Thanks to invasive shrubs, birds need a nutrition makeover
Birds in a candy store
A Swainson's thrush in spring.
Photo by Mick Thompson/Audubon
Latest News
The women who anchored domestic life in Revolutionary Kent come to life in new exhibit
Alec Linden
Jul 01, 2026
Deborah Shiflett-Fitton operates a "walking wheel," an antique wool spinning device that would have been used by early American homespun fabric makers before more modern designs, like the one operated by Jo Mellis to the right, took over.
Alec Linden
KENT – In celebration of the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday, the Kent Historical Society has opened an exhibit that shifts the focus from the battlefield to the home. The domestic sphere and the women who ran it, the installation argues, were no less important in the cause of American independence than the treaties and military campaigns that dominate U.S. history education.
“Homespun Kent: Revolutionary Households” kicked off with appropriate Revolutionary fanfare for an evening reception on Saturday, June 27, at the Historical Society’s Seven Hearths Museum. Approximately 100 history enthusiasts enjoyed the detailed tour of Kent’s home life during the Revolutionary Era, which took full advantage of the preserved interior of the 1751 building.
“Women were the architects of an economic force that encouraged domestic self-reliance,” states an informational video that ran in a cozy parlor at the start of the tour. The homespun fabric movement was a women-led effort to domesticate cloth production in protest of imported British merchandise in the years leading up to the Revolution, which the exhibit professes both helped cultivate a spirit of independence at a crucial moment while also servicing the practical need for wartime supplies.
“It’s more important than tea because you need cloth to wear clothes!” said Deborah Chabrian, board president of the Kent Historical Society.
She explained that beyond the focus on fabrics, the exhibit is meant to amplify a quieter but no less important story of the American Revolution. “I had never really thought deeply about how it affected someone at home,” Chabrian said.
“The women had to be just as strong,” she continued. “They had to hold the country together” while the men were on the battlefield.
The Seven Hearths Museum is an ideal venue for the exhibit as a Revolutionary home itself, explained Christine Adams, executive director of the Historical Society. Built originally as a combined residence and general store, by 1776 it was occupied by Daniel Beebe, Esther Pratt Beebe and their two children.
Daniel and his son Daniel Jr. would both leave to fight for the Patriots, leaving Esther to presumably operate the store, as well as an active fur trading post upstairs and a butchery, by herself as one of the few active supplies purveyors in early “frontier” Kent.
According to an informational pamphlet distributed at the event, Esther is one of many “resilient housewives, mothers, and spinners who labored over spinning wheels, grew and carded flax, and wove wool to clothe their families, effectively anchoring early American domestic life.”
“These were stories I never heard growing up,” Adams said.
The opening reception also featured several live demonstrations of Revolutionary Era home life. In a sunny corner room, Kent Art Association Executive Director Deborah Shiflett-Fitton, dressed in colonial garb, operated an antique “walking wheel” or wool wheel which would have been used by homespun fabric makers in colonial America.
It had been sitting in the building’s attic for years, she said as she deftly operated the device, and was revived in preparation for the exhibit by accomplished furniture restorer and Historical Society Vice President Roger Gonzales.
In the kitchen, Chabrian, also clad in antique clothing, cooked corn chowder over a wood fire in one of the museum’s namesake hearths. She explained that the soup was thickened with crackers according to an old technique that would have been used by cooks in chowders in the Revolutionary days.
Once finished, the ample pot was emptied in seconds by eager guests. Attendees then moved on to an eclectic selection of small bites that had been brought in colonial potluck fashion, complimented by beer, wine, cider and charcuterie, courtesy of the Historical Society.
Chabrian said that the overarching motivation behind the whole effort, which involved months of researching books, local history accounts and even original 18th century documents still on file at Town Hall, is to “to bring an awareness to the history that we have here,” and hopefully inspire more to help steward it.
“Homespun Kent: Revolutionary Households” is on display until Oct. 31 at the Seven Hearths Museum. The museum is open Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment.
Keep ReadingShow less
Kent pop-up art installation seeks to highlight truth-telling Americans
Allison Gollenberg
Jul 01, 2026
Civil rights activists Rev. Nelson Johnson and his wife, Joyce, are among the vibrant portraits featured on the Kent Green as part of a public art installation.
Allison Gollenberg
KENT – A new public art installation featuring a rotating display of portraits will be on view at the Kent Green until July 15 as part of the town’s America 250 celebration. The portraits depict prominent Americans known for promoting civic engagement, social justice, and environmental stewardship.
Currently, the display includes five portraits and will remain there until July 1, when they will be replaced with five different images. Kent Memorial Library will show a film about the stories behind the portraits on July 11 at 6:30 p.m.
Exhibit organizer Megan Haney said the purpose of art is to “raise people’s awareness of themselves, their own potential and their responsibility to keep up the struggle to maintain American ideals.”
She said that while it is important to celebrate America, it is equally important to correct the course of the country “by asking, ‘Are we doing a good enough job?’ And frankly, we’re not.”
The exhibit was created by Maine artist Robert Shetterly and his nonprofit arts and education group, Americans Who Tell the Truth. Founded in 2002, it uses original portraits set against vibrant colors depicting courageous citizens. Each portrait is accompanied by a biography and quote for visitors to take home.
Haney and a friend learned about the project from a PBS documentary, inspiring them to bring the show to the Northwest Corner.
“If one person is affected by this exhibit, I think it will be a success,” said Lynn Gray, who also organized the exhibit. “Sometimes it just takes one.”
Shetterly started painting the portraits in the years after 9/11, riddled with grief but also upset with the Bush administration for lying about weapons of mass destruction to promote the war in Iraq, he said.
“I thought, what can I do as an artist?” he said. “I thought, why don’t I surround myself with Americans who make me feel good about the country? I did it to make myself feel better. They’d be with me because I was painting their portraits.”
Shetterly said his goal was to create 50 paintings, but today he’s made 290 and they’ve travelled to 40 states. Now, he said he hopes to paint 300. All the portraits can be viewed at americanswhotellthetruth.org.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever been at more of a time in our history when we’ve needed courageous citizenship,” Shetterly said. “I don’t want people to look and see superheroes. They’re not to be up on pedestals, in fact, they’re models of how we can be. Everyone I’ve painted was flawed, but also did something courageous.”
Keep ReadingShow less
Annual cricket match raises funds for SVAS
Patrick L. Sullivan
Jul 01, 2026
Cricket players compete in the annual fundraiser in Lakeville.
Annie Prinz
LAKEVILLE – The Salisbury Cricket Club hosted its annual fundraising match for the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service Saturday, June 27, and the friendly competition was divided into two teams: Salisbury vs. The Rest of the World. The event took place at Community Field in Lakeville.
Club founder David Shillingford of Salisbury said the club was founded in 2017 and has around 40 active members. While the majority of the athletes live in or near Salisbury, the club does attract players from as far as Philadelphia and Boston for its annual match.
Most of the players were natives of British Commonwealth countries, clad in traditional cricket whites. The club only plays once a year, and always to raise money for SVAS.
Prior to the start of play, Shillingford went over the ground rules, which were part of the fundraising. That is, a ball that went into Herrington’s lumber yard next door would require a $100 donation to the ambulance service.
“It is a safety issue, after all,” Shillingford said.
The SCC’s Ben Gore said on Sunday, June 28 that organizers are still adding up the total from business sponsors, merchandise sales and player contributions, but $3,300 is probably about right. “It will be one of the largest raises yet.”
Gore said the event welcomed some newer high school and college-aged players. “It was a nice addition to the rosters,” he said.
The match attracted local sponsors including Fern, Grasslands Dessert cafe, Lakeville Books and Stationery, Elyse Harney Real Estate, B.Metcalf Paving, in addition to more national sponsors like Gooding Christie’s, goodapple and Integrum.
Keep ReadingShow less
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
Singer-songwriter plays Revolution-inspired songs in Falls Village summer concert series
Patrick L. Sullivan
Jul 01, 2026
Connecticut's Revolutionary War heroes come to life during a lively set of original songs by Kent Besocke.
Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE – Kent Besocke performed original songs about Connecticut’s Revolutionary War heroes and villains on the lawn of the David M. Hunt Library Friday, June 26, as part of the library’s summer concert series. Besocke, a native Californian who lives in Simsbury, Connecticut, accompanied himself on guitar, banjo and octave mandolin.
Warming up the crowd of concertgoers, Besocke introduced his instruments, beginning with his banjo. It originated in West Africa, he said, in the form of a gourd with a stick attached and a drone string.
His acoustic guitar is what bluegrass players call a flat-top, typically a type of steel-string acoustic guitar.
“I’ve lost track of how many songs I’ve written on this,” he said.
Last but not least, the octave mandolin is similar to a standard mandolin, but larger and pitched an octave lower.
As a self-described “history buff,” Besocke said he researches the subjects of his songs in libraries or online, and when he finds the right story or subject, he waits for inspiration to strike.
When he read about the legend of Abigail Hinman, who is rumored to have aimed a musket at notorious traitor Benedict Arnold during the siege of New London in 1781, he thought, “There’s a song here.”
Overall, he said his songs are “inspired by the people who had enough, who could not tolerate the intolerance of the King.”
The first song in his set, “Life for Liberty,” was meant to “conjure up memories of people who are gone” after giving their lives in the Revolution.
Besocke played a traditional English song based on 1783 pasticcio opera called “The Poor Soldier," which premiered in London as the British and Americans negotiated the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the war.
He also sang about Coventry’s Nathan Hale, an idealistic young patriot who responded to George Washington’s appeal for intelligence officers.
“Unfortunately, he was a terrible spy,” Besocke quipped.
As Hale made his way through enemy lines, masquerading as a Dutch schoolmaster anxious to get to British-controlled New York,he was foolish enough to carry identification, in the form of his Yale diploma.
In a tavern, Hale met what he thought was a fellow patriot, and divulged his mission. Unfortunately, the confidant turned out to be a British officer. Hale was arrested, interrogated, and hung the next day.
Besocke said the Revolution pitted family and friends against each other.
“It was like the Civil War, in the sense that neighbors and families were divided.”
Additional concert listings can be found at
canaanfallsvillage.org/events.
Keep ReadingShow less
From rejected writer to documentarian, local filmmaker gives inside look at Falls Village
Patrick L. Sullivan
Jul 01, 2026
Falls Village filmmaker Eric Veden, who has created 38 videos documenting the village and its people.
Patrick L. Sullivan
FALLS VILLAGE – Longtime filmmaker Eric Veden is the brains behind an extensive collection of videos documenting the people, places, and happenings in Falls Village spanning 26 years. The latest video is the 38th installment in a series that began in 2000.
Veden, 82, made Falls Village his home after moving to the area from San Diego in the mid-1980s. His friend, Ted Wolford, offered up his home so the Californian could work on his fiction writing.
“I got a lot written,” he said. “I was working on novels but ended up writing short stories.”
While he did see his name in print with several stories published in magazines, Veden took a series of odd jobs to make ends meet.
These jobs included being a night watchman at Troutbeck in Amenia, New York, where he thought he’d be able to write at night but spent most of his time cleaning.
He was also the recreation director for an Alzheimer's unit in Kent, which he enjoyed. “I had what it took…patience.”
“Then Social Security kicked in and I retired from odd jobs and found video work,” he said.
Veden said making videos is much more fun than being a struggling writer.
“I’d work on something for months and get rejected again and again,” he said, referring to his writing career. “Videography is instantaneous.”
His first-ever video was about his friend, Albert Twing, who lived on Undermountain Road. Veden said Twing was unique in that he had compiled two of everything. Two tractors. Two mowers. The list went on.
“When something broke, he could just take it in his shed and fix it himself.”
The librarian at the David M. Hunt Library was Cookie Kubarek at the time. She saw the video and realized its potential.
“She encouraged me to do more,” he remembered.
When it comes to filmmaking, Veden said he is largely self-taught. He started with a VHS camera and later switched to digital, receiving technical advice and assistance from a friend, John Palinkas, a videographer who lives in Harwinton.
Veden’s videos typically have a theme. Sometimes the subject is an event, such as the Memorial Day parade, or a lecture at the library.
The bulk of the material is extended, one-on-one interviews with residents of Falls Village.
Sometimes the subjects are willing to tell their stories. Sometimes a little persuasion is needed.
Veden said he allows the interviewees to see the final product before it goes public. That puts people at ease, as does his unobtrusive style.
He said he uses the bare minimum of equipment and personnel: a digital video camera with a microphone attached, a tripod, and himself.
His interview technique is simple. He introduces the subject from off-camera, and the subject takes it from there.
“It’s very easy-going,” he said of the interview process. “I just ask people to tell their life story and let them go from birth up to the present day.”
He finds his interview subjects primarily via recommendations from previous subjects or from friends.
Asked if the supply of subjects is starting to run thin after 26 years, he said it is a concern.
“In fact, if anybody has an idea for an interview, call me,” he said.
As an octogenarian, Veden has no plans to retire from filmmaking.
He said he does it for the love of the process and because it keeps him in touch with "interesting people,” who often become friends.
Asked if he makes any money from them, he said flatly “no.”
And after 26 years and 38 episodes, he has come to a conclusion about Falls Village.
“It’s a nice place and the people who live here love it.”
Veden’s Falls Village videos are available on DVD at the D.M. Hunt Library and on YouTube under “Eric Veden Video.”
Keep ReadingShow less
Housing emerges as key priority in Sharon planning update
Alec Linden
Jul 01, 2026
Delays in a project to renovate the former community center into four affordable apartments were a focus of discussion between the Planning and Zoning Commission and housing advocates at a meeting on Wednesday, June 24.
Alec Linden
SHARON – Officials say diversifying Sharon’s housing inventory remains a long-term priority, even as litigation, funding challenges and state regulatory hurdles continue to stall several affordable housing projects.
Affordable housing is one of three major priorities identified during Sharon’s update of its state-required Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), which is due by the end of the year. The discussion came during the third meeting on the plan, following earlier sessions in April and May focused on economic development and conservation.
Janell Mullen, a Sharon native and land use consultant hired by the Planning and Zoning Commission to prepare the update, described the POCD as “a road map for the next 10 years of planning and development” during the commission’s meeting Wednesday, June 24, attended by commissioners and several members of the public.
Mullen said responses to a survey distributed earlier this year showed broad support for not only expanding affordable housing opportunities in town, but also a desire for diversifying Sharon’s housing stock. Residents identified a need for quality housing, senior housing, middle-income housing, village center options, workforce housing, small-scale multifamily housing and housing specifically dedicated to full-time residents.
Much of the discussion throughout the meeting centered on proposed and existing projects that have faced challenges.
P&Z Chair Laurence Rand III said one such project was approved but “remains in limbo.”
The project, known as the Gold Dog housing development, is a controversial condominium development on Hospital Hill Road, which prompted months of contentious public hearings last year. The project calls for 12 duplexes arranged along a new cul-de-sac on a forested hillside below the Sharon Hospital Medical Arts Center.
Since the project’s April 2025 approval, the project has been tied up in litigation brought after widespread neighborhood opposition during the approval process.
Several, however, spoke out in support, arguing its middle-income target price would fill a gap in the market and allow working families to settle in town.
Other ongoing developments and current housing opportunities have faced difficulties recently. The Sharon Housing Authority is an independent agency charged solely with the management of Sharon Ridge, an affordable housing complex opened in 1992, and its sister complex, known as Sharon Ridge Expansion, built in 2013. The group manages a total of 32 subsidized units across both neighborhoods.
Jennifer Baird, secretary of the Authority, said it has found itself in dire financial straits, partially due to what she described as a governing model that has made fundraising and maintenance difficult. At a town meeting on June 29, which also saw the budget passed, residents approved contributing $60,000 in town funds to help the authority cover emergency maintenance and repairs projects and to commission study to aid future grantseeking efforts.
Speaking at the June 29 town meeting, Authority Chair Don Castonguay justified supporting Sharon Ridge and the Expansion: “It’s one of the nicest affordable housing projects in Litchfield County, and we want to keep it that way.”
In planning for future handling of affordable housing initiatives, Baird advocated for a “really integrated and unified approach,” such as a municipal affordable housing commission, similar to other towns in the region like Salisbury, Cornwall and North Canaan.
Back in the town’s commercial center, a project from the Sharon Housing Trust to add four additional units of affordable housing at the former town community center on North Main Street – adjacent to six already occupied affordable apartments – has been stalled by state-level red tape even after having broken ground last year.
“We’re sort of at a stalemate there,” said John Hecht, who sits on the board of the SHT but spoke as a resident at Wednesday’s meeting. He said that a state historic preservation agency had prevented the group from re-siding the three occupied buildings, its first step in renovating the entire complex into a unified affordable housing “complex.”
The community center renovation is also at a standstill as it awaits approval from the state historic preservation agency. “There are four units that can be rented to families and we’re being held back,” Hecht said frustratedly.
Regardless of setbacks, Mullen said that Sharon was one of the most supportive towns she has worked with when it comes to affordable housing.
P&Z member Betsy Hall, who earlier in the meeting acknowledged “astronomical” rents in town, said she knew why: “Sharon is a town that wants to solve its problems.”
The next planning session for the POCD is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22, and will focus on farmland preservation to make up for the last meeting, where time constraints prevented discussion on the topic.
Keep ReadingShow less
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
loading
