More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.
Nick Tatar’s LEGO Winter Village is back for the fifth year at the Main Library Children’s Room Monday, December 17 – Saturday, December 22. The New England Conservatory of Music Dean of Students never disappoints with his exiting winter scenes all made of LEGO. Come see Santa’s workshop, the Wellesley Clock Tower, and more at this remarkable festive display that will delight families with children of all ages.
14-year-old Roxanne Glassenberg, a twice-a-week volunteer at the Wellesley Free Library’s Children’s Room since mid-summer, has a great surprise in store for teens and tweens to enjoy over winter break.
You’ll now find a display in the Youth Room featuring books wrapped in paper with tape and ribbon, like presents, with the first line of the book written on the wrapper.
The books are all different genres and you won’t know what you’re getting until you get home and unwrap the book (unless you happen to know the first line…). The idea is to introduce young readers to new and unexpected material.
The display is a fresh twist on the library’s “blind date with a book” display from last year, when you didn’t have a clue about what you might get.
As for Glassenberg, a student at the Corwin Russell School in Sudbury, she’s reading an encyclopedia of 450 dog breeds as well as John Steinbeck’s The Moon is Down…
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Wellesley’s own Nan Rumpf is exhibiting her watercolors in the lobby of the Wellesley Free Library. The show, Visions of Iceland, was inspired by Rumpf’s 2016 trip to Iceland, where she was taken by the country’s stark beauty.
Rumpf’s paintings have been exhibited at The DeCordova Museum School Gallery, The Danforth Museum, The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, The Attleboro Arts Museum, The Wellesley Free Library (First Place Award), The Center For The Arts in Natick, Art on the Common in Needham (First Place Award), The Wellesley Community Center (Margaret Fitzwilliam Award for Excellence in Watercolor), among others. She is a member of the Wellesley Society of Artists.
In the exhibit cases…
Lisa Vergara’s original, one-of-a-kind craft furniture, inspired by her passion for children’s books and a desire to repurpose old chairs and other items are on display in the exhibit cases in the new materials section on the first floor.
Vermont resident Max Fehr is showing his New England archival-quality photos paired with his original poems. The images range from stark and spare wintry landscapes to warm and exuberant summer gardens to ancient rock walls. Only a true New Englander could understand the region the way Fehr does. With his poem below, I don’t think I’ll ever look the same way at a sugar maple in October, every leaf blazing red:
Winter’s fading light
quiets a mind
still reeling from the
garish prance of maples
smeared
with tawdry make-up
Do you need to get out of the house to wrap your holiday presents? Stop into the Wellesley Hills branch library at 210 Washington Street and get that always-important holiday gift wrapping job done at their Do-It-Yourself Gift wrapping station.
Stop by during open hours, December 1 – 20. The library will provide the supplies — just bring in your gifts and be ready to wrap. They’ll have a fully stocked gift wrapping table with tape, scissors, markers, bags, boxes, ribbon, wrap, bows, and loads of colorful book covers to upcycle into fun and funky gift tags or wrap.
Tuesday and Thursday: 10am – 8pm
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 5pm
Program supplies generously donated by the Friends of the Wellesley Free Library.
Facebook has received a lot of criticism recently, but for the Wellesley Free Library, Facebook proved to be a great friend. Maybe because the library is more than just about the books, and FB is more than just about advertising. At their best, both are about the community.
Michael Cohen returned from the U.K. recently, and realized that he had left a guide book that he had borrowed from the WFL at a shop at Borough Market in London. So on Nov. 16, Cohen made a request through the Facebook group What’s Up Wellesley, which has over 5,400 members, to find
someone who might be in London to be able to retrieve and return the book for him.
Forty-two comments and suggestions poured in over the next few days. One respondent volunteered their sister who lives in London to help (but the sister was not visiting again until Christmas, past the due date!), another suggested buying the Library a replacement copy online for $9 (the Library won’t accept outside replacement purchases), and another wondered why the London shop couldn’t mail the book back to Massachusetts (shop refused to mail it).
But the post from Paige Ford Fisher worked. She wrote, “Hi Michael. We are in London and I know the place. I’ll go get it and get it back to you. We are suppose to be coming back to Wellesley for Thanksgiving, but I’m sick. If we don’t make it my husband will be back next week for work. He can get it to you!”
What’s Up Wellesley founder Lianna Ramage considers the group’s ability to help people to be one of its successes. While she also admits that the administrators of the group have all had to deal with negative posts from time to time, she wrote, “We volunteer our time, and the whole point of the group is to foster a sense of community!”
This story has a happy ending. Finally, Fisher wrote, “It has been a fun project. Book was returned to Michael’s home last night while he was out. Not the most exciting picture moment, but what worked for schedules. I love Wellesley and the playful nature of our community! Excited to move home this summer! Until then…happy trails!”