterior and oak floors with handmade nails throughout the first floor. The “keeping room” contains a cooking fireplace and beehive ovens.  The delft tiles in the dining room were installed about 1790 and the paneling over the dining room fireplace is original 18th century work.  The rear terrace overlooks extensive gardens that are breathtaking.

Another beautiful home on the tour is the Ethan Allen House, the birthplace of Revolutionary war hero Ethan Allen in 1738.  Today the house boasts a renovated kitchen, breakfast area and garden room.  A landscape design is in process including renovating the parterres off of the terrace, originally designed in the early 1950’s. The gardens offer an extensive eastern view of Chestnut Hill.

Breeze Hill was built in 1800 as a summer home and the Oldmsted brothers were hired to landscape the grounds. In 2012, the owners of Breeze Hill Farm joined a select group of Garden Club of America homeowners whose garden documentation was accepted into the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens. On June 15th, you are invited to pick up your reserved boxed lunch here and enjoy a pastoral picnic lunch in these bucolic meadows and gardens.

Another Smithsonian Garden featured on the tour is Chestnut Hill Gardens that consists of a 240-foot perennial border composed of deer-resistant and native plants.  The border surrounds a large vegetable garden, herb gardens, a water garden, pinetum, fruit trees and native shrubs.

For area information visit www.litchifeldhills.com

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Schwenke’s Woodbury Connecticut Auction Features Aronson Folk Art Collection, Heisman Trophy Castings, and Warhol Illustrated Folio


On Sunday June 9th at 11am, Schwenke’s Woodbury Auction presents its Fourth Anniversary Spring Fine Estates Auction. According to owner Thomas Schwenke, “this will be one of our strongest sales to date, and we are happy to be offering the wonderful American folk art collection of Arnold and Sheila Aronson - 150 lots of carefully selected American Folk Art examples comprising painted furniture, artwork, whirligigs, quilts, weathervanes and accessories.” The Aronson Collection will be auctioned as a special section during the sale, beginning at 12:30 pm.

American Chippendale Chair


One of the prime single lots is very rare cast bronze unawarded production model of the Heisman trophy from the Roman Bronze Works, grouped with an unassembled second model, being offered for the first time having been acquired by the consignor from the late Philip Schiavo, owner of the Roman Bronze Works. Several other bronzes, some from Roman Bronze Works, are also on offer, as well as a Portrait Bust by Elie Nadelman.

Elie Nadelman


Also featured is Andy Warhol’s “Wild Raspberries” a hand colored folio of 18 hand-colored lithographs created in 1959 and signed by Warhol to/for the original purchaser; along with the book “Pre-Pop Warhol”, published by Panache Press of Random House, which was written in part using this folio, and including two letters of thanks from the publisher to the original owner.

The sale also includes property from various estates and consignors from Litchfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York, and the Native American collection of a New York gentleman, including Navajo folk art carvings, New Mexican painted retablos, Hopi, Zuni and Laguna pottery, kachinas, artwork, and baskets.

Other decorative arts lots of interest include a thirteen piece Tiffany “Venetian” pattern desk set including the inkwell, blotter, pen holder, calendar, notepad, letter hold, pen tray, postage scale, stamp box, paper clip are being sold individually and are fresh to market from original owner’s family; a 17th C. framed, silk trapunto English needlework of Romulus and Remus alongside a lion; and a Kathe Kollwitz, Etching, “Frau Mit Totem Kind”.

Seven distinctive pieces of Indian jewelry, including five Muhgal style 20K gold examples, are offered on behalf of a New York State private collector.



Many fine lots of American and English furniture are being sold as lots 502 to 614. Prime American examples include a Portsmouth inlaid mahogany swell front chest with fan inlays, a circa 1810 Federal tiger and birdseye maple server, most likely New Hampshire, an American Chippendale mirror with phoenix, an inlaid mahogany corner cupboard, a Sheraton figured maple drop leaf work table, and a Philadelphia Chippendale carved mahogany side chair. English featured pieces are a George II concertina card table, a George III mahogany pie crust table, possibly Irish, a signed London bracket clock, a Regency mahogany cellarette, and a pair of Sheraton brass mounted hall chairs.

George III Maghogany Pie Crust Table


This sale also will feature many estate oriental carpets including Persian and Caucasian room and scatter sized rugs, and other regional Asian rugs of varying sizes.

This sale is being held at the firm’s auction hall at 710 Main Street South, Middle Quarter Plaza, in Woodbury. Preview times are Sunday, June 2th from 11am to 4:00 pm; Friday June 7th from noon to 5 pm; Saturday, June 8th from 10am to 5pm; and Sunday, June 9th from 8am to sale time at 11:00 am, with the Aronson Collection being sold at 12:30 pm.

The catalog for the sale is viewable at www.woodburyauction.comwww.woodburyauction.com. Absentee and phone bidding are available for this live gallery auction, and the sale will be broadcast live through Live Auctioneers.  To register or arrange for absentee or phone bidding, please call Woodbury Auction at 203-266-0323. 

For area information www.litchifeldhills.com

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Steamin with Sadie at the Railroad Museum of New England





This June, Steamin' With Sadie will be the star attraction at the Railroad Museum of New England's Thomaston Station as restored Lehigh Valley Coal Company Engine #126 leads weekend trips over our scenic railroad between June 8 through 23, including Father's Day Weekend. Sadie, an 0-6-0 coal-fired steam engine and big sister to Hank the Tank, will be pulling their vintage train cars on hour-long trips along the Naugatuck River. For more information http://www.rmne.org.  For area information www.litchfieldhills.com.

All trips are on Saturdays and Sundays for three weekends beginning June 8 at 10 AM, 12 PM and 2 PM, boarding at historic 1881 Thomaston Station. They will also have extra displays, story book readings, live music and activities for kids of all ages at the Station. Tickets are Adults $20 and Children $15 (ages 3 – 12), age 2 and under are free. Purchase tickets online or call (860) 283-7245 to purchase from their agent. This is a special event you will not want to miss!



Between the 1830s and 1960, steam locomotives carried passengers and freight to every corner of America. They became part of our national history, a symbol of mobility and change. Over the years, steam locomotives became larger and more efficient. But technology advances after World War II changed the face of railroading forever. By 1948, steam engines were gone from the Naugatuck Valley, replaced by modern diesel locomotives on the New Haven Railroad from Bridgeport to Winsted, ending an important era in modern industrial history.

Lehigh Valley Coal Company #126 is a 40 ton coal-fired steam locomotive built by Vulcan Iron Works and put in service in 1931. It worked in Pennsylvania coal mines and was purchased by father and son team John and Barney Gramling from Indiana in 1993. Gramling Locomotive Works fully restored #126 to operating condition, completing it June 2011. Since then, #126 has traveled as far as Michigan, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and now to Connecticut as a living, breathing Ambassador of Steam.



About the Railroad Museum of New England
The Railroad Museum of New England is a not for profit historical and educational organization and an all-volunteer organization. We are located in historic 1881 Thomaston Station at 242 East Main St., Thomaston, CT. Our mission is to tell the story of the region's rich railroad heritage through our educational exhibits and operation of the Naugatuck Railroad. The museum concept is more than artifacts; it's also the story of the region and the development of society around the railroad. We offer an entertaining and scenic train ride along the Naugatuck River with vintage locomotives and restored passenger cars, also featuring displays of freight equipment and cabooses.