Letter to Our Readers
Here’s to the Green Buoy Club—a hearty group of locals who meet early in the morning, every day (weather permitting) Mother’s Day through Thanksgiving, for the one-mile open water swim out and back to the green buoy that marks the channel coming out of Five Mile River. A varying mix of two to six of the 10 members who comprise the club have been at it since 2014 when Audrey Weil inspired others to start swimming in the Sound. Annually, when conditions are right and support boats are available, they swim the 2.7 miles round trip to Greens Ledge Light and back. Shown here at Greens Ledge Light (from left): Susan Collins, Diane Schlinkert, Vyvyan Burns, Nancy Saipe, Sharon Parr, Leslie Lawrence, Cindy Banks, Kathleen Solberg and Barbara LaBlanc / Photo courtesy the Green Buoy Club
Dear Readers and Residents of Darien,
As the summer ebbs and moves into fall, we present this celebration of local stories still near and dear to our warm weather hearts, though certainly filled with messages relevant throughout the year – like the brave choices Darien’s Andrew Trautmann and James Crafford are making to pursue their passions as full-time musicians and members of The Band Memo that has been bursting on to the music scene all summer. Proud to call them our own. John McCarthy, founder and coach of rugby at Darien High School as well. What he has given to going on 20 years of players, and how he gives it, are priceless.
Peter Saverine is back, with his Stisser granddaughters this time, with a primer on local fun, and it is with huge thanks to the Darien Land Trust and Darien Parks & Rec for the knowledge they shared with us that we present the portfolio of the lovely places in town where you can get out into nature. Thanks as well to Natalie Landry of Ring’s End and Ann Lydecker and Jon DuPrau for the feature on their stunning home. We hope you enjoy that as much as we did creating it for you. Loving the Mind Set column by Gold Coast Mahjong Co-Founder Jamie Dalton too! If you haven’t already picked up a tile, we challenge you not to after reading what she has to say about the ongoing phenomena of the game.
Alyssa Kadow rounds out the issue with a terrific primer on how to build a perfect salad any time of year. Boring old romaine-tomato-cucumber-onion be gone!
As always, it is the stunning photography of Bambi Riegel and fabulous design of Kirsten Navin that bring the stories we tell to life and we are forever grateful to them for sharing their gifts. And as always, it is to our advertisers we owe our biggest thanks. As local media options continue to disappear, it is this caring and committed group that keep us going, telling the stories that connect us, teach us and take us deep into the community we call home.
Pamela Dey Vossler Editor-in-Chief
Carl Trautmann Founder & Publisher
P.S. Full disclosure: Andrew Trautmann is the son of our publisher Carl …and lucky that this is so. Otherwise we might have missed this inspiring story.
corrections: In our last issue, we neglected to credit Bambi Riegel for the opening spread photos in our “On Being an Artist” cover story, and Bob Handleman for the photo that ran with Neil Hauck’s column on our changing townscape. Our apologies to you both. We remain grateful for your contributions. Also, in the Wedding Gallery, it is Sean Fahey, DHS Class of 2011, not Sean Fahy.
