The Matthews Group

Where Photography & Fashion Meet

An exceptionally rare Pop-up Shop offering an exotic selection of fine art, apparel and fashion accessories infused with cultures from around the world including the  newest pieces from vivid Indian designer collaborative, Yatra, and artisanally crafted Afghanistan textiles from Zaanha.

Friday, July 15th 2011 from 11 am to 6 pm and

Saturday, July 16th 2011 from 11 am to 5 pm

Hosted by Kathryn McCarver Root

KMR Arts Gallery

2 Titus Road, Washington Depot, CT 06794

www.kmrarts.com

Catch the Vibe - Stay Informed with Town Vibe's ENewsletter

Sign up for town vibe's enewsletter to stay up to date on current happenings in Litchfield County and the area! Go here and then click on the upper left corner to sign up for the newsletter: http://www.townvibe.com/

Mommy Poppins Blog Article on Family Farming in Litchfield County

I just loved this article on Mommy Poppins about my neighbors, Karen and Elliot Davis, and how they have started their own family farm (I have been watching it grow and we love walking by to say hi to the sheep!). Link Here: The Perks of Living on a Small Family Farm in Litchfield County

 

Exceptional Properties Spring 2011 Digital Magazine

Access the William Raveis Exceptional Properties Spring 2011 Issue here:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b05cf07d#/b05cf07d/1

Washington Montessori School Summer Camps

Check-out the wide range of exciting summer camp options for kids this summer at the Washington Montessori School ...

Weekly Day Programs at the Washington Montessori School in New Preston, Connecticut, located on Route 202, between Rte. 341 and Rte. 47. These camps are open to all children, ages 2-16, in June and July. During the school year children from 27 towns attend WMS.
The faciliTies: a 48-acre wooded campus, including two playing fields and two playgrounds;
a 57,000-square-foot fully air-conditioned building with a theater and a full gymnasium.
For more info, call Bev Smith at 860.868.0551, ext. 206 or go to our website: www.washingtonmontessori.org

Fun Day Fundraising Event for Aschiana Foundation at Steep Rock on May 7th at 11:30 AM

Please consider supporting Emily Zibell and her very worthy senior project. Information below and downloadable flyer here: Download Aschiana

All movements begin with one small step!
Please join me in my senior project as we take a small step to make a big difference in the lives of children in need.

Where: Steep Rock, Washington, CT
When: May 7th (rain date May 14th)
Time: 11:30 AM

Join us for a day of fun, food and games as we raise money to furnish a classroom in Kabul, Afghanistan. Throughout the day there will be multiple events: ultimate frisbee, treasure hunt hike, obstacle course, tug of war, and much more! Games will only be $2-$3 each. Sign up for as many games as you like. Play multiple times! Form your own teams and compete against each other! For each game you play you’ll get points and at the end of the day whoever has the most points will win a trophy!
Please bring a few extra bucks for a delicious picnic lunch!

All money raised will benefit The Aschiana Foundation (www.aschiana-foundation.org) which provides a safe haven and educational opportunities and medical care for the roughly 600,000 working street children of Afghanistan. Too poor to attend school, these children have been forced onto the streets to earn money for their families.

To register in advance, volunteer to help or for more information, email
Emily Zibell at moving4peace@gmail.com. Thank you!

Looking for Sponsors for Peter Rabbit Puppet Show on Easter Saturday, 4/23 at WMS

 A Note from the Puppetry Festival ...

Many heartfelt thank yous...
and a possible "Easter" puppet show.

We just want to take this opportunity to thank you so very much for supporting the 5th Annual Puppetry Festival at the Washington Montessori School. Despite inclement weather, the economy, and a schedule that was perhaps a bit too over-zealous, we were able to raise several thousand dollars for the Washington Montessori School. Most importantly, we educated and entertained our children.

Quite a few families have inquired about an Easter Saturday show. We have reserved John McDonough's Pumpernickel Puppets to perform "Peter Rabbit", but will require several sponsors in order to be able to afford it. (We as a family underwrite the costs of the advertising and performers, give the school a guaranteed payment, and hope that the gate proceeds cover a good portion of our outlay). I've often been asked by our regulars if they could "help" by sponsoring part or all of a performance. If you ARE interested in helping us to present this last show, please e-mail me at stephen@linchpinatlarge.com, or telephone me at 860.619.8072. We'll hope to make an announcement next week if we are able to (afford to) proceed with the show.

Heartfelt thanks to our sponsors: Dr. Michael and Michelle Gorra at Aspetuck Animal Hospital; Fran Keilty at the Hickory Stick Bookshop; The Fossland Family at the Hopkins Inn; Ed Schumann at Iron Bank/Cornwall Bridge; Paula Walsh and the Litchfield County Times; Elizabeth Devos and Three Monkeys and Me. PLEASE do waht you can to support these wonderful businesses throughout the year. Without their support, there would be no festival. It's just that simple.

All the best...
Anderson, Hannah, Cynthia and Stephen Warshaw

Great Summer Camp Opportunity for Kids in Morris, CT

FOX CROSSING EQUESTRIAN SUMMER CAMP

Registration forms are available on the website www.foxcrossingequestrian.com or email cindy@foxcrossingequestrian.com for additional information!!!!!

SPACE IS LIMITED!!!!

Attack of the Killer Plants Article in Town Vibe

House Under Siege

Victoria Secunda's story of when her garden turned against her. She gives advice on how to prevent such disasters from happening.

By Victoria Secunda

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

One fine spring morning soon after we moved into our abode in 1994, I strolled out to the backyard to get better acquainted with the place, and what I saw was not pretty. Oh, the house was a joy—bright, newly renovated, a stunner. Not so the unadorned foundation, its coarse, prison-gray underpinnings exposed below the shingles for all the world to see. This expanse of cold mortar and concrete blocks cried out for a coverup. And so, hort doofus that I was, I came up with a brilliant (to me) solution: Ivy. Boston ivy, to be exact, which in time would discreetly veil the foundation with a web of vegetative finery. A flat of the stuff was quickly installed along the entire backside of the domicile.

Fast-forward to two years later, when, while standing in our living room, my eye was caught by a spot of shiny green wedged in the corner of a windowsill. Imagine my alarm when, upon closer inspection, the green thing turned out to be a leaf of the aforementioned ivy; it had insinuated itself up the foundation, over the siding, between the glass, grout, and wood framing, and into the room, summoning shivery memories of “Audrey II,” the gluttonous plant in Little Shop of Horrors.  

In a flash, I was on the phone to order a new window, then I ran outdoors and began ripping out the ivy, which clung like grim death to the house with aerial rootlets (they’re called “holdfasts,” and a truer word was never spoken; the rootlets exude weapons-grade adhesive goo). In so doing, I also stripped off streaks of paint, causing the shingles to look as if they had, well, shingles.

That was the day I began to understand the myriad ways nature can demolish a dwelling, and why, in consequence, homeowners must always be on guard in the yard, armed with at least a working knowledge of how plants think. Ivy, to return to the point, appears to be all innocence, but it’s wily. Left to run riot, it can undermine foundations by trapping moisture, leading to mold, mildew, and wood rot. It can also provide a highway for termites and assorted arachnids to gain easy entry into, and begin dining upon, the premises. When inexpertly removed, it leaves rootlets on surfaces; stains wood- and stonework; and dislodges soft brick masonry.

In the vine devilry department, however, ivy is a wimp compared, say, to a flowering walloper such as Wisteria. When unrestrained, it puts out runners up to 12 feet long over a summer; can top out at 65 feet, its woody, twining stem bulking up to a formidable 12 to 15 inches in diameter. This glorious behemoth has been known to raise roofs, tear off railings, topple fences, strangle trees, clog gutters, crack in-ground water, sewer, and sprinkler lines, and even breach basement walls—enough reasons, I do believe, to keep it off the house and, instead, to strap it onto a sturdy fence or pergola.

The same is true of climbing hydrangea, another comely brute. The vine’s main stem, also woody, grows thick hairy branches extending as much as three feet and sending out ground-level appendages that can overtake garden beds. As with Wisteria, this hydrangea, when in bloom, is magnificent—but it’s a bear to police. I used it to conceal a chain-link fence surrounding a doghouse next to the garage. The doghouse eventually buckled, the vine glommed onto the garage, and it took all my strength to wrest it off.

Other mischievous vines include Euonymus fortunei, honeysuckle, and grape, none of which would I touch with an 18-foot telescoping pruner. Let me assure you, however, that I am anything but vinous-phobic. I’m besotted by clematis—adored as much for its delicate, durable habit and astonishing shapes and colors as for its refined behavior—and seven varieties of the creeper festively festoon trellis panels in my secret garden. But obstreperous, beefy climbers have been banned from my borders.

Which leads me to other potential hort home-wreckers. Certain trees, for example, should either be shunned altogether, or properly placed and groomed, lest the homestead end in ruins. Among the “headache” trees warned against by arborists are Willows (inlanders, kiss your septic system goodbye), Silver Maple (the roots can buckle driveways), and Black Locust (seeds like crazy).

The main landscape hazard to houses, however, might decorously be termed “pilot error”—that is, well-intentioned but agriculturally challenged home-owners themselves. Indeed, I myself have learned from doleful experience the ways in which I personally have pastorally transgressed my nest:

• watering shrubs and plants that are too close to the house. Wet basements are sometimes caused by the use of soaker hoses in foundation borders (a family of garter snakes loved me for this one), and by piling up mulch against the house. Site engineers recommend laying a course of gravel, out to a width of 12 inches, along the foundation to keep borders from touching the manse;
• failing to factor in the eventual size of trees. Years ago, the local utility company gave me the choice of either allowing them to remove a maple on my property that was growing into overhanging power lines, or prune the tree in a wide arc around the wires, like a bad nose job. I chose the former, and bought another maple, which was planted 12 feet farther from the power lines. Not far enough, alas; that very maple is now mimicking its predecessor;
• allowing tree branches to hover over the roof. Ever wonder why mildew and peeling paint seem to recur in certain areas of the interior and exterior of your digs? Go outside and look up; could be that tree branches are covering that part of the house and keeping it damp. Such limbs should be trimmed back so that ultraviolet sun rays can kill mold spores and dry out the roof and siding;
• stacking logs against the house (mea maxima culpa). I’ll make this quick: rats, moles, voles, squirrels, fungi, bugs, mildew, skunks, snakes, mice, chipmunks, rabbits, and Rasputin the Woodchuck will happily take shelter amongst the firewood, especially in winter.

Bearing all this in mind, now is the perfect season for you to give the house a thorough checkup, before trees and perennials have fully leafed out. If there is evidence that certain plants have targeted your dwelling for unlawful seizure, you can cut them off, literally and figuratively, before they begin to gush new growth. Then you will truly be master of your domain.

This Article Appeared in May/June Issue of Town Vibe Fairfield. Link here: http://www.townvibe.com/Fairfield/May-June-2010/House-Under-Siege/



Thanks to Litchfield County Times for Featuring Us in Their Spring Issue of Passport Magazine!

Dowload Article "Every House Tells A Story" by John Torsiello here:

Download Passport-Spring2011