Parties & Openings

New Marlborough - May 21 The Old Inn hosts a dinner benefit for VIM.

Pawling - May 19 Raw Art at Gallery on the Green.

Sharon - May 19 The 12th annual Trade Secrets at Lion Rock Farm.

Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Fantasy Garden Sheds Show

Trustees and friends of the Berkshire Botanical Garden gathered on Saturday evening to preview the show of garden shed/follies that will amuse visitors there throughout this season. Five designers turned simple Amish sheds (generously donated by The Barn Raiser) into crowd-pleasing flights of fantasy, with nary a trowel in sight. Everyone who attended wanted one, only confirming trustee Matt Larkin’s hunch that nobody ever outgrows their desire for a playhouse in a secret part of the garden. For a closer look at the sheds, see our Garden page.

Rural Intelligence Parties and Openings
Sarah Thorne, who, with her husband Peter Thorne, designed and executed the “Berkshire Artist’s Retreat”; Pine Cone Hill‘s “Swedish Reading Retreat” team members Jess Fitzgerald and Keith Wilson with Emily Wilson

Skippy and Vaughn Nixon adroitly execute the Berkshire Botanical Trot—crossing West Stockbridge Road without spilling.

BBG board vice chair Madeline Hooper and BBG Executive Director Molly Boxer

Dick Bories and James Shearron, designers of the “18th-century Privy” with Crisse MacFadyen; Michael Devine beside his “Garden Blogger’s Retreat”

Abigail Elwood, Aaron Dunn and Scott Sawyer; Donna and Patrick Annunziata

Guests listen as Matt Larkin (right), BBG trustee and curator of the exhibition, points out the authentic classical detailing on the “18th Century Privy”

Shed designer Chase Booth, whose woodland fantasy was inspired by the great camps of the Adirondacks, with Elaine Grant, and Steven Mateer; David and Anne Griffin

BBG trustee Honey Sharp and Steven Somkin; Joyce and Gerald Moore, whose garden was recently featured in Country Living magazine.

Matt Larkin, Madeline Hooper, and Mark Mendel

Mitch Nash, BBG trustee Maria Nation and Caitlin Nash; Marion Gilliam founder-and-publisher of Orion Magazine, which recently nabbed the 2010 Independent Press Award for General Excellence (think: top prize), and Matt Larkin

Barbara and Len McCue; Pauline Nash, Chase Booth, and Steven Chickery

Susan Dennison, Thomas Burak and Mary Frances Benko; Susan Silver and BBG trustee Judie Owens

Rural Intelligence Parties and Openings
Celisha Racicot and Michael Chapman; Maisie Deely and Daniel Dempsey