Arts & Entertainment
Four To Go - One For The Money
By Linda McK.Stewart
Florida... East Coast? West Coast? The white crested waves of the Atlantic? Or the placid waters of the Gulf? How about swapping both east and west for Florida's peaceful midlands?
A safe remove from coastal casinos, shopping plazas, seaside villas and all the attendant hoopla is another world. It's a world of orange orchards and grazing cattle, of meadows that dip down to ravines where wild turkeys nest in the cypress trees; where horses feed on belly-deep grass; where herons and egrets gently strut the silent shoreline of freshwater ponds. Creek Ranch borders Lake Hatchineha at the headwaters of the Everglades. In this secluded corner of northeast Florida, not much has changed since the Osceola Indians fished for bluegill and snared the white tailed deer.
Four generations of an Atlanta-based family have lovingly watched over Creek Ranch, home to 50 head of cattle. Through good times and bad they have held the line against the rapacious forces of "development." Now, and not without great care and caution, they are opening their ranch to guests... to people like themselves who draw renewal from the scent and sound, the feel and sight of nature unadorned. Which is not to be confused with "roughing it." The suites at Creek Ranch bespeak
comfort, privacy, tranquility. Sixteen pampered guests, just right for a family reunion, a special anniversary celebration or a discreet business conference? Creek Ranch delightfully fills the bill. By day there's swimming, horseback riding, hiking, fishing and day dreaming on a porch with that bestseller novel slipping gently from your fingers. If "laid-back" is what you have in mind, Creek Ranch would delightfully fill the bill.
For details: (800) 225-4255 or (203) 523-0004, www.sanctuare.com
Two For The Show
Remember where you heard it first: Scrub Island in the British Virgin Islands. The name alone should be enough to win you over. Christopher Columbus discovered it on one of his early go-rounds. Since that day to nearly-this, Scrub Island's 230 acres have been uninhabited, the silky beaches the exclusive province of gulls and terns, of shipwrecked sailors and day picnickers. Now however a small, family-friendly resort is up and running on Scrub Island. If snorkeling, scuba or sailing is your thing, then Scrub Island is for you. If a vacation in which you can set the kids free to go exploring or fishing or playing pirates in secluded coves, then Scrub Island is for you. If hanging out on uninhabited beaches or dining by moonlight in total privacy is for you, then so is Scrub Island. It's not easy to resist the appeal that comes with vacationing on a private island, which no one since Christopher Columbus has called a home away from home.
Visit www.scrubisland. com or call (877) 890-7444.
Three To Get Ready
A Jazz festival? June 14-20? On the square? Less than two hours away? How cool is that? Furthermore, it's free. That's right. FREE!
So pencil in those dates. And get ready to head south. No, it's not a typo. It's definitely south. Because we're not talking Times Square. And not New York. But rather Rodney Square, in Wilmington Delaware. You've got it. This will mark the 22nd year that the Dupont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival will be drawing jazz lovers not just from all of the middle Atlantic states but from the whole Atlantic seaboard, Prescott Maine to Key West Florida. It's a rain or shine situation and so far the line up is pretty impressive: Steve Turre, Terell Stafford, John DiGiovanni, Billy Harper, Steve Pratt, The David Sanborn Group, Mingus Big Bery, The George Duke Quartet and that's just for openers.
Visit www.CliffordBrown JazzFest.com
And Four To Go
And this from Hanover, N.H.: Come join us to build your own 'sustainable' table and celebrate community April 17-18. We invite you to think globally and act locally by building a Charles Shackleton designed table (35 x 60 inches) from local lumber. We are calling this The Naked Table Hanover project, inspired by the Charles Shackleton Naked Table Project in Woodstock, Vt. What is a Naked Table, you might ask? It is a piece of furniture created out of locally grown wood, made by our own hands, that is functional, beautiful and central to our lives. The wood will be harvested at Dartmouth College's Second Grant, which is managed according to sustainable forestry principles, and milled in Henniker, NH. On April 17, 32 participants will build 16 tables. The following day the tables will be assembled and all participants will share a meal to celebrate the beauty and function of their creations. The Naked Table Hanover event is a creative way to bring people together with each other and the surrounding environment as well as to have fun making something that is both useful and beautiful. Email: sustainablehanovernh@gmail.com.
