Sava Marinkovic
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Holiday market brightens West Cornwall
Dec 10, 2024
L. Tomaino
Despite finger numbing cold and a light dusting of snow the night before, on Saturday, Nov. 30, the West Cornwall Holiday Market, held on the lawn of The Wish House, attracted many shoppers.
Ashley Parsons, of “Parsnips Playful Creations” filled her booth with her handmade crocheted and playful teddy bears, dragons, snowflakes, dogs, mushrooms, gnomes, rabbits, and crocheted plants whose leaves, when pulled, became coasters.
Parsons has been making her crafts “since the pandemic.” She just started selling. “It’s a new adventure.” she said.
Lauren Kendrick shared a booth with her mother Treasa Pattison. Lauren said, “I usually paint but have been getting into sewing this year.” She makes “Lauren’s Little Birds” and “teabag” bookmarks made of cloth.
Her mother, Treasa Pattison, who organized the holiday market, had her “Mother Tree Remedies” on sale. Pattison is a medicinal herbalist. Her products “are made from herbs that I either forage for or grow.” Among her products are Sleepy Tea, Poison Ivy Bug Bite cream, Elderberry Elixir, and Arnica Oil.
Michele Paladino of “Lindera,” had wreaths made of grape vine, and decorative arrangements for the holidays. Paladino “Collects native seeds from this region and grows them,” for her products in Falls Village.
Sharing her booth was Helena Barnes, proprietor of Sharon Valley Honey. The honey comes from her own hives. She had three kinds of honey: raw, whipped, and honey butter. She noted “the color of honey is tied to the flowers.” Golden rod, for example, makes darker honey.
At the Birch Lane Rustics’ booth, Matt Wabrek from Canaan, explained how he got started making things. “A cherry tree fell in my yard. I didn’t want to waste the wood.” He milled the wood himself and made a table and charcuterie boards. “I have a welding background and so I could make the legs. I like mixing metal with wood.” He “repurposes and upscales things,” using horseshoes, skis, pickaxes, hoes, hammers, and other old tools in his creations. Birch Lane Rustics will be appearing at craft and artisans fairs in the coming months.
At Lynette’s Precocious Preserves, her helpers, dogs Reese and Rita, wore reindeer antlers and greeted customers. Lynette Hatfield makes the preserves herself in Kent. “Strawgasm,” a mix of strawberry and rhubarb, is a best seller.” She grows her own rhubarb. Other flavors include Black Bear Jam and Mushroom Magic.
Next to Lynette was Pebbles, a French bakery which makes organic and locally sourced baked goods, including scones, Madeleines, tarts, and Coffee Ganache Cake. Owners Ji-Won Lee and Alex Delletery, make all the pastries themselves.
Jewelry maker, Rose Fitch and her twin, Indigo, sat with earrings and necklaces Rose made. Rose explained the jewelry began as her “capstone project at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.” Capstone projects have to show responsibility and problem solving. She moved on to selling her designs.
Ann Gold had a table with homemade jams and hand sewn potholders. All the proceeds from items sold go to the Chapel at All Saints. Jams include Plum Apple, Apple Pie, and Pear Jalapeno.
After the event organizer Treasa Pattison said, “It was a great turnout and a ton of fun!”
Many of the vendors have Instagram or Facebook pages and also sell their goods at local farmer’s markets and at The Local, a new store in West Cornwall that sells products made by local residents.
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Seasonal star creation
Dec 10, 2024
Matthew Kreta
The Hotchkiss Library hosted a small workshop Saturday, Nov. 23 on how to make Froebel, the 16-pointed Christmas Star made from folded paper. The star has no commonly recognized name in English, known also as the German Star, the Polish Star, the Pennsylvanian Star and the Advent Star.
The star, made of four thin strips of paper, is named after Friedrich Fröbel, a German educationist credited with the creation of Kindergarten. Fröbel used paper folding as one example of how to teach young children mathematical concepts.
Fröbel also was one of the first to encourage the use of patterned geometric building blocks for young children as gifts, which were later adapted for children’s education about sixty years after his death. However, Fröbel is not the creator of the folded star despite it being named after him. The knowledge of crafting it is speculated to have been known to many well before his time.
The Froebel Christmas Star, however, is no children’s feat. The four strips of paper require a shockingly high level of preciseness in order to reach the finished product, and while the first few steps may give the impression of an easy craft, the star proved a significant challenge for those in attendance who represented a wide variety of ages. Many of the steps are more akin to weaving than they are to folding. Instructor Anne Cameron spent multiple weeks practicing herself in order to prepare.
On the day of the workshop, Cameron used a video as an assistant, slowly going through step by step and checking in on each table. Soon, as the project reached its more complex stages, Cameron went from table to table and back again going over many of the specific rules on exactly how to fold the stars. Despite the difficulty, participants kept a determined outlook. After many attempts, do-overs and backtracking, attendees eventually finished their first star.
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Provided
Crescendo is an award-winning music organization based in Lakeville, Connecticut, which will present two concerts with festive Baroque holiday music for chorus, soloists, and orchestra on Dec. 28 and 29. The program brings comfort, joy, and a sense of wonder to listeners and celebrates unity, love, and hope through the power of music.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio stands at the center of the program. Cantatas by his predecessors and contemporaries showcase the festive themes of Advent, Christmas, and the New Year.
The Crescendo Chorus of thirty singers is joined by soprano Paulina Francisco (Canada), countertenor Nicholas Tamagna (Germany), tenor Gene Stenger (Connecticut), bass-baritone Douglas Williams (Massachusetts), and Crescendo Period Instrument Orchestra with musicians from New York City and Boston. The performances are led by Crescendo’s founding artistic director, Christine Gevert.
“Baroque music appeals directly to our emotions. It is the foundation of most of the music we hear nowadays. These compositions incorporate melodies, rhythms, and even forms from folk music. The cantatas are full of dance rhythms, and familiar tunes, which makes them very accessible to our ears. Even without being a classical music fan or choral music lover, it is hard to not be cheered up by forty voices and fifteen instruments singing music that has great harmonic progressions, and beautiful melodies,” Gevert explained.
Crescendo’s concerts will take place at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lime Rock Dec. 28 and 29.Provided
“The natural trumpets and period timpani are played by experts, and their sound is very solemn and lively at the same time. The Christmas cantatas were composed for the most important moment in the church celebrations. The period instruments used in these works have a sound that is a bit more transparent, and perhaps differentiated than the instruments we hear in modern orchestras, and they also have very unique colors. That makes them perfect to accompany the human voice,” she added.
Gevert was raised in Chile and lived in Europe for twelve years. She had been thinking of moving to Boston in the early 2000s but found the Early Music scene there difficult to break into as a foreigner. Luckily for local audiences, she found her way to the Northwest Corner.
“I met the minister of Trinity Church Lime Rock at a meditation retreat in Rishikesh, India, and she let me know that the small Episcopal parish had many music-loving members, and that the music director position was opening up. I applied, and was hired in October of 2001. It took a bit to get the music program going, but I was able to constitute Crescendo here in the fall of 2003, and our audience, chorus and instrumentalists came immediately also from the adjacent areas in New York and Massachusetts. We became an independent 501 (c)(3) organization in 2006,” Gevert says.
Leading ensembles and producing events comes with its own set of challenges. Musicians are not typically educated or trained in management, marketing, and fundraising for arts organizations.
“You need to learn everything at the same time while leading the artistic part of the organization. Everything is done on a shoe-string budget. It was always my goal to bring the very best professionals to our programs, and to pay them a just fee. So most of our funds are used for that, and very little is left for management, marketing, and development. Understanding the functioning of a not-for-profit organization is a journey that has many unexpected challenges and obstacles. Learning to be a leader is not easy in any discipline,” Gevert explained.
“Adoration of the Magi,” by 17th century artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Provided
Gevert feels that society has changed since Covid, with many people still reluctant to attend live performances. The renewal of audience members, supporters, and amateur musicians is more important than ever.
“We have always offered free music education to students and young musicians at Crescendo, and currently have a program in place that functions besides our concert series, and benefits young local musicians who receive one-on-one training,” she added.
Crescendo has been in Lakeville for 21 years in large part because of the many music lovers in the area. Early Music colleagues from the East Coast have also been great supporters.
“We hope that we will be able to celebrate the beauty and power of live music for many more years to come,” said Gevert.
The concerts will take place on Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024 at 4 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 484 Lime Rock Rd., Lakeville, CT, and on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024 at 4 p.m. at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA.
Tickets are available online at www.crescendomusic.org, or on a first come, first served basis at the door, 45 minutes prior to the concert.
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Tangled Lines gift guide
Dec 10, 2024
Patrick L. Sullivan
Here is the annual gift guide for those of you with fly-fishers on the list. I have attempted to keep this simple and intelligible to the unafflicted.
The easy way out is the gift certificate. Most retailers offer them. I have been on the receiving end of an Orvis gift card many times.
So how much do you make it for? Hard to say, but know this: $100 just gets things started. If the goal is to get Fred a new set of waders so he stops complaining about the old leaky ones, better start at $300. Note also that they will still leak, eventually, but this is not your fault.
The old waders can probably be salvaged, too. Look for a wader repair kit with a small tube of stuff called Aquaseal and some patches that can be cut to size. Fred should have one of these kits anyway. Sometimes they come with the new waders.
Then you can get Fred a freestanding rack to hold all the spare waders that might or might not leak. (See photo.)
Rods: I am a big fan of Echo rods, especially the entry-level models. You can do a lot worse than getting a budding angler an Echo Lift kit, which is a rod, reel with pre-spooled line, and case for just under $200.
Anything else is going to require some subtlety on your part. Example: “Hi Fred. What sort of fly rod do you really want? And how’s Mom?”
Fred replies: “I have been eyeing the Spatzenjammer GBH 12-foot trout mini-spey for 250 grain Skagit heads.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” you say, keeping it subtle. “Have you seen a specialist?”
For extra subtlety, try asking Fred’s main fishing buddy what a good rod would be. This could be difficult, because Fred probably doesn’t know his buddy’s last name, home town, or anything that might identify him except a phone number. And even that will be in some kind of code. I have a contact in my phone that says “K fishing.” That’s it. I have no idea who or what this is, and when I tried calling I got a no longer in service message. Didn’t delete it from the phone, though. That would make too much sense.
You could throw yourself on the mercy of the fly shop. We have two actual fly shops in driving distance -- the Orvis store in Avon, and UpCountry in the Pleasant Valley section of Barkhamsted, with the West Branch of the Farmington River out back.
You’ll need to know some basic stuff. Where does Fred fish? What does he fish for? And Fred’s dimensions, plus a quick sketch of his condition, habits and general disposition.
Here’s an idea that could work: A bunch of flies and a nifty new box from a big online fly retailer such as Big Y Fly Company in Oregon or Fly Shack in New York.
I’ll save you the guesswork. If your intended recipient is a trout person, get a Fishpond/Tacky Double Haul fly box (about $35) and the following flies, six of each: Chubby Chernobyl size 12, Parachute Adams size 12, Light Cahill dun size 14, Elk Hair caddis size 14, Stimulator size 6, Pheasant Tail beadhead size 16, Hare’s Ear beadhead size 16, and Leadwing Coachman size 10.
The total for this should be about $100.
Don’t put the flies in the box because you’ll do it wrong. Let Fred do it. It will take forever and the family, busy with festive holiday activities, will be grateful not to have the glum snowbound angler getting in the way.
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