Category Archives: vnn

Interested in Animation or Things That Fold, Pop-Up or Move? Tracey Art Center has a Course for You

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pirate walk cycle

Learn beginning animation skills through illustration with Kelsey Ross, illustrator and 2012 graduate of Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts.

This class at the Tracey Art Center in Old Saybrook will introduce and teach students at all levels to styles of animation and techniques while providing an overview of animation as a science and an art form used in film.  The history of animation will be explored in addition to exposing students to well-known film animators and their works.

The class is suitable for children aged 10 to 14 years.  The next session is July 7 – 10 and the following one is July 14 – 17.  Both sessions run from 9 to 11 a.m., Monday through Thursday.

Are you interested in things that fold, pop up and move in unique ways?

Ross is also teaching a course in interactive bookmaking skills with Kelsey Ross.  This class will introduce and teach students at all levels to create the folds, cutouts and fastening techniques necessary to create moving books.

This class is suitable for children aged 8 to 12 years.  The first session is July 7 – 10, the following one is July 14 – 17 and the third is July 21-24 .  All three sessions run from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

The Tracy Art Center is located at 247 Main Street in Old Saybrook, Conn.

For more information and registration please call The Tracy Art Center at 860-388-2761 or tracy.art.center@gmail.com

Extension of Connecticut River Paddleway Celebrated at Gillette Castle in Lyme

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canoes&river

The Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC), along with the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Vermont River Conservancy, launched the extension of the Connecticut River Paddler’s Trail into Massachusetts and Connecticut at Lyme’s Gillette Castle State Park last Saturday, June 21.

The Council, along with project leaders from the other two organizations, unveiled the plan for the expanded trail, which currently just serves Vermont and New Hampshire.

“We’re excited to be a part of a collaborative effort to enhance this resource for those who paddle our great river,” said Andrew Fisk, CRWC Executive Director.  “This trail is an investment for those who are enthusiastic about being out on the water, and the 410-mile journey from the river’s source to the sea is one of New England’s iconic adventures.”

The Connecticut River Paddlers’ Trail is managed by a collaborative of organizations working together on trail planning and development, building and stewarding primitive campsites, improving access points and portage trails, and disseminating information to visitors.

canoes

Steve Grant, a Pulitzer-prize nominated journalist, spoke at the Celebration.  Jim Dina, an intrepid explorer and author of The Voyage of the Ant, was also a featured guest. The two guests have deep connections with the river.  Grant has worked as an outdoor and environmental reporter for the Hartford Courant for over 29 years and wrote a 17-part chronicle of his journey from the headwaters of the Connecticut River down to the Sound.  Dina’s work, The Voyage of the Ant, relays his experience paddling up the Connecticut River in his birchbark canoe, made using Native American tools and techniques.

The Celebration also included the presentation of the Bud Foster Award and lunch on site at the state park.

Many of those present launched their canoes and kayaks at the ferry landing and paddled down to Selden Island State Park on the Lyme shore of the Conn River.

For more about the Paddlers’ Trail, visit www.ConnecticutRiverPaddlersTrail.org.

The CRWC works to protect the watershed from source to sea.  As stewards of this heritage, it celebrates the River as a four-state treasure and collaborates, educates, organize, restores and intervenes to preserve its health for generations to come.

To learn more about CRWC, or to make a contribution to help protect the Connecticut River, visit www.ctriver.org or call 413-772-2020, ext. 201.

For more information, visit http://www.ctriver.org/river-celebration-announces-launch-of-expanded-connecticut-river-paddlers-trail/#sthash.nP6eiSVf.dpuf

CT Historic Gardens Day Takes Place Today

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Enjoy the beauty of the Florence Griswold Museum's historic gardens this Sunday.

Enjoy the beauty of the Florence Griswold Museum’s historic gardens this Sunday.

Fourteen sites throughout the state celebrate with special programs

The Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme is one of 14 of the state’s beautiful sites that have joined to form Connecticut’s Historic Gardens.  This coming Sunday, June 22, from noon to 4 p.m, each site will offer special activities emphasizing their garden program for CT Historic Gardens Day.

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The gardens are a-bloom at the Florence Griswold Museum.

These delightful places, scattered throughout the state, offer visitors an opportunity to explore a  variety of garden styles and time periods.

The sites are: Florence Griswold Museum Old Lyme

At the Museum, outdoor activities are free from 1 to 5 p.m. Visitors are invited to stroll through “Miss Florence’s” historic gardens and watch members of the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists as they work on paintings featuring models posed in the gardens and along the river. Painting materials will be supplied so that visitors can try their hand at creating their own masterpieces. Families can go on the new garden scavenger hunt. Museum admission applies to House and galleries.

The Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden Bethlehem

Stroll through the circa 1915 formal garden and landscaped grounds of the Ferriday Garden. Guides will be on hand to share informative and often amusing excerpts from Caroline Ferriday’s garden notebooks that illustrate her interests and concerns about the plants she chose for the garden and their care. Check out the plants for sale, the art exhibit featured in the visitor center and sip a glass of switchel, a recipe Miss Ferriday copied from the Boston Herald. “There’s nothing like switchel to allay thirst and generate optimism.” Ice tea will also be on hand. Grounds admission is free; regular admission applies for historic house tour.

Butler-McCook House & Garden Hartford

Stroll through the 1865 Jacob Weidenmann-designed Victorian garden where staff will tell the story of its history and answer questions. Enjoy a glass of lemonade and the Main Street History Center exhibition. Grounds free; regular admission applies for historic house tour.

Glebe House Museum & The Gertrude Jekyll Garden Woodbury

Garden tours led by garden volunteers “Gertrude’s Gardeners.” Enjoy lemonade and cookies and browse garden books, plants from the garden, and garden related items for sale. Enjoy a presentation about the discovery of the Jekyll Garden plans and how the garden came to be. We are celebrating the 85th anniversary of Miss Jekyll’s garden plan and the 20th year since its installation.

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Harkness Memorial State Park (pictured above) Waterford

Garden tours and talks about the history and Beatrix Farrand design of the Harkness gardens provided free of charge by Park Staff and Friends of Harkness volunteers. In addition, take a tour of the mansion from 10am to 2pm, visit the Gift Shop, or enjoy some refreshments with spectacular views of Long Island Sound.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Hartford

Grounds admission is free; regular admission applies for historic

house and garden tour. For Stowe’s bicentennial, treat yourself to a guided tour of her charming Victorian Gothic revival home, surrounded by ever-blooming gardens. The historic gardens are open for strolling every day.

Don’t miss a visit to the Stowe Center Museum Store for books and garden treasures. House and Garden tours offered every half hour. Find your favorite spot in the garden – watercolors, paper and brushes are on hand so you can tap into your inner artist and paint en plein air!

Hill-Stead Museum Farmington

Stroll the paths of Hill-Stead’s c. 1920 Beatrix Farrand-designed Sunken Garden, admire heirloom plants and consult with interpreters and master gardeners. A wedding in the Sunken Garden requires visitors to clear the garden by 2 pm. Ice-cold lemonade available from 2-4pm in the Kitchen Garden.

New London County Historical Society and Shaw Mansion New London

Included in the regular admission price are special tours and lectures. In the morning, Connecticut Master Gardeners provide tours of the Shaw Mansion Garden. In the afternoon, Miss Perkins and some of her friends from the 1860s return to her garden with some period music and to offer a guided tour sharing, “the Language of Flowers.” Presentations will be scheduled on the Shaw Mansion-Woodbridge Farm connection, and on the surprising connection between the Shaw Mansion gardens and famed modernist landscape designer Christopher Tunnard. Strawberry shortcake available.

Osborne Homestead Museum Derby

After strolling through the museum’s lovely Colonial Revival gardens, visitors can enjoy the historic house museum and learn about Frances Osborne Kellogg’s passion for gardening and conservation. Complimentary museum and garden tours will be offered every half hour on the hour.

Promisek at Three Rivers Farm Bridgewater

In 1921 Beatrix Farrand designed a formal garden on this property for Dr. Frederick Peterson, a noted New York neurologist, who entertained family, friends and clients on his country estate, which he called Three Rivers Farm.  By the time the 300-acre tract was acquired in 1978 by Promisek, all traces of the garden’s former glory had been buried under years of overgrowth. In 1992 a local resident and garden historian  rediscovered the historic value of the walled garden, and a restoration began using the plan found in the Farrand archives at the University of California at Berkeley. Come visit us in the garden and discover this unearthed treasure.

Roseland Cottage Woodstock

From 1-4 enjoy a guided tour of the garden and learn the history, significance, and theory behind the Roseland Cottage garden layout and design, including Historic New England’s on-going boxwood restoration project.  Tours on the hour. Free admission.

Thankful Arnold House Museum Haddam

Scents and Sachets!  Visitors to the Wilhelmina Ann Arnold Barnhart Memorial Garden learn how the Widow Thankful Arnold used herbs in the early 19th century for medicinal, household and culinary purposes.  The garden features over 50 varieties of herbs including many that were used to make an early American home smell sweeter.  We invite guests to make a scented sachet, complete an herb scavenger hunt and enjoy light refreshments.  The garden and museum are free between 12 noon and 4 pm.

Webb Deane Stevens Museum Wethersfield

Visitors enjoy a free garden tour focusing on the architect, Amy Cogswell, and the history of the garden. Master gardeners and other garden volunteers are on hand to answer questions on the garden. Garden visitors receive a coupon for $1 off the three house tours (regularly $10 for a one hour tour). The highlight is the Webb House, where George Washington met with the Comte de Rochambeau to plan the siege of Yorktown, which ended the Revolutionary War. Tea, lemonade and homemade cookies will be served.

Weir Farm National Historic Site Wilton

Weir Farm’s Garden Gang volunteers offer short informal talks in the Sunken Garden and Secret Garden about the gardens’ history, flowers, restoration, and ongoing preservation. In addition to the talks, visitors can spend an afternoon painting in the landscape. Experience first-hand the fun of creating art in a landscape that has inspired artists for over 125 years. Watercolor supplies available at no charge from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. The colonial revival Sunken Garden and the Secret Garden, which was created in 1915 and features a fountain, sundial, and rustic cedar fence, appear today just as they did to J. Alden Weir and the other artists that made this farm their home.

For more information, visit http://www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org

Courtney Staff Host Office Hours in Old Saybrook

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Today, Thursday, June 19, representatives from US Congressman Joe Courtney’s office will be at the Action Library, 60 Old Boston Post Road, Old Saybrook from 12 to 2 p.m.  Members of Courtney’s staff will be available to take questions or concerns on any issue of importance, and to work with constituents who may be having issues with a federal agency.

As part of an effort to bring federal resources closer to his constituents, Courtney’s staff has been traveling the district to provide constituent services in local communities and meet with individuals at a location convenient for them.

Walk-ins are welcome, but if you wish to let Courtney’s office know in advance that you are coming, contact  Taijah Anderson in the Norwich District Office at 860-886-0139.

This opportunity is for individuals only.  If a group would like to meet with Courtney’s staff, contact the Norwich District Office at the number above.

Nibbles: Lee on Life, Lemon Cake and Lids … Well, Canisters Actually

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My kitchen is starting to look like as kitchen, but not like the kitchen I had before.

I am not complaining.  The kitchen in Old Lyme was created by me and my husband.  As always, it was the first room to be finished.  It was two rooms and a hall.  It was dark and applianced in harvest gold.  The counter was Formica or faux Formica (is that an oxymoron?)  The floor was linoleum.

In around two months, the two rooms began one, the hall was annihilated, and the door to what would become a patio became French doors.  The counter was granite on the island, butcher block on two other walls.  I had a six-burner gas cooktop, two electric ovens and a warming drawer.  Under the cooktop were two enormous shelves that held my two-foot salad bowl and my big stockpots.

My new kitchen is pretty, too.  But I have an electric range with one oven.  My dishwasher died after two turns with dishes.  I do have granite counters, but no island, no easy action to my special rack for muffin pans, warm cookies or half-sheet pans.  But I am making do and consider myself lucky that a mediocre cook learned how to be better with a great kitchen.  I am good enough, now, to cook anywhere.

Parties have begun and I am expected to bring food to the homes of terrific friends.  Last week I made potato salad (yes, two of my stockpots are on top of another rack over the sink.)  This week I may make a dessert.  I gave away at least 10 loaf pans and round pans and square pans in 8”, 9” and 10” sizes.

Here is the lemon cake everyone likes; as Staples says, “We have that!”

 

Lemon Cake

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa Parties by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, New York, 2001)

Yield: Two 8-inch loaves

Lemon-cake_592½ (one-half) pound unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ½ (two and one-half) cups granulated sugar, divided
4 extra-large (or 5 large) eggs at room temperature
1/3 (one-third) cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
3 cups all-purpose flour
One-half teaspoon baking powder
One-half teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher (or sea) salt
Three-quarter cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided*
Three-quarter cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the glaze:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

three and one-half tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 ½ (eight and one-half) by 4 ¼ (four and one-quarter) by 2 ½ (two and one-half) inch loaf pans.

Cream butter and 2 cups of the granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, and the lemon zest.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine one-quarter cup lemon juice, the buttermilk and vanilla. Add flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Divide batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. (I find that on convection bake, this takes just over 35 minutes, so check with a cake tester after this period of time.)

Combine one-half cup granulated sugar with one-half cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves.

When cakes are done, let them cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert them onto a rack set over a tray. Spoon lemon syrup over inverted cakes. Allow cakes to cook completely.

For the glaze, combine confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. (It should be thick but if it’s too thick, add a few drops of water.) Turn cakes right side up and pour glaze over tops of cakes. Allow glaze to drizzle down sides.

This is where I use the release kind of Reynolds Aluminum foil to wrap the cakes. But wax paper works well, too. The important part is to wrap them so the wrapping doesn’t strip off the glaze when you unwrap. After wrapping (if you’re not serving these right away), I put them in zippered freezer bags and freeze until ready to use.

*If you squeeze all the lemons you use for the zest (7 or 8), you get about 1 cup of juice, enough for cake, syrup and glaze..

Canisters for dry goods

One thing I did not mind leaving at my old house was the weevils.  Maybe they are not exactly weevils, but they began as evil little things and wound up as moths.  I spent lots of money on Pantry Pests, not as ugly as fly paper, but not the prettiest thing in my pantry.  Before I left the old kitchen, I dumped all the dry food, like flour, sugar (although I don’t think they like sugar), barley, couscous and the like, along with the canisters that held the stuff.

For over two weeks, I looked for canisters that would hold at least 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of sugar and enough rice and quinoa to hold weevil-free white goods.

I found them in T.J. Maxx.  Not sparingly, they are made by OXO Good Grips, a company that began with a potato peeler for people whose grip wasn’t as good as it used to be.  I wrote about them years ago and they sent me a Christmas card signed by all seven of OXO’s employees.  They still make incredible, reasonably priced, gadgets. Especially now that my grips are not as young as they used to be.

headshot_LeeAbout the author: Lee White (left) has been writing about restaurants and cooking since 1976 and has been extensively published in the Worcester (Mass.) Magazine, The Day, Norwich Bulletin, and Hartford Courant.  She currently writes Nibbles and a cooking column called A La Carte for LymeLine.com and the Shore Publishing newspapers, and Elan, a quarterly magazine, all of which are now owned by The Day.