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gardening

Trade Secrets is better than ever

Trade Secrets is better than ever

Martha Stewart was busy talking to buyers of her new book “Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook.”

Christine Bates

Trade Secrets’ “Sunday in the Park” had a record number of gardeners, volunteers, plants, books and antiques on a cool May 17 at Lime Rock Park.

By 9:30 a.m., early ticket holders filled the parking lots, enjoyed a quick cup of coffee and a muffin and started inspecting the overwhelming variety of curated antiques, garden ornaments and plants from shy native shade lovers to blooming peonies and even vegetable starts.

The annual destination event that attracts gardeners from as far away as Indiana benefits Project SAGE, a nonprofit organization based in Lakeville that is dedicated to supporting, advocating, guiding and educating victims of relationship violence through a range of services and outreach programs.

Over 50 vendors exhibited their wares from French garden chairs and exotic plants to large stone urns under peaked white tents. Natalie Randall of RT Facts in Kent, who has exhibited since the very first Trade Secrets held at Bunny Williams’s house in Falls Village 25 years ago, observed that there were more vendors and more buyers than ever.

Admirers of Martha Stewart, one of the earliest supporters of the event, waited in a very long line to have a personally signed copy of “Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook.” The Sunday sale was preceded by a day of garden tours on Saturday including Bunny Williams’s own garden and other gardens in Salisbury, West Cornwall, and Millbrook.

Christine Bates

Very heavy stone garden ornaments and urns are a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston.

Christine Bates
gardening

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A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

A life reshaped by clay in “Matin”

Left to right: Hannah Wheeler, Matin Malikzada and Yonah Sadeh.

D.H. Callahan

On Monday, Oct. 26, a group of students, teachers and local residents gathered at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville for a screening of the new short documentary “Matin.” The film tells the story of Matin Malikzada, a seventh-generation Afghani potter making a new life in New Milford, Connecticut. The film was made by local filmmaker Yonah Sadeh, creator of the Video Wall at the David M. Hunt Library, and Berkshires-based potter Hannah Wheeler, who were both present for the screening, along with Malikzada himself.

As a member of the seventh generation of his family to master the art of pottery, Malikzada had done things the way his family had for over a century. Istalif, the village where his family has lived for generations, was known throughout Afghanistan for its pottery, with wares sent across the country for use as everyday cups, bowls, plates and other vessels. The pottery-making families of Istalif gathered clay from the same mountain, about 30 to 45 minutes away by donkey. Every July, they would head north toward the Uzbekistan border to gather ishkar, a plant they processed by hand to make their signature glazes.

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Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher finds her calling among the stacks

Meg Sher, executive director of the David M. Hunt Library in Falls Village.

L. Tomaino

When Meg Sher came to Falls Village in 2006 from Old Lyme, Connecticut, where she grew up, she never imagined she’d someday be the executive director of the David M. Hunt Library.

Although, in hindsight, perhaps it makes sense.

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Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Crescendo’s 23rd season speaks to the heart and mind

Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, conducts the audience at a performance.

Steve Potter

For Christine Gevert, founding artistic director of Crescendo, music from centuries past is anything but a relic. It is a living, breathing art form, full of drama, emotional complexity and, occasionally, surprises. As the regional choral and period-instrument ensemble launches its 23rd season, Gevert is once again bringing forgotten masterpieces into the present.

“Early Music has been my lifelong passion and the focus of my specialization in Europe and South America,” Gevert said. “Bringing this repertoire to our audiences in a nuanced way that does justice to its incredible depth, intensity, and beauty is deeply important to me.”

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concerts

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music celebrates 35 years of musical discovery

Close Encounters with Music’s 35th season opens with “Saluting the Clarinet” featuring clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.

Provided

For 35 years, cellist Yehuda Hanani has been inviting audiences to experience classical music in unexpected ways. As founder and artistic director of Close Encounters with Music, Hanani has built a concert series that goes beyond the music itself, exploring connections to literature, history, politics and the human experience.

This year, Close Encounters celebrates its 35th season with “Celebration & Discovery,” a seven-concert series that opens Sunday, Nov. 1, at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

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