Independence Day Fireworks 2011

Photo by Peter Roome

On Friday, July 1, 2011, the Spirit of Princeton will present its annual Independence Day Fireworks. The best viewing site is the fields next to the Princeton University Stadium, along Western Way.

The fields open at 7 pm for picnicking and the fireworks begin at dusk, around 9 pm. Bring your picnic baskets, but no alcoholic beverages are allowed, nor is smoking because of the artificial turf. Parking will be available in University Parking Lot 21 below the fields off Faculty Road and in the University parking garage on Prospect Avenue.

This event is free, thanks to the Spirit of Princeton, a group of volunteers committed to producing events celebrating community and patriotism in Princeton.

Local Music

The Blawenburg Band will be performing from 6:30 to 8:30 pm tonight at the Summer Courtyard Concerts at the Princeton Shopping Center. Concerts run every Thursday evening through July 28.

The Blawenburg Band was founded in 1890 in Blawenburg, NJ. It is one of the oldest community bands in the state. The 75 members range in age from their teens to their nineties. They include teachers and students, research scientists and computer specialists, and homemakers and active retirees. Some players have years of training and professional experience; others learned to play as children and are dedicated amateurs.

Princeton Shopping Center is located at 301 North Harrison Street in Princeton Township. The concerts are free and ample free parking is available. For more information, visit the Princeton Shopping Center website. Don't forget to bring lawn chairs or blankets!

Waiting On Shore

" . . . the dead are not far from us . . . they cling in some

strange way to what is most deep and still within us."

— W.B. Yeats

Waiting On Shore

Sculptor: Niall Bruton

Rosses Point, County Sligo, Ireland

Local Music

The musical group Eco Del Sur will appear this evening from 5 to 7 pm at Forrestal Village as part of its summer concert series. Eco Del Sur, which means "echoes of the south," performs ancient Andean music and contemporary music from different Latin American regions. The members of Eco Del Sur are from Chile, Colombia and Ecuador. Each has mastered several indigenous and contemporary instruments, including wooden flutes created by Pre-Columbian civilizations. The group, founded in 2000, also plays string and percussion instruments introduced to Latin America by Spanish and African cultures.

Within walking distance for Princeton Landing residents, Forrestal Village is located off Route 1 South and College Road West. Sponsored by the Arts Council of Princeton and Princeton Forrestal Village, the summer concerts are held in the main courtyard at Forrestal Village every other Wednesday from June 15 to August 24. Admission is free and free parking is available.

Weeds Plaguing Our Landscape

Over the last few days you may have noticed our landscape contractor Brickman applying herbicide in Princeton Landing. This application is an additional treatment in response to an upsurge in residents' complaints about the spread of weeds in our landscape. Spurge, clover, dandelion, nutsedge and crabgrass have begun to appear everywhere in our turf.

Our present situation is largely the result of bad policies promoted by the people who were responsible for the Princeton Landing landscape over the last few years, the former landscape committee chairwoman and the former Board liaison to the Landscape Committee. They limited the use of herbicide on our lawns, which allowed weeds to become thoroughly established and deeply rooted. This turned the usual process of weed control into a much more difficult and complex process of eradication. It will take years of effort to undo the results of their poor judgment.

Our berms and other exposed beds are also suffering from the spread of many weeds and a profusion of suckers or sprouts from trees, especially oaks. This is also the result of a policy endorsed by the same people—the decision to apply mulch every other year rather than every year. Mulching would have controlled this growth and would have made the community look cleaner, rmore attractive and better cared for.

Our landscape is one of Princeton Landing's most precious assets. The recent herbicide application is only the beginning of a process that is likely to be very labor intensive and expensive. The first step we can all take is to be aware of how these problems originated and make certain that better decisions are made in the future.

Here are some of the weeds we found this week in Princeton Landing.

Local Music

The Klez Dispensers will be performing tonight at the Summer Courtyard Concerts at the Princeton Shopping Center. Concerts run every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 pm through July 28.

The Klez Dispensers are an eight-piece ensemble consisting of clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, violin, piano, bass, drums and vocals. They are well known for their signature swinging American-style klezmer that they've been playing since their college days.

Don't forget to bring lawn chairs or blankets. Princeton Shopping Center is located at 301 North Harrison Street in Princeton Township. The concerts are free and ample free parking is available. For more information, visit the Princeton Shopping Center website.

DeeDee's Margarita Cocktail

In high school Denise was the adorable, giggly little sister of my friend Lorraine. Now DeeDee's all grown up—a professional pastry chef and Emma and Jack's mom. She throws a great party where you can always count on fabulous food and a kickass cocktail. Just in time for summer, here's DeeDee's recipe for a margarita cocktail. It's a nice apéro before Paul's Grilled Halibut and Mark Bittman's Grilled Corn, Mexican Style, if we do say so!

3 ounces Patrón Silver tequila

1 ounce Cointreau

2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice

Paul's mixology: Chill a cocktail shaker and two martini glasses ahead in the freezer. Fill the cocktail shaker with ice. Add the ingredients and shake vigorously. Fill the martini glasses with ice. Strain the drinks over the ice and garnish with a lime twist.

Runaway Train: Architectural Guidelines

Et voilà! Two months later . . . a broken, incompatible finial on the Smith House sign.

Happy Father's Day

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962.

Happy Birthday, Nature Guide

Attention Parents: Firefly Festival

This Sunday, June 19, Terhune Orchards will host its annual Firefly Festival from 4 to 9 pm. In celebration of fireflies and the insects and wild animals that live at the farm, Terhune Orchards will present an evening of nature, music, wagon rides and firefly hunting.

Terhune Orchards' naturalist Elaine Madigan and staff will talk about fireflies and conduct craft activities and games. Miss Amy & Her Big Kids Band will perform, and Schafer Gymnastics will demonstrate the "art of flying." There is a $5 charge for the craft activities, but admission to the festival is free.

Take Dad out for Father's day! Grilled chicken, pulled pork, hot dogs, corn on the cob, pie, apple cider, the popular apple cider donuts and more will be available at Pam's Firefly Tent. There will be pony rides and wagon rides through the farm and orchards all evening. Parking is available at the farm, located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton.

Cherry Picking at Terhune Orchards

Terhune Orchards will open their cherry orchard for "Pick-Your-Own" on Saturday, June 18, at 9 am. Both sweet and sour cherries will be available for picking. The Orchard reports that the cherries are looking red and beautiful—and they're tasting even better!

Cherries are $5.25/lb with a $5 per person prepaid minimum applied towards your total (4 years and older). Picking is from 9 am to 5 pm while supplies last. You should call the farm store for updates at 609-924-2310. Terhune Orchards is located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Princeton.

'Yes' It's Bloomsday

Today is Bloomsday, the annual celebration all over the world to honor the life of the Irish writer James Joyce and to relive the events in his novel Ulysses. The name Bloomsday comes from the protagonist of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom. His odyssey took place on the same day in Dublin, Ireland, in 1904. This was also the date that Joyce took out his future wife, Nora Barnacle, for the first time.

Dramatic readings of Ulysses are a hallmark of Bloomsday commemorations everywhere. Every year on June 16 The Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, which houses James Joyce's manuscript for Ulysses, celebrates Bloomsday with a series of readings from the novel outside its building on Delancey Place.

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was born in Rathgar, Dublin, Ireland, on February 2, 1882, and he died in Zurich, Switzerland, on January 13, 1941. He is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Besides Ulysses, Joyce's other major works include Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegans Wake. In 1999 the Modern Library ranked Ulysses first on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Local Music

Princeton native Chris Harford & the Band of Changes will perform tonight at the Summer Courtyard Concerts at the Princeton Shopping Center. Concerts run every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 pm through July 28.

The 25th annual Summer Courtyard Concerts are presented by the Arts Council of Princeton and sponsored by the Princeton Shopping Center Merchants Association. The series showcases both regional acts and local favorites.

Don't forget to bring lawn chairs or blankets. Princeton Shopping Center is located at 301 North Harrison Street in Princeton Township. The concerts are free and ample free parking is available. For more information, visit the Princeton Shopping Center website.

Local Music

The Princeton Forrestal Village piazza is the scene for tonight's Forrestal Village Summer Concert sponsored by the Arts Council of Princeton and Princeton Forrestal Village. The summer concert series will highlight the best in local and regional jazz, folk, world, rock and blues music. The Alfred James Band leads off the series, which will run every other Wednesday from June 15 to August 24 from 5 to 7 pm.

The Alfred James Band is a cello-driven acoustic rock band from Ardmore, PA. The band was founded in 2001 by Alfred Goodrich (Hun School '94), who is the only cellist in the world playing a black five-string carbon fiber cello — standing up.

Within walking distance for Princeton Landing residents, Forrestal Village is located off Route 1 South and College Road West. The concerts are held in the main courtyard. Admission is free and free parking is available throughout Forrestal Village.

Paul's Grilled Halibut

Several years ago my friends Shelagh, Elizabeth and I worked on a barbeque cookbook for the Weber-Stephen Company. But it's my husband Paul, former president of Princeton Landing, who is the grill master in our family. His recipe for grilled halibut is delicious—and perfect for a summer evening. It goes great with Mark Bittman's Grilled Corn, Mexican Style.

Serves 2

1/3 cup lime juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil, plus extra for brushing the grill

1/4 cup beer

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 (6-ounce) halibut fillets

Combine the marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk together. Pour marinade into a shallow glass baking dish. Place the halibut fillets skin side up in the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, turning once.

Preheat gas grill on high. Soak a paper towel in a small amount of vegetable oil and wipe grill lightly using grill tongs. Remove the fish from the marinade and place fish on grill, skin side up. Grill for 5 minutes. Using grill spatula, turn fish skin side down and grill for another 5 minutes. Remove the fish with a spatula when done.

Yes, I Saw You

To the little deer I caught eating the buds of my daylilies on Wednesday evening . . . thank you for leaving me one for Saturday morning.

Local Music

The Princeton High School Studio Band will kick off the Summer Courtyard Concerts at the Princeton Shopping Center this evening. Concerts start Thursday, June 9, and run every week through Thursday, July 28, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

The Princeton High School Studio Band is directed by Joe Bongiovi and Scott Grimaldi. The Studio Band is known to play a wide variety of genres arranged for Big Band and was the winner of the 2011 Berklee High School Jazz Festival.

The 25th annual Summer Courtyard Concerts are presented by the Arts Council of Princeton and sponsored by the Princeton Shopping Center Merchants Association. The series showcases both regional acts and local favorites. Don't forget to bring lawn chairs or blankets. Princeton Shopping Center is located at 301 North Harrison Street in Princeton Township. The concerts are free and ample free parking is available. For more information, visit the Princeton Shopping Center website.

Princeton Landing Brown vs. Santorini Blue

Do you think the residents of Santorini ever get tired of seeing blue? I would think not, but maybe I should go back and ask . . . .

Take a break from Princeton Landing brown and enjoy this slideshow with photos of Santorini blue by the extraordinary photographer Klearchos Kapoutsis.

Mark Bittman's Grilled Corn on the Cob

We love Mark Bittman and we love corn on the cob. His recipe for Grilled Corn, Mexican Style is an essential summer treat. Here's one of Bittman's "Minimalist" videos from The New York Times showing how it's done. You can click here and here for the related articles. Go to a farmers' market and buy corn on the cob—this is a great, simple way to cook it!

Princeton Area Farmers' Markets

One of the great things about the arrival of summer is the opportunity to shop for fresh locally grown and produced goods at the farmers' markets in our area. Here are some that are taking place around Princeton Landing.

Princeton Farmers' Market (starting May 19)

Thursdays 11 am to 4 pm

Hinds Plaza, next to the Princeton Public Library

Princeton

For more info and participating vendors, click here.

Montgomery Friends Farmers' Market (starting June 11)

Saturdays 9 am to 1 pm

Village Shopping Center, Route 206, just north of Route 518

Skillman

For more info and participating vendors, click here (then click on the "Farmers' Market" link in the upper right).

West Windsor Community Farmers' Market (starting May 7)

Saturdays 9 am to 1 pm

Princeton Junction Train Station, southbound Vaughn Drive parking lot, off Alexander Road

Princeton Junction

For more info and participating vendors, click here.

Lawrenceville Farmers' Market (starting June 4)

Saturdays 10 am to 2 pm

16 Gordon Avenue

Lawrenceville

For more info and participating vendors, click here.