Tag: 221124

Treasure Hunt 22/11/24

Hello, Donna,

Can you help me by telling me what this is? My wife says a wax stamp for envelopes. It’s 2 1/2 inches long and has a design only on one end.

Thanks for any information.

Eric

Dear Eric,

Thanks for the photos and question.

What I believe you have is a potter’s chop, which is basically a potter’s mark or stamp. It would be imprinted into the clay to identify who made it.

The value is the tough question. It really depends on whether the artist is well-known, the age, style of work, etc. Some can be extremely high in price on the market, but you really have to know who it is.

I did talk to a couple other people about yours and got a starting value of at least $50. Remember though, Eric, it could be much higher. It really would be like a needle in a haystack to find out, possibly trying an appraisal auction place like Skinner in Bolton, Massachusetts. That too is only a possibility. The other thing is it could just be a stamp design.

I hope this was helpful, Eric, and I will keep looking into it as well. Thanks for sharing an interesting piece.

Donna

Kiddie Pool 22/11/24

Family fun for the weekend

Getting crafty

• Head to Bookery (844 Elm St. in Manchester; bookerymht.com) on Saturday, Nov. 26, (which is also Small Business Saturday, when Bookery is planning live music and more) for a wolfy storytime and craft at 11:30 a.m. The featured book is Little Good Wolf by Susan Stevens Crummel and illustrated by Janet Stevens. It follows the son of the Big Bad Wolf, and how he is too good to be evil the way all the adults in his life want him to be. After the story, kids will learn how to make a paper bag wolf puppet. The event is free, but register at the Bookery website.

• The Addiction Recovery Coalition of New Hampshire (180 Elm St., Suite E, Milford) is starting a kids’ holiday craft series startingon Sunday, Nov. 27, at 1 p.m. The four-week series will have a new craft each session for kids, as well as cookies and juice. Parents can stay with the kids, get their own craft, or drop kids off. Price is $10 for the first child, an additional $5 for each child after. Register at the Evebrite page, or visit arcnh.org.

Library fun

• The Plaistow Public Library (85 Main St.) is hosting an outdoor activity called tinkergarten’s frozen treasures on Monday, Nov. 28, at 10 a.m. The event will have kids 18 months to 8 years old, as well as their parents, exploring outside to discover frozen nature treasures. To learn more about the event or to sign up, visit plaistowlibrary.com.

• Read to a dog at the Pelham Public Library (24 Village Green) on Tuesday, Nov. 29, from 5 to 6 p.m. Blondie is a trained therapy dog who will stay with children while they read. For information about the benefits behind kids reading to a therapy dog, see the Nov. 3 issue of The Hippo, under the story called “Meet Mischka” (find the e-edition at hippopress.com). To register for this event, call the library at 635-7581 or email [email protected].

YMCA playtime

• Join the YMCA of Greater Londonderry (206 Rockingham Road) for a “Lounge Day” version of kids’ night at the Y for ages 4 to 12 on Friday, Nov. 25, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Y’s trained child care staff will take care of kids while parents have time to themselves to do holiday shopping or other errands. Kids will have fun activities, like art and STEM projects or active playtime, and a pizza will be served. Spots are $45 per child, $40 for each additional sibling. Visit bit.ly/ygl-kids-nights to sign up. Register by Nov. 22.

Include homegrown (or local) vegetables in your holiday feasts

Eating from your garden is possible even in December

I personally think that the Canadians have the right idea: They have their Thanksgiving feast the second Monday in October, right after the harvest. By the time our Thanksgiving rolls around, many gardeners have eaten all their home-grown veggies. It need not be so, of course, if they are properly stored.

Not all of you have the time, the space and the desire to grow veggies. I think everyone appreciates that having local farmers is important, and many of you have signed up with a farm CSA to get a box of vegetables each week during the summer. Even now many CSAs have fall or winter programs to supply you with root crops and spinach or brassicas like Brussels sprouts or kale. If you can’t get into a CSA program, think about buying local vegetables at your local food coop.

Why are local vegetables important? I have read that the average vegetable in a big grocery store travels over 2,000 miles at some times of the year. That’s right, we in New England get veggies from California, Florida, Texas and other warmer places. I am interested in reducing my carbon footprint by reducing the use of fossil fuels. Those big 18-wheelers crossing the country use a lot of diesel fuel. And fruits from Mexico and South America? I avoid them. I can (mostly) live without fruit that travels long distances.

I am not claiming I have given up citrus fruit to save the atmosphere. But instead of getting a case of oranges, I can buy a few and get my citrus fix from orange juice, which is much more concentrated than fresh fruit, and easier to transport. Local apples are available pretty much year-round, store well and are tasty and nutritious.

So what will I have on my table for holiday feasts, both now and in December? Potatoes, for sure. They are easy to grow, very productive and store well. In a bed 50 feet long and 3 feet wide in full sun I can grow 50 pounds of potatoes.

I keep a large spare refrigerator in the basement dedicated to storing potatoes and other garden vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, celeriac and rutabagas store well at 33 to 50 degrees, and do best with high humidity. A modern fridge takes a lot of the humidity out, though the drawers are better at keeping in humidity. On the shelves of the fridge I store potatoes in heavy paper bags to reduce moisture loss — in plastic bags they might rot, as they need to breathe.

Brussels sprouts are very cold-resistant and will be fine outdoors until late December — if the deer don’t find them. That’s right: Deer love Brussels sprouts, kale and broccoli and will munch them unless protected. I had no problem with deer this summer because of our dog, Rowan, who leaves scents around the property and advertises himself as a wolf. But deer are hungry now — very few nuts this year — so they have moved in to my late fall plantings and are even eating the tops of my rutabagas.

If you want to eat directly from the garden in November and December, some fencing is probably a good idea. I recently spread an old bedspread over my kale plants to keep deer away until I had time to pick and freeze them. But if you just have a few plants and like to pick fresh veggies from the garden now and in the weeks to come, think about some chicken wire fencing.

Although fencing an entire garden requires an 8-foot fence to keep deer from getting in, a small space with six kale or Brussels sprouts plants can easily be surrounded with 3- or 4- foot wire. Tie it onto stakes with string or zip ties. They can’t get in, and I doubt they will lean over and grab food.

I freeze a lot of vegetables each year as it is easier than canning them. Tomatoes are the easiest. I freeze them whole, skins and all. In past years I have put them in zipper bags, but we are now trying to lead a plastic-free life.

Plastic can potentially leach chemicals onto food, particularly if the food is hot. Even “food-grade” plastic may not be 100 percent safe. So this year we started storing frozen foods in wide-mouth jars. Next summer I will cut large tomatoes into chunks to fit into jars for freezing. I use frozen tomatoes for stews and soups.

I remember that many years ago there was a recall of fresh cranberries at Thanksgiving time due to some chemical that had been sprayed on them. Afterward we all went back to eating cranberries and forgot about the scare. Now I try to get organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible, and grow my own organically — without the use of any chemicals.

I got some cranberry plants from a friend this summer and hope to be able to supply our needs within a few years. They do not require a swamp to grow, although they are found in wet places in the wild. They do require acidic soils, but that is easily provided with elemental sulfur or soil acidifier. They do best in full sun, though my friend who grows them has them in part sun/part shade and they do well for her. She uses pine needles to mulch them. Some plant nurseries sell potted cranberry plants, so I might try some next year.

Featured photo: An inch or more of gravel should be at the bottom of the terrarium. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

The Art Roundup 22/11/24

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities

• Shop art: Two Villages Art Society (46 Main St. in Contoocook; twovillagesart.org) will display its Holiday Art Show and Sale from Friday, Nov. 25, through Saturday, Dec. 24, featuring handmade gifts by local artists, including paintings, pottery, mixed media, photography, fabric art and more. A show reception will be held Saturday, Nov. 26, from noon to 2 p.m. Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m.

• Music and melodies: Canterbury Shaker Village (288 Shaker Road in Canterbury; shakers.org, 783-9511) will host Concert & Cocktails, featuring a holiday string quartet from Symphony NH, on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 4 p.m. The event will include a festive reception with farm-grown appetizers by the Rustic Gourmet and a signature cocktail by Cold Garden Distillery, according to a press release. Tickets cost $75. The show is the first of several Merry Merry Canterbury events; see the website.

• Snaps for the Cap: Legally Blonde The Musical will come to the Capitol Center for the Arts (Chubb Theatre, 44 S. Main St. in Concord; ccanh.com) on Thursday, Dec. 1. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $65 (plus fees).

• Make your own crafts: And before we get to the craft fairs, Studio 550 Community Art Center (550 Elm St. in Manchester; 232-5597, 550arts.com) offer the opportunity to make your own gifts on Small Business Saturday (Nov. 26). From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Studio 550 will host “a buffet of drop-in workshops,” according to a press release. The projects will range in price from $15 to $35 and all ages are welcome (with adult assistance), the release said. Stations will include a milk & cookies cup and plate set, a custom mug, large decorative paper snowflakes, winter fairy houses, treasure boxes, paint your own pottery, paint your own ornaments, succulent plant arrangements and pottery on the wheel (with pre-registration), the release said. The day will also feature a $1 pottery sale, live maker demos of stained glass and pottery, prizes for the first 10 shoppers and more, the release said.

Kids can make crafts at the Loon Preservation Committee’s open house at the Loon Center in Moultonborough (see loon.org, 476-5666) on Saturday, Nov. 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This free event will include horse-drawn hay rides, balloon animals and a visit from Santa along with the crafts for kids and a sale at the Loon’s Feather Gift Shop, according to a press release.

• Music and history: Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki will present “Songs of Emigration: Storytelling through Traditional Irish Music” with stories, songs and historical context on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the Goffstown Public Library (2 High St. in Goffstown; 497-2102). The program, New Hampshire Humanities’ “Humanities To Go” series, does not require registration, according to goffstownlibrary.com. See also nhhumanities.org.

• Manchester in photos: The exhibit “Manchester Through the Lens of Frank Kelly,” highlighting the works of Manchester photographer Kelly in the 1950s through 1980s, will open Wednesday, Nov. 30, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St. in Manchester; manchesterhistoric.org). RSVP to [email protected] or call 662-7531. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and college students and $5 for ages 12 to 18; children under 12 get in free.

Craft fairs

While there are fewer fairs this holiday weekend, there are still a few on the schedule. Send information about upcoming craft fairs to [email protected].

• The Craftworkers’ Guild opens its doors for its Holiday Craft Shop at the Kendall House (behind the Bedford Library, 3A Meetinghouse Road in Bedford) Friday, Nov. 25, through Wednesday, Dec. 22. The show is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and online shopping is available at thecraftworkersguild.org.

• The VFW 5613 Auxiliary Annual Holiday Bazaar will take place Saturday, Nov. 26, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the VFW Hall (12 Hathorn Road in Jaffrey) and will feature more than 40 tables of handcrafted items, local vendors and art as well as lunch concessions, bake sales and raffles, according to Facebook post at NH Craft Fair Connection.

• The Exeter Holiday Parade Committee will present a craft fair on Saturday, Nov. 26, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Exeter Town Hall building by the bandstand. Admission is free and the Town Hall stage will be set with holiday scenes for family photos, according to a press release. See exeternhholidayparade.com.

• The New England Premier Events Holiday Expo will run Saturday, Nov. 26, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Doubletree by Hilton Downtown Manchester (700 Elm St.) and will feature demos, giveaways, dessert samples, swag bags and more, according to myneevent.com.

• New England Vendor Events has two fairs scheduled for this weekend, according to their Facebook page. The Hudson Holiday Craft Fair will take place Saturday, Nov. 26, from noon to 5 p.m. at Hudson Memorial School (1 Memorial Drive in Hudson) and feature Santa and the Grinch and more than 40 crafters and vendors, according to the post. The Merrimack Holiday Craft Fair will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27, at VFW Post 8641 (282 Daniel Webster Hwy. in Merrimack). This fair will feature photos with Santa and more than 30 vendors and crafters, according to the post.

Art runs in the family

Sarah Larson, her mom and aunt talk about their family history as artists

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

Some things are genetic, like hair and eye color. In this family, it seems that art is also a genetic link. With familial love and creativity comes a system that leads to support and healing.

Sara Larson, Liz Winchester-Larson and Harriet Winchester Kuzdrall are all professional artists in the Nashua area. They are also all related. Larson is Winchester-Larson’s daughter and Winchester Kuzdrall’s niece.

“Most of what I have learned [is] from my parents and my Aunt Harriet,” Larson said. “I’m following the family footsteps.”

The women are currently presenting their artworks at St. Joseph Hospital as part of the gallery Healing Through the Arts. They’ve had shows together before, with their current exhibition being the most recent while they prepare for more of the series “Art in the Family.”

The art on display at the hospital’s show is primarily nature-based, said Larson-Winchester. All three women grew up in New Hampshire, with Larson-Winchester and Winchester Kuzdrall hailing from Hollis and New Ipswich, and Larson raised in suburbs outside Keene.

Larson said that she loves having her aunt and mother to support her passion for art. She grew up watching her mother and aunt paint and sketch and draw as a way to remember hikes and vacations they’d gone on. They painted en plein air, out in nature at the scene, or they’d snap a photograph and bring it home to their studio.

All three women use different media, even if they have similar tastes in subjects and styles. Larson uses traditional oil paints, Winchester-Larson favors colored pencils, and Winchester Kuzdrall has recently made the switch to oil paints that wash out with water after doing 20 years of work with pastels.

“When I was doing pastel, I really like painting marshes, because in the spring and fall if you paint a marsh with maybe a few Mount Monadnocks, you can use all the pastels in the box ’cause it’s so rich in color,” said Winchester Kuzdrall. She said that the dust from the chalk had become too much for her lungs. “I still enjoy painting those native New Hampshire scenes.”

Painting New England nature is a favorite for all three women, said Larson-Winchester. Larson said that the scenery in New England was what kept her sane during the pandemic, even though she was close to 1,000 miles away from the Granite State.

During the pandemic, Larson was living in Lansing, Michigan. At the height of the pandemic, she said, she couldn’t leave her house to do the nature walks that gave her inspiration for her paintings. Then, her mother and aunt stepped in to help.

“I’m on the phone just about tearing my hair out, crying to both Mom and Aunt Harriet,” Larson said. “They got together a series of really neat photographs and Harriet sent a whole packet and said, ‘Paint these things.’”

It was ultimately this series of paintings that Larson did that brought her back to New Hampshire, and back to painting with her family.

During some research for a 2021 art show, the women discovered there had been professional painters in their family for at least a century.

Even though they hadn’t been aware of the depth of family history in fine arts, Winchester-Larson and Winchester Kuzdrall both remember growing up being encouraged by their own mother to continue their artistic pursuits.

“You can run across families where for generations everybody has been a teacher or nurses and things like that,” said Winchester-Larson. “So it’s not a unique idea … that there’s generations [of artists] in the family.”

Healing Through The Arts
Where: Inside and leading up to the Atrium at St. Joseph Hospital, 172 Kinsley St., Nashua
When: On display through Saturday, Jan. 7
Visit: stjosephhospital.com

Bringing the Holiday Fun: Film favorites

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‘Fra-gee-lay!’

See holiday classics at a theater near you

Movie theaters will be filled with would-be blockbusters, Oscar hopefuls and underwater Avatar in the coming weeks but some screen time is also being slated for favorite holiday films so you can watch Flick get his tongue stuck to the flagpole on the big screen.

• Red River Theatres (11 S. Main St. in Concord; 224-4600, redrivertheatres.org) has special holiday screenings planned each weekend for the next four weeks. On Saturday, Nov. 26, see Ralphie pine for an “official Red Ryder carbine action 200 shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time” atA Christmas Story(PG, 1983), which screens at 11 a.m.National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation(PG-13, 1989) will screen Saturday, Dec. 3, at 11 a.m. Elf(PG, 2003) will screen Saturday, Dec. 10, and Sunday, Dec. 11, at 11 a.m. And kid classic The Polar Express(G, 2004) will screen Saturday, Dec. 17, and Sunday, Dec. 18, at 11 a.m.

• Fathom Events (fathomevents.com) has several Christmas-themed movies on the schedule. It’s Christmas Again (G, 2022), a new movie about a kid who goes back in time to Bethlehem (according to the movie’s official website), will screen one night only, on Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. at AMC Londonderry, Regal Concord and O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square in Epping.

Another new movie falling in the “inspirational” category, I Heard the Bells (NR) will screen Thursday, Dec. 1, through Thursday, Dec. 8, at theaters including AMC Londonderry, Cinemark Rockingham in Salem, O’neil in Epping and Regal Fox Run in Newington (not all theaters on all nights). Screentime is 7 p.m. on weekdays, 4 p.m. on weekends.

A holiday encore of The Met: Live in HD production of the opera The Magic Flutewill screen on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 12:55 p.m. at theaters including O’neil in Epping and Regal Fox Run.

And TMC Big Screen Classics will present that most classic of Christmas movies, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), on Sunday, Dec. 18, at Cinemark and Regal Fox Run and Wednesday, Dec. 21, at Cinemark, O’neil Epping and Regal Fox Run — see the website for times.

• The Park Theatre (19 Main St. in Jaffrey; theparktheatre.org, 532-8888) will screen a new London stage production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Mark Gatiss and Nicholas Farrell on Thursday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 4, at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets cost $15

• The three Chunky’s Cinema Pubs (707 Huse Road, Manchester; 151 Coliseum Ave., Nashua; 150 Bridge St., Pelham, chunkys.com) have big plans for the holiday season.

December trivia nights on Thursdays in Manchester (which start at 7:30 p.m.) are each based on a Christmas movie: Elf on Dec. 1; A Christmas Story on Dec. 8, and The Santa Clause on Dec. 22, with the final trivia night, Dec. 29, being a year in review of 2022.

On Thursday, Dec. 8, at all three Chunky’s locations, a 21+ Ugly Sweater Party screening National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation(PG-13, 1989) starts at 8 p.m. (wear a sweater to get a special surprise).

The Polar Express(G, 2004) will screen in at all three locations Friday, Dec. 9, through Thursday, Dec. 15, with multiple daily screenings Friday through Sunday and one 5:30 p.m. screening Monday through Thursday. Kids get a golden ticket when entering the theater and there is a surprise during the hot chocolate scene, according to the website. On Friday, Dec. 9, the 4 p.m. screening is a sensory-friendly screening with house lights slightly brighter and the movie volume turned down, the website said.

There are a few screenings of Elf(PG, 2003) on the schedule as well. On Sunday, Dec. 18, in Manchester at 6:30 p.m. catch a screening of Elf and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) along with a five-course meal with The Farmers Dinner, which starts at 5 p.m. The cost per person ranges from $75 to $110 (plus fees). There will be a family-friendly screening at all three Chunky’s locations on Wednesday, Dec. 21. A 21+ screening on Thursday, Dec. 22, will be held at 8 p.m. at all locations.

On Sunday, Dec. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at all three locations catch a screening of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Also on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 6:30 p.m., the Pelham location will have a family-friendly dinner party with a screening of 2000’s live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas (PG). The dinner costs $75 or $99 for adults and $25 for kids (the kids dinner ends with milk and cookies).

• O’neil Cinemas at Brickyard Square (24 Calef Hwy. in Epping; 679-3529, oneilcinemas.com) will screen The Polar Express(G, 2004) Friday, Dec. 2, through Thursday, Dec. 8, with multiple screenings each day including one D-BOX screening (usually at 4:30 p.m.). Tickets, which are on sale now, cost $7 and include a bell while supplies last. The theater is also running a Polar Express-themed coloring contest, with a winner picked on Dec. 1; see the website for details.

• The Strand (20 Third St. in Dover; 343-1899, thestranddover.com) will hold its annual Christmas Break on a Budget with family activities, a story time and a screening of the movie Elf on Saturday, Dec. 17, from noon to 4 p.m. for $20 per family up to five people.

• The Music Hall (28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth; 436-2400, themusichall.org) has four holiday films in the days right before Christmas. Miracle on 34th Street(1947) screens on Friday, Dec. 23, at 1 p.m. Love, Actually (R, 2003) screens on Friday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m. On Christmas Eve (Saturday, Dec. 24) catch the animated movie Arthur Christmas(PG, 2011) at 1 p.m. and then Queen City’s own at 4 p.m. with the animated movie Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights (PG-13, 2002).

Featured photo: A Christmas Story.

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