In proud defense of rosés: They set the mood, evoking a sense of leisure and relaxation
By Marty Ramsburg After this warmest — and snowless — winter of 2015-16, we are now waiting somewhat impatiently for spring and summer to arrive. We have markers for its imminent arrival: Town Meeting Day, sugaring, mud season, and, from a wine merchant’s perspective, new vintage whites and rosés. When we first opened our shop nearly 10 years ago, offering rosé was perceived as both novel and retro. To our age cohort, rosé meant...
Rudyard Kipling’s Naulakha: One-on-one with history
By Katherine P. Cox Rudyard Kipling, the British Nobel-prize winning author, penned The Jungle Book, the Just So Stories, and Captains Courageous in his beloved Dummerston home, which he named Naulakha, Hindi for “priceless jewel.” The house — also called the Rudyard Kipling House — sits high on a hill, with all of the rooms facing east to capture the sweeping views of the Connecticut River Valley and Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire....
Garden Events
Hildene 1005 Hildene Road, Manchester http://www.hildene.org, 802-362-1788 Mid May to Mid-June: Celebration of Peonies. Traditionally the last two weeks of May and the first two weeks of June when the formal garden signals the beginning of the season with thousands of peony blooms, many of them from the original 1907 plants. From Our Garden to Yours 170 Main St. and Town Common, Wardsboro http://www.friendsofwardsborolibrary.org May...
Southern Vermont theaters join forces this summer
Northern Stage’s Living Together, under the direction of Peter Hackett, the first in Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s comic trilogy. Three theatres in one of the country’s smallest states have a big idea: Vermont’s Dorset Theatre Festival, Northern Stage, and Weston Playhouse Theatre Company are creating an historic partnership to bring British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s celebrated 1973 comic trilogy, The Norman Conquests, to their stages...
Theater
Actors Theatre Playhouse Brook and Main streets, West Chesterfield, N.H. http://www.atplayhouse.org, 877 666-1855 June 9-25: Ten Minute Play Festival. July 7-23: Nick Payne’s Constellations. Aug 6 & 8: Bill Cain’s Equivocation, staged reading. Aug 20 & 27: Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Sept 9-Oct 18: Tom Griffin’s The Boys Next Door. Dorset Theatre Festival 104 Cheney Road, Dorset http://www.dorsettheatrefestival.org, 802...
Museums
Bennington Center for the Arts 44 Gypsy Lane, Bennington 10a to 5p, Tue-Sun (Closed Mon) http://www.thebennington.org, 802 442-7158 Currently: Women. The beauty of women has long been the subject of the painter’s brush. This exhibit not only displays the beauty of the female form but also features the different roles and aspects of women in their everyday lives. Currently: Impressions of New England From the Laumeister Collection. For...
Ruggles & Hunt open new Brattleboro store
Ruggles & Hunt, purveyor of staple and fancy goods, has built up an incredible loyalty from shoppers in and around Walpole, N.H., for 13 years. Now it’s opening a location on Brattleboro’s Main Street. “The location, at 79 Main St., is great,” says store manager Jaja Laughlin. “In Brattleboro we’re situated between Distinctive Decor, which offers mid-century items, and the popular Fireworks Restaurant.” In renovating the...
A Steinway surprise for the Jazz Center
A Steinway piano for the Vermont Jazz Center The Vermont Jazz Center in Brattleboro has presented concerts, hosted jam sessions, and run ensembles using the same sweet workhorse piano for the past 15 years. In that time, numerous world-class pianists such as Carolina Calvache, Cyrus Chestnut, Gerald Clayton, Armen Donelian, Taylor Eigsti, Don Friedman, Hal Galper, Robert Glasper, Jason Lindner, Harold Mabern, Luis Perdomo, and Edward...
Open Studios
State Open Studio Tour Various locations in Vermont http://www.vermontcrafts.com May 28-29: Most Vermont craftspeople work in studios in or near their residences. These are places of production and inspiration in downtowns and at the end of dirt roads. Wherever they are, they are exciting places to visit because they reflect the dynamic, organized process that produces works of art. The studio itself is enormously informative because...
NBOSS: Outdoor sculptures in Bennington
In addition to the sculpture park, works in the 19th annual North Bennington Outdoor Sculpture Show will also be on view at the North Bennington Train Depot and at other locations on Main Street. This year’s show features works by approximately 40 national and local artists, some coming from Kansas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee to participate. The show is also sponsored in part from the Fund for North Bennington and the...
Farm to Ballet: A celebration of Vermont’s vibrant food system
Farm to Ballet, a Burlington-based dance company, will stage throughout Vermont nine performances of an original composition linking farmers and food production to music and dance. Some of the evenings are organized as fundraisers to assist farmers. Chatch Pregger, who left the ranks of professional ballet dancing to become a teacher, has choreographed a 75-minute program that weaves together the timeless arts of farming and ballet....
Festivals & Fun Events
Southern Vermont Idol 603-313-0052, http://www.southernvermontidol.com (Audition dates, additional details at website.) The event competition begins Saturday, July 9 and continues on July 16, 23, 30 and Aug 5. Adult grand prize of $1,500. Four adults and four youth will receive prizes, awarded at the Aug 5 finale. Net proceeds benefit the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP), a nonprofit organization in Bellows Falls. RAMP...
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