Town #42 Winchester/Winsted

Sunday, March 29, 2009
Church of Christ * Nicholas White, Organist

The Cal section of the Courant had an announcement for an Organ Centennial Celebration at the Church of Christ, Winsted, so we headed for the 3 p.m. performance. The church is a beautiful granite structure (as are many of the other area churches in Winsted) and generously endowed with gorgeous stained glass windows, including a secular-themed one by Tiffany, probably from the 1920s. Once inside, we were treated to a warm sanctuary with plush carpeting, solid oak paneling, trim, and curved oak pews. The stained glass windows were even more beautiful with the daylight illuminating them. The church is Congregational and Baptist.

The organ is a George Hutchings Organ, Opus 1653 (Boston, Mass.) with 2,072 pipes. The large pipes in the façade are gilt-covered and most of them are speaking pipes, nicely visible from the sanctuary. We were mildly disappointed that the console wasn’t visible from the pews as we feel watching the organist is part of the enjoyment of the performance, but a TV monitor was set up to cover that shortcoming.

The organist was Nicholas White, a Grammy-nominated composer and conductor who is a church organist in Torrington. He is also “a versatile organist, pianist, and singer,” according to the program guide. The rest of his resume is impressive. Mr. White performed J. S. Bach, Vierne, Franck, Elgar, Joplin, Widor, and more. The performance was excellent and a hearty reception followed.

This Organ Centennial Celebration has June 28, July 25, and September 27 events planned, all of which sound exciting.

Town #39 Tolland (visit #2)

Saturday, March 28, 2009
Jennifer Litwin, Soprano

With our friends Peter and Judy, we went to Tolland’s wonderful gem of an arts center, Arts of Tolland, right on the Tolland Green, and heard a performance by coloratura soprano Jennifer Litwin, of Ridgefield, accompanied by pianist Vincent Markiw. Vincent has played there before, but the writeup in the Courant mistakenly made his role in the evening sound larger than it was. Jennifer was clearly the main event.

The first piece they performed included a Russian clarinetist, Gregory Lunin, who was excellent. Jennifer was superb. Her voice would suit a much larger hall, and her performance was flawless. She sang in six languages and said later she pretty much speaks them too. All but the piece with the clarinet were performed without music. She sang pieces by Schubert, Obradors, Liszt, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff, as well as an encore by Copland. It was a well-attended event—a highly enjoyable evening.

Town #3 Ashford (visit #2)

Friday, March 27, 2009
The Concrete Factory

On our way home from Killingly we got sidetracked in Ashford (at the junction of Rts. 44 & 74), at the Harvest Garden and the Concrete Factory, an ice cream shop. We’d been there before for cider and produce, but not for the “Fresh Old Fashioned Ice Cream.” Today was their first day open for the season and they were still stocking the shelves with Amish-made jams and sauces.

They make frozen custard ice cream fresh, daily. (It was good, but we still prefer traditional ice cream.) OK, so what is Concrete? They claim that frozen custard is a French gourmet ice cream that has 10-20% overrun or air whipped into the ice cream (where traditional ice cream has 50-100% overrun). “High overrun will cause a light and fluffy texture, where a lower overrun will equate to a richer and denser texture.” And they claim “Concretes are blended so thick that they and their spoon do not fall out when their cup is turned upside-down.”

Town #41 Killingly/Danielson

Friday, March 27, 2009
George's Galley * River Walk * Main Street architecture * various shops * Cat Hollow Town Park

After a three-week trip to Florida, Georgia, and North and South Carolina, we decided to get back on track visiting our own state of Connecticut. We chose Danielson, the “city” portion of Killingly. The town has a nice web site which pointed our several historic buildings with interesting architecture, walking trails, and bike routes.

We left home around noon, so naturally we needed to find a place to have a bite to eat. Having checked the web before leaving, we found several possibilities, including George’s Galley at 55 Main Street. Because we wanted to walk along the Five Mile River, which parallels Main Street, George's seemed like a good option. We drove through town on Main Street and, just about in front of us, with a parking spot in front, was the Galley. We weren’t disappointed.

The place is an old-fashioned family-type restaurant with cheap prices, good food, and small/reasonable portion sizes. The menu is extensive, so the waitress helped us out by making some excellent recommendations. We both chose the chowder and clam cakes. The clam cakes (we’d call them fritters) were the best we’ve had since making our own at the shore. The chowder was more of a potato chowder, with a few clams in it, but the waitress didn’t call it “clam chowder” though the soup of the day description did. It was OK, but not worth getting again. The strawberry shortcake was good and had a real biscuit for only $2.35. Coffee was $!.25. (meal with tip $20)

After lunch, we found the Five Mile Pond, footbridge, various waterfalls, and channels in back of the restaurant, as described on the web site. The area was rather overgrown and in a state of disrepair since its heyday when the town was a mill town. We walked north a short way and found our way back to Main Street, where we noted the various old buildings on the east side of Main St. with their interesting architecture (the S.P. Photographic Gallery, Evan’s Block, the Diamond Building and others). For some reason, though, the buildings at our backs weren’t listed on the web site, and they were just as interesting. We visited Heart and Soul, a gift and craft shop, and Danielson Adventure Sports, the local bike shop, which occupied an old train station next to the train tracks. It is a very old wood structure that takes one back in time.

We continued our walk southward along the Five Mile River, this time along a paved path. There are park benches to sit on and a picnic table, and the river is visible through the vegetation. It’s a nice river walk, well constructed, though some of the vegetation is beginning to take over in places. We hope they don’t leave it neglected.

Finally, we drove north to Cat Hollow Town Park. “The Cat Hollow Town Park was opened in 2003. The park contains a .5 mile trail along Cat Hollow Road suitable for bicycles and strollers. The road is closed off to traffic. The trail parallels the Whetstone Brook and a beautiful mill pond and waterfalls.” This was a nice walk for an early spring day. We saw a great white eron and heard frogs beginning their spring ritual.