Audubon Greenwich offers late October Family Fun

Audubon Greenwich located on 613 Riversville Road has several exciting events planned for late October that are sure to please young and old alike.

On Sunday, October 19, the Audubon has planned two family fun events. The first event, a Wild Bird Banding Demonstration begins at 12:30 p.m. This hour long demonstration will show how scientists study bird migration, health, and ecology using ‘bird ID bands’ that are placed on birds, large and small, as they pass through the Audubon’s 285-acre sanctuary in Greenwich, CT. After a short learning session indoors, guests will venture into the field for an up-close bird encounter with bird banding expert, Sean Graesser. All ages welcome.$10/person includes cookies & cider afterwards. RSVP required & space limited.

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The bird banding demonstration is followed by an Autumn Nature Art Class that will take place from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Special guest teacher, Adriana Rostovsky, will show how to create textures and collages with autumn treasures found outdoors. These sessions willfocus on using natural items like grasses, cones, seed heads and other itemsto create nature-themed decorations. All ages welcome. $25 for first two peopleand $5 per additional. RSVP required & space limited.

On Saturday, October 25, the Audubon Greenwich will host an Enchanted Orchard and Live Animal Show from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. This fun Halloween-themed evening for the whole family. Meet kid-friendly, costumed animal characters on a tour of the ‘Enchanted Orchard’. After the tour, participants will enjoy dinner, treats and a live animal show, too. Costumes welcome but are not required! All ages are welcome to this event and it is $10 per person. Space very limited so RSVPs & parent supervision is required. The rain date for this event is October 30.

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Ride a vintage train to a pumpkin patch

It’s the Fall harvest season so what better way to celebrate and welcome in the cooler weather than with a short ride on a vintage train to the Danbury Railway Museum’s Pumpkin Patch. This popular annual family event will take place on October 18-19 and 25-26; Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Sundays from noon to 4:00 PM at the museum, with trains departing hourly beginning ½-hour after opening each day. Admission is $10.00 for ages 2 and over; children under 24 months are free.

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Visitors will ride the Pumpkin Patch Train through the historic rail yard in a 1920’s passenger coach, pulled by a vintage ALCo RS-1 diesel-electric locomotive* to the special pumpkin patch where each child will receive a free pumpkin.

Of course, the exhibits, artifacts, and multiple operating model train layouts inside the restored 100-year old Danbury station will be open for your education and entertainment. The kids can also enjoy the free activities such as the “coloring station,” temporary tattoos, cider & cookies, and more. There is a fully-stocked gift shop on the premises. No reservations are required; the event will be held rain or shine. Children are encouraged to come in costume.

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 and has many artifacts of area railroading on display, including over 70 vintage railroad cars and locomotives. For further information, visit the Web site at http://www.danburyrail.org, or call the museum at 203-778-8337. For area information on Litchfield Hills visit www.litchfieldhills.com

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Warner Theatre hosts International Playwrights Festival

The Warner Theatre on Main Street in Torrington Connecticut in the center of the Litchfield Hills is hosting the 3rd Annual International Playwrights Festival. The Festival is a celebration of new works by playwrights from across the country and around the globe. For the third year, over 200 plays were submitted from across the United States and Canada and as far away as Australia, Israel and Great Britain. 12 winners have been selected.

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The festival will consist of three nights of performances by the top three winning playwrights featuring four playwrights each night.

On Thursday, October 16 at 8 pm – BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO GROW UP JULIET will be featured. This play was written by Rex McGregor from Auckland, New Zealand. This will be followed by FIREFLY IN AUGUST by Sheila Curran Bernard from New York, MOVES LIKE JAGGER by Suzanne Bailie from Washington, and THE COUNTER OFFER by David L. Williams from Pennsylvania.

On Friday, October 17 at 8 pm – I’VE GOT A PROBLEM WHATEVER by Cynthia “Andy” Landis from Tennessee will start off the evening. This performance will be followed by CRACKED by Gwydion Suilebhan from Maryland, TIME TRAVEL IS GOOD FOR THE COMPLEXION by Shari D. Frost from Massachusetts, and CUTHBERT’S LAST STAND by Andrew Biss fromPennsylvania.

On Saturday, October 18 at 8 pm the first performance will be CAPTIVE AUDIENCE SWORD PLAY* (By Invitation only) by Charlene A. Donaghy from Connecticut. This play will be followed by CHECKING THE BASEMENT FOR LEAKS by Doug DeVita from New York, BUDDHISTS IN THE BASEMENT by Mary Beth Smith from Massachusetts, CAPTIVE AUDITION by Paul Braverman from California and THE ELEVEN O’CLOCK NUMBER by Julie Weinberg from New York.

Tickets are $15 per night or $30 for all three nights. For tickets, call the Box Office at 860-489-7180 or visit www.warnertheatre.org

On Sunday, October 19 at 3 p.m. the Warner is hosting the Connecticut Artists & Playwrights Festival that brings together visual art featuring Connecticut artists exhibiting in Torrington’s Five Points Gallery with Connecticut playwrights to create new ten-minute plays that will be produced at the Warner Theatre’s Nancy Marine Studio Theatre.

The Connecticut Artists & Playwrights Festival recognizes the work of emerging and established artists from across the state. It gives visual artists an opportunity for their art to serve as inspiration for a piece of dramatic writing. It gives playwrights a forum for production of their ten-minute plays that are inspired by one of three pieces of visual art.

THIS YEAR’S ARTISTS & PLAYWRIGHTS:

ANNUNCIATION – Judith Thorpe
VENUS SMILED by Steven Otfinoski (Stratford, CT)
FLIP by Jonathan Yukich (Hamden, CT)
QUELCHED by Robert Schneider (New Haven, CT)
THE SEQUENCE – Katherine Myers
THE SEQUENCE by Bob Tilton (Storrs, CT)
LOBSTER SPECIAL by Mara Dresner (Rocky Hill, CT)
CIRCLING THE GLOBE by Victoria Z. Daly (Goshen, CT)
OMNES ORGANUM TRIPLUM – Pam Bramble
TO TELL THE TRUTH by Allan Appel (New Haven, CT)
FAULT by Julie Weinberg (Goshen, CT)
YOUR EYES, THE STARS by Darcy Parker Bruce (Norwich, CT)

Tickets are $15, for tickets, call the Box Office at (860) 489-7180 or visit www.warnertheatre.org

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Pastoral Solitudes and Landscape Paintings at the Gregory James Gallery

November 4th. All of the paintings were produced over the past two years and reflect the farms and untouched landscapes of Connecticut’s Northwest Corner. A few marine paintings were inspired by scenes near Adkins’ home in Maine, where as a boy, he spent summer vacations with his family.

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Most of his paintings are derived from small sketches made on location, which Adkins refers to later in the studio, making subtle changes in color and light to evoke a mood, the season or time of day.

The green and gold fields of “Northern Farm Early Spring” draw the eye up to an aging grey barn illuminated by sunlight peeking over the hills beyond the farm. The last remnants of snow are visible on hilltops and the bare branches of trees stretch toward a pale sky tinged with purple. The interplay of light and shadow hint at a scene captured just before sunset, or perhaps slightly after sunrise.

The change of season is evident in “Fall Diagonal Light Kent,” which features a pair of barns, bookends to a white farmhouse, tucked beneath leafy green trees tinged with orange. The last slanting rays of sun fall over the scene from beyond the frame of the painting as thick clouds move in from the opposite side.

Looking at “Lake Waramaug Summer,” the viewer seems to be perched on the path, in the same spot Adkins set up his easel, pausing to take in the view of the lake and green the hills sloping down to its edges. There is a small farm tucked into the hillside, yet there is a sense that the viewer is able to take in this tranquil scene alone. Adkins calls it “a snapshot of the moment. You get a true sense of the atmosphere and the feeling for the place.”

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A graduate of Paier College of Art of New Haven, Adkins completed graduate classes at the School of Visual Arts of New York. He has worked as art director and creative director for some of the most prestigious advertising agencies in Connecticut and New York.

As a contemporary painter, Adkins’ style and technique has developed from early influences by Impressionistic painters of light on nature, such as Monet, Pissaro, Willard Metcalf. Adkins’ work is featured in private collections throughout the United States and abroad. His paintings have been shown in galleries and exhibitions in Connecticut and New England, including the New Britain Museum of American Art, The Butler Institute Of American, Old Lyme Association, Gregory James Gallery, Greene Art Gallery and at Bayview Gallery in Brunswick, Me. A member of the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society and the Association of Oil Painters of America, he participated in the prestigious International Marine Art Exhibition at The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport. In 2014, he will be one of a select few award-winning artists from seven countries selected to participate in the 35th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition at Mystic Seaport.

The Gregory James Gallery is located at 93 Park Lane Road (Route 202) in New Milford, about 100 feet from the intersection of Route 109. For more information, please call (860) 354-3436 or visit gregoryjamesgallery.com.

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Chili and Beer highlight of Salisbury’s Fall Festival

Chili, beer, brats and live music are featured as the 5th Annual Brew-Ski Fest returns bigger and better than ever to the Salisbury Fall Festival on Sunday, Oct. 12th at Satre Hill in Salisbury.

Photos by Marlena
Photos by Marlena

The event hosted by the Salisbury Winter Sports Association (SWSA) that organizes the popular Ski Jumping Championships have organized a “Brew -Ski” event that is featuring beers from 30 breweries and that’s a Brew-Ski record” ! Popular brands like Big Elm, City Steam, Charter Oak, Goose Island, Sam Adams and Berkshire Mountain will return as well as new names like Black Hog, Broad Brook and Fool Proof. For a complete list of breweries, as new breweries are added daily, visit www.Jumpfest.org or go to www.brewskifest.com.

The Chili Cookoff, longtime favorite event of the the Fall Festival has found a new home along side the Brew-Ski at Satre Hill. This is a professional competition open to restaurants and other food service organizations with certified inspected kitchens. Judging will take place from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Photos by Marlena
Photos by Marlena

Live music also returns to the Brew-Ski this year when the popular local band The Nice Ones perform. The band, which won the Housatonic Youth Services Bureau Battle of the Bands several years ago played to an enthusiastic packed house at SWSA’s Snowball last year.

Tickets for Brew-Ski Fest cost $30 per person in advance and are available at Stateline Wine and Spirits in Canaan, 860 824-7295 and Ledgebrook Spirit Shop in Winsted 860 379-4216. Tickets will cost $35 the day of the event. The price includes the chili tasting. Visitors interested only in the Chili Cookoff can taste and vote for a suggested donation of $5.

Proceeds from the Brew-Ski and Chili events which will be held rain or shine will benefit SWSA’s youth skiing programs.

For more information about Litchfield Hills visit: www.litchfieldhills.com

“Photos by Marlena”

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Saugatuck Walking Tour

Join the Westport Historical Society on Saturday, Oct. 11, for one of its most popular walking tours, a stroll through Old Saugatuck accompanied by guide Bob Mitchell. The tour begins at 2 p.m. and ends with a drink on the house at one of Saugatuck’s favorite haunts, the Black Duck.

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As you make your way through the neighborhood that sits along the tracks near the Westport train station, Mitchell will discuss Saugatuck’s past as a manufacturing hub and the tight-knit, predominantly Italian community it was to become. Most of what we now know as Westport was once called Saugatuck, after the river. But when the town was incorporated in 1835 from parts of Norwalk and Fairfield, it was given the name Westport. The area to the south of town on the west side of the river continued to be called Saugatuck.

The walk will begin at the train station, where rail service was launched in 1848, making Westport more accessible for visitors and, in turn, giving residents better access to New York City. Railroad construction brought an influx of jobs, filled mostly by Irish and Italian laborers, and the young community eventually was called Little Italy. In 1958, a swath of buildings bisecting Saugatuck was demolished to make way for the Connecticut Turnpike.

Here are some bits of Saugatuck lore you’ll learn about: The Saugatuck Grain & Supply Company (1929), Luciano Park, the Westport Bank & Trust branch office, the Hedenbury Tin Shop, the Banyan Coffin Tack Factory, the first Saugatuck firehouse, the mattress factory, the William F. Cribari Bridge (the oldest movable span in Connecticut), and the Saugatuck Manufacturing Company, which made buttons from Brazilian ivory nuts. In addition, you’ll hear wonderful stories from people who grew up in Saugatuck when life was simple and family ties strong.

“Saugatuck Walking Tour,” Saturday, Oct. 11, 2 -3:15 pm. There is a $10 donation, and $8 for members. Ages 12 and under are $5. Reservations are suggested: (203) 222-1424. For more information visit http://westporthistory.org.

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