About Town

A Merry Christmas to All

Here are some places that need giving most of all.

  It’s Christmas Eve, for those who celebrate, and for those who don’t, well, it’s a night with nothing new on TV and stores closing early. With any luck, all your gifts are wrapped, the baking is done and cleaned up, and you’re sitting by the fire with an egg nog in one hand, cookies in the other. That’s my idea of the perfect Christmas Eve. Of course, the 24th of December also means the year is winding down, and with all the giving you’ve been doing up till now, there’s still a little time to think about more giving. Charitable giving. End-of-the year, do-it-in-time-for-your-taxes giving. And what better way to do this than by giving close to home? Here, then, is a list of some great, local non-profits that would be happy to help you …

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About Town

Strong Women, Proud Women

This week’s library Author Talk features a book about a local suffragist; Louisa May Alcott has tea in Japan; and a local mom sees her son’s work lauded.

  Good morning and welcome to the first full week of December – a month full of holiday cheer, unbridled present-buying, and copious nog. I have no doubt you’re all chomping at the bit to get out there and do your part to keep the economy moving. But first, a little bit on local going global. Jan Turnquist, the executive director over at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, recently had the opportunity to bring Louisa May and Little Women over to Japan. She spent three and a half weeks in several Japanese cities, including Concord’s sister city Nanae-Cho. Believe it or not, Little Women is very popular in Japan, and in fact is a huge favorite of Empress Michiko – so much so, that she and her husband actually visited Orchard House when they …

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About Town

Friends of the Library’s Annual Meeting, Romeo and Juliet, and a Wood Turtle

Friends meet to talk about volunteer needs, CCPOPS hosts spring Shakespeare outdoors, and an animal is rescued.

  I do love our library, which is why I was happy to attend Tuesday night’s annual meeting-slash-party for the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library. It was fabulous: they not only recapped a year’s worth of business in one evening, very efficiently, but they also encouraged everyone to tour the art gallery on the second floor. The gallery is currently featuring items from Special Collections in honor of the 100th anniversary of Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House as a museum. So we got to see things like pictures of Louisa May sitting at her writing desk, and the ink well she used to write her books. There’s a lot more really cool stuff, as well as historical information, and it all has to do with a famous author who lived right here …

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About Town

Little Women Opens, the Fishing Derby is Happening, and Golfing and Gardening Are in Your Future

Come see great theater, sign your kid up to fish, and check out Decibels Foundation and the Concord Museum’s Annual Garden Tour.

  Hello, friends, and welcome. For those of you who had the week off from school who decided to stay around, I hope you kept busy, taking advantage of all the cool things going on around town. There’s a lot coming up, so let’s jump in. Little Women March On Awhile back I told you about the Little Women Spring we’re having – well, the next event is the production of Little Women itself. It starts next Friday, April 27, and runs four times each weekend over the next three weekends: Friday and Saturday nights and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. It’s a show the Concord Players do every 10 years, in tribute to Concord’s own Louisa May Alcott, and their script, which hews closely to the book, is an original adaptation by local playwright David …

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About Town

'Little Women' and Costumes in Concord

FIRST Robotics gets the nod to go to St. Louis, there’s still more "Night Music", and Louisa May Alcott is everywhere.

Greetings, and welcome to Thursday! Are you loving this weather, or what?? This taste of spring is like, well, a breath of fresh air – even though we didn’t have the most difficult winter. It’s still so lovely to get out and bike and walk, sans sweaters and boots. Last week, I took a walk in Estabrook woods with my friend Lydia and her dog Lady, and we came across a beaver lodge on the edge of Mink Pond, and, even better, two young minks, who looked at us curiously for quite awhile. Really cool! There’s a lot of fun stuff to tell you about, so let’s dig in! CCHS Robotics Team Wins I know I dream of a robot that will do my bidding, so I’m happy to hear that there’s a robotics team at the High School, figuring out how to build robots and …

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Get Out

5 Things to Do This Weekend: March 9-11

Appraisals, fashion and Beatles music this weekend in Concord.

It's Thursday, and you've got no idea what you'll do for the weekend. Concord Patch is coming to the rescue. Skinner Appraisal Day at the Concord Museum The Concord Indies Present The Nowheremen in Concert! Concord Players Costume Fashion Show Music of the Woodstock Generation with the Tom Yates Group Hammond Performing Arts Series

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The Week in Review

Week in Review: Sandwiches, a Rail Trail Update and Protecting Hanscom

A look back at the most notable stories in Concord from the past week.

Concord welcomed March with a sight that had been missing from previous winter months: snow. While it wasn’t the blizzard that some had forecast, the storm that made its way through the area this week created a bit of a mess, leaving snow and rain in its wake. Fans of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, which already makes its way through Lowell, Chelmsford, and Westford, found good news this week when the Concord Board of Selectmen agreed to enter into a Right of Entry with Acton. The agreement takes the next step in extending the trail into Concord. Foodies were abuzz this week when we asked who makes the best sandwich in town. Hundreds of readers voted in our poll with Country Kitchen emerging victorious in one of the tightest races this site…

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About Town

About Town: Celebrating Louisa May Alcott

The Concord Players kick off Little Women Spring with a Costume Parade.

Welcome to March! Yes, it’s the first day of March, the month that heralds spring. And if by some miracle it didn’t snow last night, it would mean only the third snowless February since the late 1800s, the other two being 1925 and 1937. But even if it DID snow, it’s supposed to get up to 50 degrees on Saturday, which means I don’t really have to shovel it because it will melt. Right? Please tell me I’m right. But today I want to talk about spring, specifically Little Women Spring. I’m sure you haven’t heard of this, because it’s unique to this year. A little background: you’re probably aware that Concord has a storied literary past, and that one of our more famous authors is Louisa May Alcott, the gal who lived at Orchard House and wrote …

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Spend February Vacation With Abe Lincoln

Here's a look at some upcoming events at the Concord Museum

There's a lot happening at the Concord Museum in the coming weeks. Take a look at what's on the schedule. February Vacation Week: A Visit with Abraham Lincoln Presidents’ Day, Monday, Feb. 20 The Concord Museum is pleased to once again host Steve Wood and his amazing performance as Abraham Lincoln. Matching Lincoln’s height and beard, Wood bears enough of a resemblance to our 16th president to make heads turn. His first-person historical interpretation, “A Visit with Abraham Lincoln,” includes stories of Lincoln’s early life, his campaign debates, the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and concludes with a stirring reading of the Gettysburg Address. A member of the Association of Lincoln Presenters, Steve Wood has performed at …

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About Town

Acting Chops

Auditions for Little Women and a film series.

  Good morning and welcome to Thursday! Before we get down to real business, I’d like to take a moment to wax rhapsodic about my sheets. Yes, my sheets. For a number of years now, I’ve had flannel sheets for the winter months – we like to keep the heat down at night – because it’s a little easier to slide into the warmer flannel than the cool cotton ones. But this year, I discovered fleece sheets, and I have to tell you, they are deliciously warm and lovely. Makes getting into bed on a cold winter night pure heaven. Only downside is it’s a little harder to get out of them in the morning. Even so, you really should check these out, particularly if, like me, you need some incentives to get through the winter months here in the northeast. Ok…

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