April showers bring May flowers, and a bit of a chill this weekend, so don’t be too quick to plant those tender veggies and flowers. If you’re longing for the growing season and its bounty, Dudley Farm in North Guilford is having its Winter Market with all sorts of locally prepared delights. Stop by the Martha Link Gallery for a spring celebration of local artists. Then, spend Sunday afternoon listening to some jazz veterans at the annual Stan Wheeler Memorial Jazz Concert at the Yale Law School
Restaurant of the Week:
Dockside Seafood & Grill
Now that Dockside is open, you know that summer can’t be far behind. Located at the Bruce and Johnson Marina, Block Island Road, the restaurant has been owned for the past seven years by Susan and Traci, the Sassy Seafood Sisters. Dine outdoors on their seafood specialties – you name it, they have it – along with various pasta dishes, burgers, prime rib, sandwiches, and salads. There’s often live music and, in true shoreline fashion, don’t miss the sunsets.
Saturday, April 2
Paper, Petals & Pages, a Springtime Exhibit
Check out this Springtime Exhibit at the Martha Link Walsh Gallery. Celebrate the arrival of April at Paper, Petals & Pages, featuring the papercuttings of Martha Link Walsh, festive floral arrangements by Cynthia’s Flower Shop, garden and landscape paintings by Margaret B. Dean, and a collection of treasured flower and garden-themed books from the Secret Garden Bookshop. The show will run during the month of April, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
The Martha Link Walsh Gallery is located at 188 North Main St. Call Martha at 203 – 481-3505 for more information, or visit www.marthalinkwalsh.com.
Dudley Farm Winter Market
It may be spring, but the Winter Market at the Dudley Farm continues from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., featuring baked goods, eggs, handmade art and crafts, honey and maple syrup, jams and jellies, naturally raised meats, pickles, winter vegetables and more. Craft vendors rotate during the winter months.
The market is subject to cancellation due to inclement weather. The Dudley Farm is located at 2351 Durham Road in North Guilford. Call 860 – 349-3917 or visit www.dudleyfarm.com for more information. Check out the Dudley Farm Museum on Facebook for special winter events at the Farm.
Explorations: Photographs by Roslyn Meyer
Willoughby Wallace Library, 146 Thimble Islands Road, hosts an exhibit of photography by Roslyn Meyer, beginning with an opening reception from 2 to 4 p.m. The exhibit will run through April 27.
Meyer says her first love was landscapes – wild, untouched places, the breathtaking beauty of the natural world. She is also intrigued by reflections, the way surface and substance interact in an image. She was then drawn into the lives and being of people and animals.
For more information on Meyer, visit www.roslynmeyerphotos.smugmug.com.
Sunday, April 3
2016 Stan Wheeler Jazz Concert
With Permission
Jazz lovers have come to anticipate this annual celebration of Yale Law School professor and jazz musician Stanton Wheeler. Fittingly, the concert takes place at the Levinson Auditorium at Yale Law School, 127 Wall St., New Haven, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The Reunion Jazz Ensemble takes stage center this year. Doors open at 1:30 p.m.
Wednesday, April 6
Solar Challenge
Branford Solar Challenge will hold a free solar workshop at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6 at the James Blackstone Memorial Library. Also attending will be New England Smart Energy, which will provide information on programs to increase energy efficiency at home and work.
CT Solar Challenge is a grassroots community-based program that promotes adoption of solar energy through installation cost reduction, community outreach and& education. The program’s partners include the shoreline communities of Madison, Guilford, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, and Clinton along with seven other Connecticut towns.
Aegis Solar Energy, the program’s preferred contractor, will make a $75 donation to the Branford Food Pantry for every solar installation completed through the Branford Solar Challenge.
Workshop attendees will have the chance to swap their inefficient incandescent light blubs for energy-saving LED models at no charge. The first 100 people to register and attend the event will receive two LED light bulbs in exchange for two incandescent bulbs. Registration is required at CTSolarChallenge.com. Space is limited.
Poetry Reading by Dolores Hayden
Dolores Hayden will read from her work including selections from Exuberance, a project in progress at the Guilford Free Library, 67 Park St. at 7:30 p.m. This book of poems is based on historical characters from the earliest years of aviation when daredevil pilots Lincoln Beachey, Blanche Stuart Scott, Harriet Quimby, Clyde Pangborn, Bessie Coleman, and Ormer Locklear performed for crowds in cities and towns across the USA.
Hayden’s poetry collections include American Yard (2003) and Nymph, Dun, and Spinner (2010). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ecotone, The Common, Shenandoah, Yale Review, Raritan, Southwest Review, Poetry Daily, and Best American Poetry. She’s won awards from the Poetry Society of America and the New England Poetry Club. She is also a professor of architecture and American studies at Yale and the author of several award-winning non-fiction titles on American landscapes including The Power of Place and A Field Guide to Sprawl.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the program is free and open to all. Register online at www.guilfordfreelibrary.org, or call 203 – 453-8282.
April 8 to 10
Gallery Hop for Veterans
The weekend event will begin with a kick-off at the Branford Art Center 1229 Main St. Branford, Friday evening April 8, with a talk by Laura Spinelli, director of Giant Steps Art Therapy program for veterans, followed by a reception. Local veterans will show and sell their artwork in a silent auction. Proceeds will go to the individual veterans who created the art. Yvonne Gordon-Moser and Meg Giannotti of Artfish42 have spearheaded the Gallery Hop for Veterans taking place on April 9 and 10; 100 percent of the monies collected will go to the VA “Giant Steps” Program for materials needed by the veterans.
Gordon-Moser of the Branford Art Center and Giannotti of Artfish42 in Milford have joined forces with several art galleries across the shoreline to raise funds and awareness for veterans who use art as a means of healing and enjoyment.
Ted Aub a local veteran’s advocate, will be collecting veterans’ artwork, which will be displayed at each of the galleries. Each gallery will host a weekend long opening with refreshments, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, and the artist/veterans will also be at the gallery openings from 1 to 3 p.m.
The galleries involved in the Gallery Hop are the Branford Art Center of Branford, the Bird Nest Gallery, and Salon Suites of Guilford; Maple and Main of Chester; Cindy Stevens Fine Art of Clinton; and the Clinton Art Gallery. In addition, there’s Artfish42 in Milford, the Firehouse Gallery of Milford, the Davis Gallery of Orange, and the E Street Gallery of Derby.
Passports with maps and the participating galleries locations will be available for purchase for $20. Each passport comes with five chances to win a piece of art or gift valued at least $50. A grand prize for those who complete the Hop by visiting each gallery over the weekend worth $200 will be raffled. Different items will be located at each of the galleries.
Saturday, April 9
Orchestra New England
Orchestra New England will perform Mahler Symphony No. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at United Church on the Green, New Haven. James Sinclair leads a modern re-orchestration of Mahler’s 1909 last completed symphony, at once a memory of his youth and a foreboding of his all-too-soon death in 1911.
Reserved seating is $35; general admission is $20; and students are $5. Purchase online http://orchestranewengland.tix.com/Event.aspx?EventCode=783145, or call 203 – 777-4690.
Stacy Phillips and His Bluegrass Characters
Branford Folk Music Society will present Grammy Award winning musician Stacy Phillips, who will be joined by a select group of pickers for a night of “folk music in overdrive.” The concert will take place at the First Congregational Church, 1009 Main St. at 8 p.m. Admission is $15 for nonmembers, $12 for members, and $5 for children 12 and under.
Phillips, a New Haven fixture who has performed on the Branford Folk stage many times, is an internationally renowned fiddler and Dobro player who received a Grammy and International Bluegrass Music award in 1995.
Sunday, April 10
A Conversation with Kate Walbert and Amy Bloom
In Celebration of National Library Week 2016 authors Amy Bloom and Kate Walbert will speak at Willoughby Wallace Memorial Library at 4 p.m. Professor Mark Schenker of Yale will moderate A Conversation with Kate and Amy.
Walbert is the author of novels and short stories. Her most recent novel The Sunken Cathedral was published in 2015. Amy Bloom is the author of three novels, three collections of short stories, a children’s book and a collection of essays. Her most recent novel Lucky Us was published in 2014.
Comedy Night for Joker
The Exchange Club of Branford will hold a K‑9 Bullet-Proof Vest Fundraiser, beginning at 6 p.m. at Bill Miller’s Castle, 834 East Main St. The event will be hosted by comedian Vincent McElhone.
Bullet-proof vests for dogs can cost from $1,400 to $2,200.
Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door, and include dinner buffet and the comedy show.
For more information, call 203 – 901-7982 or email [email protected].
Saturday, April 16
New Haven Ballet “Sneak Peek” Rehearsal
The award-winning New Haven Ballet, with studios in New Haven and Branford, will present its annual spring show at the Shubert Theater on May 21.
Branford Arts & Culture Alliance members are invited for a “sneak peek” at New Haven Ballet Branford Studios, 9 Business Park Drive, on Saturday, April 16, at 2:30 p.m. to see New Haven Ballet’s talented, young Company and Apprentice Company dancers rehearsing classical works choreographed and staged by Artistic Director, Lisa Sanborn, including Le Corsaire and La Fille Mal Gardée, a new neoclassical ballet featuring violist, Dan Stone, playing Bach’s Suite 1 in G Major, which is choreographed by former NYCB dancer and founder/director of Tom Gold Dance, Tom Gold, and an exciting contemporary work, choreographed by former Miami City Ballet principal dancer and NHB faculty member, Jeremy Cox.
For reservations, email Eunice Lasala, [email protected].
Sunday, April 17
Teacups & Catwalk
File Photo
“Downton Abbey” is off the air, but you can still have a spot of tea, scrumptious finger foods and sweets and catch up on the latest spring fashions at Branford Compassion Club’s “Teacups & Catwalk,” a spring tea and fashion show benefit from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Pine Orchard Yacht & Country Club.
Donna Urso, manager of Saybrook Country Barn, is the fashion coordinator for the event, which includes a silent auction (cash and checks only) and raffle. BCC members and supporters will serve as models.
Tickets for the traditional tea are $45 and are available by email at [email protected].
Founded in 1997, Branford Compassion Club’s mission is to educate the public about the importance of spay/neuter population control, responsible pet ownership and kindness to animals. For more information, visit branfordcompasionclub.org.
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