Town #49 Brooklyn

Saturday, August 9, 2009
Brooklyn Country Fair

Country fairs are fun but one a year is really enough. We decided to visit the Brooklyn Fair this time. We picked a beautiful, sunny day and headed over (admission $14). We browsed the booths and watched some demonstrations, then got hungry. We'd passed some food booths with bad-for-you but yummy-looking things and started backwards, with dessert. Fried dough with powdered sugar. Hhmmm. A little farther on we saw waffle french fries with ranch dressing and bacon bits, which we shared. Deadly but delicious. The last thing that we got was a maple milkshake, which we also shared. It was only mildly mapley.

Then we headed for the fiber and craft demonstration buildings and I was fascinated with the weaving competition. Two teams of women had four hours to take raw wool from a sheep, clean and spin it, make yarn out of it, and weave it into a table runner.

The women were happy to inform visitors of their experience and the competition. The members of the team I spent most of the time watching were younger than the other team and less experienced; they didn't really expect to win this year but enjoyed the competition. They'll practice and try again next year.

We watched horses get new shoes. That was a fascinating process!

Town #42 Winsted (visit #2)

Saturday, July 25, 2009
Organ Crawl at Church of Christ

This second visit to the Organ Centennial Celebration at the Church of Christ, Baptist-Congrega-tional, consisted of an informative lecture and tour of the George Sherburne Hutchings pipe organ. We had heard about the tour at the March concert but it was announced for church members only. We mentioned we were disappointed that we, as non-members, couldn't enjoy the tour, so Martha Rein, chariman of the music committee, asked for our names. On Juy 12, we got an email "written invitation" to the event.

We were greeted in the church parking lot by Chris King, the organist, who said, before we could say a word, "You must be the Bittners." There were nine of us for the tour, which started in the choir loft with an excellent, basic talk about organs and the pipes that make them work, given by Choir Director Willard Minton. He provided a handout and showed us actual pipes so we could see and hear the open flue pipe and the reed pipe. We learned that it takes about four inches of pressure for their organ pipes to speak, but Mr. Minton said there are some pipes that take over 100 inches of pressure in other organs. Those 64-foot pipes are rare, with about two organs in the world having them, ine in Sydney, Australia. Imagine the deep rumble of a 64-foot organ pipe!

We were shown the organ and console and had an opportunity to get partially inside. The view was limited but interesting. We had seen much more of Mike Foley's Mighty Wurlitzer.

Chris King finished the event with an informal selection of music emphasizing different divisions and ranks of pipes. Refreshments followed. We love all the stained glass windows, especially the Tiffany one. It doesn't have a religious theme but is a lovely garden scene with a waterfall. (Bob)

Town #39 Tolland (visit #3)

Saturday, July 18, 2009
Tolland Garden Tour

Tolland Garden Paths presented Gardens of Visions and Inspira-tion, a self-guided tour of nine private gardens in Tolland. We picked up our “tickets” in the form of a descriptive booklet, with an excellent map. Each involved driving to a well marked property with organized parking. We were handed a site map with notes of highlights for which to search.

We saw five of the nine gardens, all excellent. We saw many plant varieties and creative garden designs, all of which showed a great investment in time. The booklet described each site’s garden in detail, giving a brief history of its beginnings. The hosts were friendly and informative and answered questions readily. We asked about their deer problems which everyone agreed was an issue. Their ways of handling deer destruction varied. Listed are the gardens we enjoyed. Descriptions are in the booklet.

The Leonard gardens
The Shirley gardens
The Ludwig gardens
The Feller gardens
The Couture gardens

Town #4 West Hartford (visit #5)

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Celebrate West Hartford Festival

Celebrate West Hartford is an annual, “two-day, family-oriented event that features top notch entertainment, a fabulous food court, an amusement park, a 5K road race, and a juried arts and crafts show. It’s also a showcase for West Hartford’s civic, school, and service organizations.” It takes place on the Town Hall Common, 50 South Main Street, Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday from 12-6, rain or shine.

This event caught our attention and we worked it in after visiting Lyman Orchard. We browsed around the arts and crafts displays and found some nice work from the artists. Early on, we spotted an artist’s work involving woodburning and painting/staining nautical and shore scenes on wood. Jan suggested I choose something for Father’s Day, so I kept that in mind as we continued our rounds. I selected a new hand-tooled leather dress belt for my wardrobe and Jan picked up a few trinkets for herself. We got to the point where the food court sounded very appealing, so we headed there. Wanting to sample some different food items, we started with Afghan chicken kabobs. They were good and we shared one order. Then we continued to some Armenian food, enjoying an order of stuffed grape leaves. They were different for us, but very tasty. We wound up choosing a tried and true American dessert, strawberry shortcake, and found a place to sit while we ate that. It was quite good, as well. We went back to Woodburnings by Thom Cassotta and bought a 6-foot-long scene done on pine. We will mount it on the dining room valence. We headed home by midafternoon.

Town #48 Middlefield

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Lyman Orchards

Lyman Orchards advertised a Strawberry Fest for this weekend. They open early for breakfast, so we both had Belgian waffles with strawber-ries and whipped cream. For $13, two waffles, two coffees, it was very good. We sat on the deck overlooking a pond with a fountain and plenty of an assortment of water fowl. The morning was cool, but we ate out anyway; there is dining inside as well. Inside the shop, there was a large selection of fruits, vegetables, preserves, etc. to purchase.

Being strawberry pickin’ season, we drove the quarter mile or so to the top of a hill and picked four quarts of juicy strawberries at $1.75 a pound. Picking was good and the berries were tasty. We didn’t want to take too many berries for the first picking, so we paid for our bounty and left. We set the GPS for West Hartford and turned off “quickest route,” and “highways,” so we could enjoy the back country roads. It was worth it as the rural area was picturesque and we passed many nice homes. (Bob)

Town #40 Bristol (visit #2)

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Jason Castonguay * Prospect United Methodist Church

After supper at Anthony’s in Torrington, we headed to Bristol for another perfor-mance. We just made it in time to Prospect United Methodist Church, where Jason Castonguay was performing. He’s a young man in his late 20s, I’d guess, and he sings and accompanies himself on the piano. His primary style seems to be jazz and most of his songs were old-fashioned love songs, part of his new program. He does a lot of improvisation. The fact that he is totally blind made not one whit of difference in his performance.

He has an easy relationship with the audience. He sang two or three songs that were not the same style, and they were big hits, showing another aspect of his talent: “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables and “Wind Beneath My Wings.” When he concluded the program, someone mentioned an “encore” piece, and Bob suggested “five or six.” Jason really didn’t want to quit, and we easily got six more pieces, including our song, “Misty,” suggested by someone else.

Apparently this was the tenth year he has come to this church to perform. We thought that the person who introduced him might have been his father, but he was actually Jason’s personal assistant; he schedules his concerts and helps with his travel. Jason plays twice a week at Cavey’s in Manchester, and visits many other venues to perform. He is very well educated, with a double major for his bachelor’s degree (music performance and management information systems) and more lessons at Hartt School of Music. His credentials and adventures are extensive.

Town #47 Torrington

Saturday, May 16, 2009
Trinity Episcopal Church * Anthony's Restaurant

The Cal section of The Courant had a listing for Chorus Angelicus & Gaudeamus at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington and, later the same day, one for Jason Castonguay in Bristol. Jan investigated travel time from home and possible places to eat between performances, and we decided we could successfully attend both.

We arrived at Trinity Episcopal and were greeted by a beautiful 1890s Gothic style stone church. Pictures I took don’t do justice to the architecture and it would be better to visit their web site to view this beautiful building.



















Nicholas White is the director of Chorus Angelicus (a children’s and youth choir) and Gaudeamus (an adult chamber choir). Chorus Angelicus was founded in 1991 by Grammy-winner Paul Halley, also from this church. The ensemble is comprised of more than 70 boys and girls from towns throughout southern New England and they perform some 30 concerts annually. Gaudeamus, the adult choir, consists of professional and semi-professional free-lance singers, and was formed in 1992. Director Nicholas White “is a Grammy nominated composer and conductor, as well as a versatile organist, pianist and singer, with experience in many different styles of music.” He was born in England, came to the U.S. in 1989, and has an impressive music-related resume. We heard him perform on the organ in Winsted in March (see posting for March 29). His choirs are top-notch—precise, well-balanced, and versatile.

This program, “In Sure and Certain Hope,” featured a work by that name that White composed. Performed previously in New York and recorded at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in 2006, this was a Connecticut premiere. The combined choirs sang together, sometimes featuring one choir or the other, for the entire program and included “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis” for Treble Voices, also composed by Nicholas White, and a number of other challenging and impressive selections. Guest organist was none other than the famous Douglas Major. His career includes being assistant organist at the Washington National Cathedral, as does Nick’s, and includes numerous tours, concerts, and recordings too numerous to mention here. Dr. Major is currently on an advisory board at one of our favorite music halls, Methuen Memorial Music Hall and lives in Salem, Massachusetts. Kate Jensik turned pages for Major, but in the second half of the program played the cello, accompanying the choirs and organ. Her biography also is impressive.

We bought a CD with Nicholas White’s “In Sure and Certain Hope.”

Our time being limited, we left for a bite to eat, which turned out to be a challenge. Jan had carefully chosen several restaurants and had identified her preferences, but the first two were closed. We wound up at Anthony’s Restaurant which had excellent Italian food. We both had veal—I had parmigiano and Jan had franchese.