RECORD-REVIEW "Talk of the Town"

September 19, 2010

 

"TALK OF THE TOWN"
By Bonni Brodnick

Is your garden starting to wane? Are you yearning for a bouquet of fresh flowers? Sandy Wellons, proprietor of Topiary the Flower Shop, has a new twist on flower giving. A “plunkett” (a.k.a. “European Wrap”) is a pre-cut bouquet plunked in thick cellophane filled with water to form its own vase. One that caught our eye was a luscious assortment of Peach Finesse and High and Yellow roses, raspberries on the stem, miniature calla lily and poppy pods. Tied with a gros-grain ribbon, and you’ve got a ready-to-go bouquet that doesn’t need cutting when received. Along with being a floral arranger with a masterful eye, Sandy is a keen pen and ink artist and is currently rendering drawings of begonias, orchids and ferns for plant care instructions that will go out with every plant. (Always handy if you don’t know/forget whether your new annual/biennial/perennial should be watered daily/weekly/monthly; does it prefer sunny/shady, inside/outside?) “In the last few days, we’ve also gotten in some absolutely beautiful and huge Garden Meister Fuscia, which are tubular coral-ly, orange flowers with a bronzy leaf; a couple of monstrous baskets of thyme and rosemary, and unusual house plants, like huge-huge Boston ferns,” Sandy said. In addition to the exotic, Topiary the Flower Shop offers unique everyday arrangements, along with mums and cabbages for your fall planters. On top of that, they can deliver everything right to your doorstep. Or to your friends’ doorstep. Or to whomever you want to send good wishes and thanks for something special. For more info, stop by the shop at 70 Westchester Avenue, or give Sandy a ring at 764-1154.

The doors to Pound Ridge Library are now open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., which gives all the more time to pick up a Family Museum Pass Kit to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Katonah Museum of Art and Neuberger Museum of Art. The kits, which can be picked up at the circulation desk, are available to adult patrons and will admit up to two adults and four children free of charge. The loan period is four days, including three overnights. The library will soon be in full autumn swing with a roster of activities for all ages. Some of the new programs include “Fun with Music – featuring Laura D’Amico,” for children age 5 and under. The program is on Fridays at 11 a.m. (starting September 24). Scrabble Club for grades 4-6 takes place after-school on Thursdays from 4-5 p.m. (starting September 23). Along with learning new Scrabble techniques (and who couldn’t use a few Scrabble tips?), it’s a great way to hang out with old friends and meet new ones. (Registration is required for both programs.) Also mark on your calendar a gallery opening for renowned photojournalist Lisl Steiner Monchek in an exhibition of her work, “Life of a Documentarian.” The opening is Saturday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m. in the Schaffner Room. For more info on this, that and the other, call Pound Ridge Library at 764-5085.

For many, there’s a welcome new calm now that the children have gone back to school. For those whose last child went off to college that calm has morphed into dead quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that might bring you to one of the shops in town hoping/wishing/praying to run into a friend just to have a little conversation. Can you hear the twitter of empty nesters as they gather to laugh, cry, and in some occasions, celebrate the new era in their lives? “Today was the first time I went to the supermarket for groceries, came home with a bag of apples and a pound of peaches, and thought, ‘I have no idea who is going to eat this,’” said Jean Mann, whose daughter, Nicole, is settling into her freshman year at Washington University in St. Louis. “I have to learn a new way of food shopping now.” If there’s a piece of advice we can give to empty nesters in our midst: don’t fret. The birdies do return to the nest. Especially when you lure them with homemade chocolate pudding. They always come back for more.