Treasure Hunt in the Book Basement and Dining in Washington Connecticut

The Gunn Memorial Library in Washington Connecticut is cleaning house through June 13. If you are a book lover, don’t miss this chance to fill up a grocery bag of great books at the library’s book basement sale that includes fiction, non-fiction, hard cover and soft cover books. There are over 10,000 books available on just about every topic imaginable and for every age.

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The quality of the books is outstanding and are being offered at $5 a bag — a regular sized grocery bag that is. The library is asking you to be “green” and to BYOB — bring your own bag! In addition to the bag of books sale, the library is also offering a sale of DVDs, music CDs, books on CDs as well as books that are deemed “special” that will are priced at $5 and up. All the “special” books are priced at 1/3 lower than prices found on the Internet.

The book basement hours are Thursday – Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm. The Library is located on 5 Wykham Rd. in Washington at the junction of Rte. 47 opposite the Green.

After browsing for books, stop in at the Gunn Memorial Museum located next to the Library to view their new exhibition titled The Great War. This exhibition commemorates the 100th anniversary of WWI.

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For a delightful lunch or dinner Washington offers three fabulous restaurants to choose from.
GW Tavern www.gwtavern.com on 20 Bee Brook Road offers a rich blend of contemporary and traditional food sure to please any palette. GW has gorgeous decks perfect for seasonal outdoor dining that overlook Bee Brook.

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The Pantry located on 5 Titus Rd. offers an enticing selection of daily specials, salads, sandwiches, and more including excellent baked goods that are perfect for a quick light lunch, tea or takeout. It is fun to sit amid gifts and housewares while dining.

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The Mayflower Inn, www.gracehotels.com/mayflower/ on 118 Woodbury Road in Washington has an award -winning restaurant that offers a range of classic and grand New England dining experiences from their prix fixe and a la carte menus. Dishes here are locally sourced and inspired by the international experiences of Chef Jonathan Cartwright. In the summer months there is spectacular al fresco dining on the terrace overlooking the gardens.

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For more information on the Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com

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See celebrated zookeeper Jack Hanna at Maritime Aquarium Norwalk

Celebrated zookeeper Jack Hanna will recount his adventures in the wild while displaying a menagerie of live animal friends in two special shows on Wed., May 7 at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. The animal adventures will begin at 2 & 7:30 p.m. in the Aquarium’s IMAX Theater. Tickets are $50 ($45 for Aquarium members).

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The animal “guests” for Hanna’s upcoming visit haven’t been announced. Last year’s collection included Fennec fox kits, a 15-foot python, a Siberian lynx, a lemur, a lesser anteater, a penguin, a beaver, a young wallaby, a six-week-old black bear, and many others.

Hanna is one of America’s most beloved naturalists and adventurers. The director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo hosts two weekly TV shows and is a frequent guest on “Good Morning America,” “The Late Show with David Letterman” and other popular programs.

His route to becoming a national celebrity began in Knoxville, Tenn., where he raised bluegills in the family bathtub and then extended his menagerie to their backyard. After majoring in business in college, Hanna worked for a wildlife adventure company and then directed a small Florida zoo before moving to Columbus (1978-1992), where his improvements to exhibits and educational programs helped to transform the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium into a state-of-the-art park.

Now, in addition to public and television-guest appearances, Hanna takes millions of viewers on exciting journeys each week to learn about animals in his syndicated shows, “Into the Wild” and “Wild Countdown.”

Sell-outs of his Maritime Aquarium shows are expected. Reserve your tickets in advance online at www.maritimeaquarium.org or by calling (203) 852-0700, ext. 2206.

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Cry of the Wild and Traditional Cooking in Litchfield Hills

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This May, the Institute for American Indian Studies located on 38 Curtis Rd. in Washington Connecticut is hosting a series of events that are of interest to young and old alike.
On May 10, an annual favorite returns to the Institute, the Call of the Wild Wolf program that begins at 1 p.m. The wolves come from the Wolf Conservation Center of South Salem, New York! Participants will get to meet Atka, the oldest and most traveled ambassador wolf, to learn more about wolves, their behavior, their unique relationship with the environment and our role in protecting their future. There is limited seating so be sure to make your reservations in advance to avoid missing out on meeting these majestic animals. The cost is $10 for adults and $6 for kids.

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On May 31 participants are invited to prepare and enjoy a a delicious prehistoric meal with Judy Kalin of Primitive Technologies! Participants will learn how to prepare food in a traditional way and will use traditional Native American crops and a variety of wild edibles. Participants will work with stone age tools and utensils to create a sampling of dishes cooked over the village hearth. Registration and prepayment required. Please call for reservations. Fee: $20; $15 IAIS Members.

The Museum is open Monday – Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. Permanent exhibits include Quinnetukut: Our Homeland, Our Story; From East To West: Across Our Homelands; Digging into the Past: Archaeology in Connecticut; a Sachem’s wigwam (longhouse) classroom with a beautifully painted lifeways mural; and a replicated early-1900s Northeastern reservation house room. Changing exhibits and the shop’s Artist’s Corner give visitors a reason to come back again and again.

For information about the Litchfield Hills www.litchfieldhills.com For information about the Institute www.iaismuseum.org/

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The Glass House presents Fujiko Nakaya: Veil May 1 to November 30, 2014

Coinciding with the 65th anniversary of the Glass House and its 2014 tour season, the Glass House will present Fujiko Nakaya: Veil, the first site-specific artist project to engage the iconic Glass House itself, designed by Philip Johnson and completed in 1949.

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Nakaya, a Japanese artist who has produced fog sculptures and environments internationally, will wrap the Glass House in a veil of dense mist that comes and goes. For approximately 10 to 15 minutes each hour, the Glass House will appear to vanish, only to return as the fog dissipates. Inside the structure, the sense of being outdoors will be temporarily suspended during the misty spells.

Veil will stage a potent dialogue with the Glass House, producing an opaque atmosphere to meet the building’s extreme transparency and temporal effects that complement its timelessness. Johnson’s interest in the balance of opposites is evident throughout the Glass House campus. With Nakaya’s temporary installation, this sensibility is carried to its endpoint while allowing the unique magic of the Glass House – the dream of transparency, an architecture that vanishes – to return again and again as the fog rises and falls.

The Glass House, situated on a promontory overlooking a valley, is subject to changing wind patterns, as well as variable temperature and humidity, that will continually influence the interchange between Veil and the building it shrouds. Fresh water, pumped at high pressure through 600 nozzles, will produce an immersive environment that reveals these dynamic conditions. Fog responds constantly to its own surroundings, revealing and concealing the features of the environment. Fog makes visible things become invisible and invisible things – like wind – become visible. The drama of Nakaya’s work rests in the continuous interplay between what is visible and what is not. Known coordinates vanish, only to be replaced by a miasma, rich in changing phenomenological effects, that evoke a sense of mystery, foreboding, and wonder.

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This installation is part of a greater initiative to transform the Glass House campus into a center for contemporary art and ideas, in particular those that foster new interpretations of the historic site’s meanings. The exhibition will be accompanied by public programs at the Glass House and in New York City.
Nakaya has created fog installations around the world, including projects for the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; the Grand Palais, Paris; the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; and the Exploratorium, San Francisco, among others. She consulted with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the Blur Building for the 2002 Swiss Expo, and has worked with numerous artists (including Trisha Brown, David Tudor, and Bill Viola) on environments for music and performance. This will be her first large-scale installation on the east coast of the United States and the first time her work has been presented at an internationally renowned historic site.

The Glass House, built between 1949 and 1995 by architect Philip Johnson, is a National Trust Historic Site located in New Canaan, CT. The pastoral 49-acre landscape comprises fourteen structures, including the Glass House (1949), and features a permanent collection of 20th-century painting and sculpture, along with temporary exhibitions. The tour season runs from May to November and advance reservations are required. For more information, please visit www.theglasshouse.org.

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation (www.PreservationNation.org) is a privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save America’s historic places to enrich our future, re-imagining historic sites for the 21st century. The guiding principle of this initiative is that historic sites must be dynamic, relevant, and evolving in order to foster an understanding of history and culture that is critical, sensory, and layered.

Visitor Information:
The Glass House Visitor Center and Design Store
199 Elm Street, New Canaan, CT 06840
Open Thursday – Monday, 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Tickets start at $30, including tour of the site.
For general information, please call 203.594.9884 or visit the Glass House online: www.theglasshouse.org.

For area information www.visitfairfieldcountyct.com

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STEPPING STONES MUSEUM FOR CHILDREN TO HOST A STORYBOOK PAJAMA PARTY FEATURING THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR ON MAY 2

Throw on your most comfy and cozy set of pajamas and head over to Stepping Stones Museum for Children on Friday, May 2, from 6:00 – 8:30 pm for a special evening story time featuring Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

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Stepping Stones is excited to bring the Very Hungry Caterpillar to the museum for the first time as 2014 marks the 45th anniversary of the release of this classic children’s tale. By the time you travel home “by the light of the moon” at the evening’s end, your child will be fulfilled by the smorgasbord of play-filled fun and ready for the warm “cocoon” of his or her bed.

The museum’s second Storybook Pajama Party of 2014 will be “stuffed” with family fun. Not only will you get to sit in for story times with the Very Hungry Caterpillar, but you’ll also get to take photos with a life-sized version of the caterpillar with the voracious appetite. There will be a tremendous number of Hungry Caterpillar-themed crafts and activities as you celebrate his metamorphosis from ‘hungry caterpillar’ to ‘beautiful butterfly.’

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Pajama party guests can make a days-of-the-week calendar or construct a colorful chrysalis that would make the Hungry Caterpillar proud. They can dress up like a fruit or leaf and crawl through a caterpillar tube or free play with butterfly wings. Guests can use their imagination to design brilliantly bright, butterfly wings or create a collage in the style that Eric Carle uses to illustrate his books. They can also make a necklace that will resemble the trail of foodstuffs left behind in the wake of the Hungry Caterpillar’s seven-day eating binge. If a moment of peace and quiet is what you seek, guests can snuggle up with a number of other Eric Carle stories in the cocoon of our special bedtime story corner. The evening will wrap up with a musical Fly Away Home Parade throughout the entire museum.

The Stepping Stones Cafe will be open during the event and serving up some appropriately-themed items for purchase. Enjoy the fantastic fare, but don’t overindulge like the Hungry Caterpillar or you’ll wind up with a stomach ache.

Tickets for this event cost $10 per person for museum members and $15 per person for non-members. Children under the age of one will be admitted for free. Storybook Pajama Party tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. Registration is required. Space is limited and tickets are selling briskly, so register early. Call 203 899 0606, ext. 264 or visit www.steppingstonesmuseum.org.

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Beautiful Dogwood Festival Blossoms Help Celebrate 375th Anniversary of Fairfield, in Western Connecticut

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A steepled church, a village green, and colonial homes enveloped in clouds of pink blossoms are a traditional sign of spring in Fairfield, one of Western Connecticut’s oldest and loveliest towns. Fairfield’s Dogwood Festival has been a tradition for 79 years, celebrating the hundreds of trees that light up the lanes of the town’s historic Greenfield Hill neighborhood. This year’s event takes place Friday May 2 through Sunday, May 4.

But Greenfield Hill is just one of three historic districts in this Fairfield County town celebrating an impressive 375th anniversary this year. So after enjoying one of spring’s most colorful celebrations, visitors can enjoy the celebration taking place in the rest of the town.

The Dogwood Festival

Fairfield’s first dogwood trees were planted back in 1705, when Isaac Bronson, a retired Revolutionary War surgeon-turned-farmer, decided his Greenfield Hills property would be enhanced if he transplanted some of the native wild dogwood trees blooming in the nearby woods. Bronson propagated and so did his trees. By 1895, the blooms were so outstanding that the Greenfield Hill Village Improvement Society took on care of the dogwoods as an official project, adding many new plantings that continue to grow.

In 1935 the Greenfield Hills Congregational Church held the first Dogwood Festival, and like the trees, it has grown prodigiously with time. Besides taking in the beauty of the blossoms, guests can visit tents where some 40 juried New England artisans and crafters will be showing their creations, see an art show, hunt for treasures at a tag sale, enjoy free musical entertainment and pick up prize plants that make perfect Mothers’ Day gifts. Walking tours of the historic lanes will be available and kids will have their own craft tent, bounce house, and face painter, plus cotton candy, and carnival games with prizes. Proceeds from the festival benefit more than 30 local, national and international charities. For details, see www.greenfieldhillschurch.com

The 375th Anniversary

In the second historic district in the center of town, the first sign of something special going on this year will be the fire hydrants, painted in historic garb like the Colonial soldiers who once marched here.
At the Fairfield Museum and History Center, a new hands-on exhibit explores the doings in town over its colorful past. Creating Community: Exploring 375 years of Our Past lets visitors look inside a Native American wigwam, climb into an American Revolution fort, watch a video depicting the Burning of Fairfield by the British in 1779, decipher a spy code, and sit on a 19th century trolley. In six chronologically organized sections, it shows how people worked, lived, and built communities over time by exploring original objects, individual stories, and engaging activities like trying on wardrobes from different periods.

The corner of the Museum block, Beach and Old Post Road, was the center point of the original “four squares” of the town laid out in 1639. Only four original homes survived the British fires, but a pleasant hour can be spent exploring the area’s many beautiful post-Revolutionary homes, historic churches and the town hall, whose central section remains as it was rebuilt in 1790

Southport, the picturesque harbor area, is the third historic area. Boats laden with onions from Greenfield Hill farms used to sail out of this harbor before the British did their damage. Now it is home to yachts and country clubs and exclusive residential areas in the hills surrounding the tiny village.

Fairfield is planning many special events in the months ahead to mark its special birthday. See http://www.fairfield375.com for a complete calendar.

For more information about lodging and other activities in the area and a free copy of UNWIND, a full-color, 152-page booklet detailing what to do and see, and where to stay, shop and dine in Fairfield County and the Litchfield Hills of Western Connecticut, contact the Western Connecticut Visitors Bureau, PO Box 968, Litchfield, CT 06759, (860) 567-4506, or visit their web site at www.visitwesternct.com

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