Author Archives: Suzanne Thompson

Leave the Leaves! Be a Lazy Gardener this Fall

Posted on by
Reply
 Leaves falling off of a copper beech tree. These leaves can be gently raked to the side in a leaf pile or run the mower over dried leaves on your lawn to break them up as organic lawn mulch. All photos by Suzanne Thompson.

Ah, the sights, sounds and smells of fall … unfortunately, they often involve the racket and fuel fumes of motorized leaf blowers and visions of yard crews scalping lawns as part of our traditional New England fall yard cleanup. 

But did you know that we should be doing less to our yards this time of year, letting nature do her thing and saving some money in the process?

  For decades, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has been explaining why we should let tree leaves fall where they may, or at least move them around gently with less energy and effort. See their Leave the Leaves campaign.

Fall leaves offer a full palate of color.

You see, dead leaves have a purpose in nature, more than just looking pretty for us two-legged leaf-peepers for a few weeks every fall. They are food and shelter for many beneficial insects (by definition, invertebrates) and other little critters (including frogs, salamanders and box turtles) that make up the outdoor ecosystem around us. And with the help of insects and wildlife, the leaves are broken down into nutrients and organic matter for our lawns, flowerbeds and landscapes. That is, if we leave them in place to do their good.

The Nature Conservancy points out that at least seven species depend on the leaves, as well as on the seed heads and stems of many of our favorite flowerbed plants. If we would only not strip these away in some fall frenzy to clear off our yards before colder weather hits. What we see as unnecessary brown stuff is actually natural insulation and nutrients.

If left untouched where they fall, leaves will soon be covered by early frosts that will help them decompose.

So, this fall, instead of contributing to the incessant drone and damage of motorized leaf blowers, try taking a kinder and gentler approach to fall cleanup. Xerces Society recommends raking leaves into garden beds and under trees where they serve as natural mulch.  Or, if you have an area in the yard that can accommodate a leaf pile over the winter, push the leaves over there. In the spring, you will have valuable leaf mold. Rewilding Magazine, a Canada-based publication, tells you how to make your own leaf mold. 

Fallen leaves and wood decompose to provide not only a natural mulch but also food and shelter for many beneficial insects.

Create small brush piles with the branches and twigs that you don’t want to leave in the middle of your yard; these also become home for insects and small wildlife. Put them at the far end of your property if you are worried about critters.

If you need to justify your actions to yourself, your spouse or neighbors (the ones with the scalped lawns), see National Wildlife Federation’s Six Excuses to Avoid Yard Work this Fall.

And, if you installed perennials, trees and shrubs this fall or earlier this year, don’t forget to give them a good watering. After a summer of enough rain, we are experiencing a dry fall. 

For more good gardening advice, listen to garden writer Tom Christopher’s weekly Growing Greener podcasts and spend some time researching Pollinator Pathways. There are now Pollinator Pathway community programs in 19 states and Ontario, Canada.

Editor’s Note: The author, Suzanne Thompson, is a founding member of Pollinate Old Lyme, which kicked off in 2020 and is Old Lyme’s Pollinator Pathway project. For more information, visit the Pollinator Pathway website and/or Like/Follow the Pollinate Old Lyme Facebook page at this link.

Letter to the Editor: Thompson Explains Why Voters Should Support her Bid to be Old Lyme Tax Collector

Posted on by
Reply

To the Editor:

I am running as Tax Collector for the Town of Old Lyme. As your Tax Collector, I will continue to uphold this Town’s admirable collection rate – 99 percent, one of the highest in the state – while updating our systems to make it more convenient for you to pay your taxes. 

Currently as Assistant Tax Collector, I have improved our Online Payment Center and Check Bill Status and have updated our webpage to include valuable information for our taxpayers. I take the collection, depositing and record keeping of our town’s property taxes seriously, and I will continue to uphold the fiduciary responsibilities of this position.

Over the past 20 years, the town’s leaders have recognized my professional capabilities and big-picture thinking by appointing me to represent Old Lyme on the Connecticut River Gateway Commission. I know and respect regulatory statutes, policies, and procedures. My professional work experience, leading marketing and communications teams in the private sector, is beneficial to the position of Tax Collector.

I care about the Taxpayers of Old Lyme and our Town. I am a team player. With your support, I look forward to becoming your next Tax Collector.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Thompson,
Old Lyme.

Editor’s Note: The author is endorsed by the Old Lyme Republican Town Committee for the position of Old Lyme Tax Collector in the upcoming election.

Old Lyme Tree Commission Celebrates Arbor Day with ‘Spring Seedling Giveaway’

Posted on by
1
Old Lyme Tree Commission members gather to pot tree seedlings in preparation for Saturday’s Spring Seedling Giveaway. From left to right are Emily Griswold, Anne Bing, chairman Joanne DiCamillo, Fred Behringer, Joan Flynn, and ‘Hydrangeas Galore ‘ owner Mark Comstock. Missing from the photo is the commission’s Clerk/Secretary Martha Hansen, who joined the event. Commission members, who were unable to attend the ‘Potting Day’, are Peter Edmonstone and Michael Gaffey. All photos by SuzanneThompson.

OLD LYME — The Old Lyme (OL) Tree Commission welcomes all town residents to come and pick up native tree seedlings to plant in their yards. The Commission’s first ‘Tree Seedling Giveaway’ will be held Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Old Lyme’s Memorial Town Hall.

Residents can select up to three trees – a choice of either White Dogwood or Eastern Redbud for a flowering tree, a choice of either Sugar Maple or Scarlet Oak, which grow well in some shade, and an evergreen.

Old Lyme Tree Commission members worked hard to pot the tree seedlings at ‘The Kingsville Grower’ ready for Saturday’s event.

The plants were purchased from the Arbor Day Foundation while the pots and soil were donated by Mark and Belkys Comstock, owners of The Kingsville Grower in Old Lyme, where commissioners potted up the seedlings earlier this week. 

“We need to start a new generation of trees,” said Joanne DiCamillo, OL Tree Commission Chair. “Over the years, diseases, insect pests, drought, climate change and roadside salt have all taken their toll. We had to take down a lot of old trees that had died.”

Old Lyme Tree Commission member Fred Behringer (left) was clearly enjoying the commission’s combined potting effort. Meanwhile, ‘Hydrangeas Galore’ Mark Comstock, center right, demonstrates potting techniques to Joanne DiCamillo (right foreground) while Emily Griswold (right, at rear) completes a potting task.

Since 2018, the town has taken down 148 trees and the commission planted 10 trees, according to DiCamillo. So the Commission decided to enlist the community’s help to plant more trees. And then fortuitously, Mark Comstock showed up at one of their monthly meetings and offered to help with materials and to provide a spot to pot up the seedlings.

DiCamillo continued, “We need new cover in the Town of Old Lyme, with residents helping us by planting the trees of the future in their yards now. That will really be helpful.” 

It was a busy day of seedling potting for Tree Commission members.

The commission researched the best place to purchase the tree seedlings and decided on the Arbor Day Foundation. The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen then endorsed the commission’s proposal to spend $450.00 of its budget on the trees.

“We agreed that purchasing 250 seedling trees would be more practical and enable us to give them away to the Old Lyme community, as opposed to charging a fee for them,” explained DiCamillo.

She added, “Keeping in mind our primary goal to ‘Plant Native,’ we selected five native species that would be wonderful sources of food and shelter for wildlife, songbirds, bees, deer, squirrels, butterflies, and so on. We focused on trees that we thought would appeal to homeowners, and eventually provide color, beauty and shade to their property and become an asset to our town’s landscape.” 

The Tree Commission will provide written instructions with the plants at the ‘Giveaway’ on Saturday.

The Arbor Day Foundation recommends that residents, who take the potted seedlings, should get them into the ground as rapidly as possible, ideally in a garden border or bed where they can nurture it. Avoid direct sunshine areas. Gently spread out the roots, do not plant the tree too deeply, keep the soil moist but not waterlogged. Mulch around the seedling is also very important so that the tree’s roots do not dry out. 

Plan to water the trees regularly throughout this summer and well into the fall. Young trees and shrubs need regular watering for at least two years after planting.

“Rain or shine, we will be there,” said DiCamillo. 

‘View across ‘The Kingsville Grower’ at146 Neck Rd., where the potting day took place. The nursery is on the border of Old Lyme and Lyme – look for the ‘Hydrangeas Galore’ sign.

The Old Lyme Tree Commission is very grateful to the Comstocks, who made their nursery available to members to pot the seedlings. Comstock also provided advice and materials. Comstock grew up in Ivoryton but subsequently moved out of state. He returned to Connecticut about 10 years ago with his wife and young son to open his current business. Comstock also is well known in the world of bonsai for growing pre-bonsai specimens.

Stop by to see Comstock’s plants at the nursery at 146 Neck Rd. and watch for more information about The Kingsville Grower/Hydrangeas Galore in future LymeLine.com coverage.

‘Old Lyme (Formerly Christiansen) Hardware’ Starts New Year With New Name, New Owners, New Hours!

Posted on by
3

Old Lyme’s newest female business owner, Jessie Talerico, stands with her father, Richard, in the former Christiansen Hardware, now known as Old Lyme Hardware. The store will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. starting tomorrow,  Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. All photos by Suzanne Thompson.

OLD LYME — Transitions are underway this week at Christiansen – make that Old Lyme – Hardware, as previous 26-year owners Bill and Nancy Christiansen hand off the keys to the Talerico family.

“Keeping it COVID!” A celebratory elbow-bump marks the official hand-over of the business from current store owner Nancy Christiansen (left) to new principal owner Jessie Talerico. The Christiansens have owned and operated the store for the past 26 years, but it was held in Nancy’s name following Bill’s official ‘retirement.’

Starting tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, Old Lyme Hardware will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, to see what are the optimal hours to be open for customers and while initial renovations are underway. A soft re-opening is planned for March.

With a background in hospitality and restaurants, Jessie, and her father Richard, who continues working in construction in Connecticut, are looking for Old Lyme Hardware to help customers find solutions – whether it’s tracking down an exotic drawer pull, fixing a screen or window or ordering a special part.

Jessica (Jessie) Talerica will be the new face of the business, getting to know her customers and helping them find what they are looking for in the store.

The new owners have already come up with ideas for original offerings and activities involving other local businesses – from a Saturday morning Coffee with a Handyman, to reconfiguring the back of the store to accommodate a garden center section. They welcome carrying plants grown by local wholesalers, too.

Stop by and say hi to the new owners and let them know what you’re looking for in a local hardware store. They are keen to meet the community’s needs.

It’s a family affair! A photo on the wall of Old Lyme Hardware pictures its new owners, the Talerico’s, from left to right, Jonathan, who is Jessie’s brother and a policeman in Michigan, father Richard, who works in construction in Connecticut, and Jessie who will be running the store.

In coming weeks, keep an eye out for a 1952 Ford F1 Old Lyme Hardware pick-up truck in the parking lot, watch for decorative indoor changes that harken back to hardware stores of the past, and watch carefully to see what else transpires in Old Lyme’s newest ‘old’ business.

Editor’s Note: Many readers will remember Bill Christiansen not only from Christiansen Hardware but also as a talented guitar played (he took up the instrument at age 12) and long-time member of the popular ‘String of Pearls’ band. 

 

 

 

 

Arron to Serve as Artistic Director for Final Musical Masterworks Season Before Lark Assumes Role; Next Concerts Dec. 11-12

Posted on by
Reply

Musical Masterworks Artistic Director Edward Arron waves during the Zoom interview recently conducted by Suzanne Thompson for this article.

OLD LYME — Musical Masterworks is back with live concerts and audiences next weekend — and this 31st season of chamber music concerts is special on multiple fronts.

This season’s five concerts will be a farewell tour for cellist Edward Arron, who has served as Artistic Director for 13 years. A soloist with major orchestras and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia, Arron has garnered recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. 

The Juilliard graduate was for 10 years the artistic director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series.

He has been a University of Massachusetts Amherst Music Department faculty member since 2016, after serving on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016. He tours and records regularly as a member of the renowned Ehnes Quarter.

Tessa Lark, who is Musical Masterworks Artistic Director-designate and will take over the role for the 2022-23 season, waves during the Zoom interview recently conducted by Suzanne Thompson for this article.

This season also is a settling-in for the series’ Artistic Director Designate, violinist Tessa Lark. This budding superstar in the classical realm, who first performed on Musical Masterworks stage almost a decade ago, will become Artistic Director with the 2022-23 season.

The 2020 GRAMMY nominee in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category, recipient of a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship and a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 2012 Naumburg International Violin Competition also is a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky.

Lark delights audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music that inspired composers have written for her. She also has started composing.

Edward Arron plays the cello while his wife Jeewon Park accompanies him on the piano during a previous Musical Masterworks concert. Photo credit: Musical Masterworks.

The 2021-22 season marks a return to live performances before audiences in the Meeting Room of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme. While Musical Masterworks artists and fans improvised last year with a series of professionally-recorded performances by the artists in the church hall and remote viewing for patrons, there is nothing comparable to the magic of experiencing world-class performances in this consummate sanctuary for classical chamber music. 

Add to that, for the first time in 16 years of the series, a harpsichord will be on stage. No wonder the Sunday, Oct. 24 performance sold out two weeks ahead of the concert. Tickets for the Saturday, Oct. 23 performance are still available but must be ordered in advance.

Sitting down recently – via Zoom – with Arron and Lark, they expanded on what is in store for this season and beyond.

The founder and first Artistic Director of Musical Masterworks was legendary pianist Charles Wadsworth. Photo credit: Musical Masterworks.

“I was honored to be invited to be a part of this concert series,” said Arron, recalling his first Musical Masterworks appearance in 2005. Legendary classical pianist Charles Wadsworth, director of chamber music at the Spoleto Festivals in both Italy and Charleston, S.C., and founder of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, was the series’ first artistic director. 

“I learned a lot from Charles, we laughed a lot and made some great music together. It was a dream in the back of my head to run such a concert series some day.” 

Musical Masterworks brings together talented, world-class classical musicians to play an inspiring collection of works, some perhaps never presented together before, others completely new and some older. 

Wadsworth must have recognized a kindred spirit in Arron as someone with an extensive knowledge of the chamber music repertoire, who both knew and performed with many other talented musicians and also had a passion for putting together musical programs. Arron served as assistant artistic director for two years before Wadsworth retired, and took over the helm in his early thirties.

“There are several stages to the great pleasures of this job,” Arron said. “First, dreaming up the music that you would like to play and the combination of dear friends that you would like to put together to play these pieces.”

He continued, “People had to trust me, that we could give them something entertaining. I also felt I had to earn the trust of this audience to put it into proportion and to create a context of an afternoon well-spent. Charles before me did that and I enjoyed searching for that balance. It was such a nourishing part of my life, being able to dream of programs and render them.”

Arron saw similar talents and interests in Lark, who he admires for her creative programming as well as her masterful delivery. Driving from Detroit to Massachusetts in a COVID-impacted travel schedule, he had time to ponder which performer connected best with Musical Masterworks audiences. 

Publicity shot of Musical Masterworks Artistic Director-designate, violinist Tessa Lark.

“Tessa lights up the stage wherever she goes, and people fall in love with her, in addition to that, I observed that Tessa was falling in love with this place, too,” he said. Speaking directly to her (since both were on-screen simultaneously), Arron said, “Tessa, every time you returned to Musical Masterworks, you genuinely connected back with these people who you had met there and to the stage. That seemed a harmonious thing.”

Lark, who lives in New York and travels much of the time to perform — in locations as far away as The Netherlands and Australia, and including Seattle, Santa Fe and Tulsa in the US — welcomes the Old Lyme venue for its acoustics, charm and the ability for musicians and audiences to connect.

“It’s equal part intimate and grand, it is just so hard to find that combination especially for chamber music, and to get into the music nitty-gritty. Every subtlety that the group has, that has been worked out, can be appreciated by every audience member. That is such a rarity,” Lark said enthusiastically.

She added, “I love that it is bright and sunny, all of the visual aesthetics match the spirit of the place, and the sounds of the music-making, it is such a beautiful harmony of the senses.”

“It acoustically and aesthetically one of the most magical places to play,” said Arron, continuing, “Returning year after year, it’s beautiful you can see the seasons changing as you go through the concert season. In the fall, you see beautiful foliage outside, in the winter concerts you see the winterscape, then you see and hear the spring unfolding, [and then] they often open the windows for that final concert.

Arron noted, “The acoustic is really clear and warm, the audience sits in a way where you can see each other’s faces. There is a particularly special connection. The people in the audience become friends, all of these elements come together – you’re among friends, you’re playing to friends, with friends, there are a lot of elements to look forward to.”

Edward Arron describes the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme as “One of the most magical places to play.” Photo credit: Musical Masterworks.

“I just adore that a musician can be free to play what they love in that beautiful space, and because Ed has instilled so much trust, the audience will come,” explained Lark.

Arron describes his selections for the 31st season as “a bit daring and unconventional,” but still promising to be familiar and entertaining. 

The opening concert features the debut of harpsichordist Paolo Bordignon, alongside violinists Jesse Mills and Lark in a program of Baroque delights that served as the inspiration for Stravinsky’s ballet, Pulcinella.

In December, pianist Orion Weiss, violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti and violist Nicholas Cords perform a program of glorious piano quintets, from Dvorak, Shostakovich and Brahams to Rag-Gidon-Time for String Trio, composed 25 years ago by Giya Kancheli from Republic of Georgia.

In February, celebrated guitarist Colin Davin performs Bach, Schubert, plus a piece by contemporary composer Vivian Fung, a past fellow classmate of Arron’s.

In March, two Musical Masterworks veterans flutist Tara Helen O’Connor and pianist Adam Neiman play works by Haydn, Prokofiev, Zwilich and Weber, with Arron.

The final farewell program, in April, by Arron and his wife, pianist Jeewon Park with Lark and her fiancé, double bassist Michael Thurber, features Handel/Halvorsen, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Appalachia Waltz by Mark O’Connor.

Editor’s Note: For further information on the 31st season of ‘Musical Masterworks’, details of all the performances, and ticket purchase options — including for Saturday, Oct. 23 — visit this link.