What To Do: Music fests kick off Summer outdoor season

Summer arrived unofficially last weekend and will officially get underway three weeks from now. The weather is warm (or hot), school is almost done for the year and municipal and private pools are open.

This means that it’s time for outdoor music events.

Kennett Flash will begin its rooftop series soon (June 8) and the Turks Head Music Festival is scheduled for this weekend.

The Turk’s Head Music Festival in West Chester (Everhart Park, Bradford Avenue and Everhart Street, West Chester, 610-436-9010, http://www.turksheadfestival.com) just keeps rocking on year-after-year — and just keeps getting better.

This year, the annual Turks Head Music Festival will be held on June 2 from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. in the park at the west end of West Chester.

The all-day festival, which is one of the most popular and longest-running annual mid-summer events in Chester County, has a diverse line-up of eight musical acts.

The annual music-oriented party is presented by West Chester Recreation. It is a free event that appeals to the entire family with a wide range of live music as well as a variety of other activities geared to all ages.

Tom Wang will be the opening act at 11:40 followed by Dylan Zangwill, The Paul Waltz Band, The Fractals, Darlingtyn, Men of Soul, Norside, and Mums the Word.

Visitors to Everhart Park this Sunday are welcome to bring picnic lunches and are advised to bring lawn blankets or folding chairs. The festival will also feature a wide array of food concessions with hot food and cool beverages.

Other popular annual features at the Turk’s Head Music Festival include kids’ play area and an arts-and-crafts show featuring over 70 talented artisans who will be demonstrating and selling their crafts.

Rain Date is June 9.

It’s time once again for the Ladybug Music Festival (Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware, https://theladybugfestival.com) – a free festival held on Market Street in downtown Wilmington.

The popular annual event will be staged on May 31 from 5-10 p.m.

The 2024 festival will feature more than 30 different female-fronted bands, duos, and singer-songwriters performing simultaneously at four indoor venues and on four outdoor stages on the 400 and 500 blocks of Market Street.

The Ladybug Music Festival is a celebration of women in music taking place annually in both Wilmington and Milford, Delaware. Started in 2012 by Gable Music Ventures, the idea was to offer an alternative to the Firefly Music Festival that was focused on local independent artists, and free for the community to attend.

One of the featured acts at this year’s Ladybug Music Festival will be Gina Zo and the Philly-bred, L.A.-based indie pop act Velvet Rouge. In late 2022, Velvet Rouge was voted Best Rock Band in Philly by PHL Live and was featured in the March issue of Philly Style Magazine as the music to listen to in the Now section where they were titled “Philly’s Hottest Rock Band.”

The Summer Sounds Concert Series at Spruce Street Harbor Park (301 South Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/places/spruce-street-harbor-park)  is being held on select Saturdays beginning May 25. Doors open at 6 p.m., and showtime is 7 p.m. All ages are welcome. The concerts are free and open to the public.

On June 1, the concert will feature Steal Your Peach, an Allman Brothers & Grateful Dead tribute band.

Other concerts this month will be Arnetta Johnson and Omar’s Hat ft. Ryan Gilfillian on June 8 and Moonroof  and Cherry Park on June 22.

Summer weather also means the season for food festivals has arrived — especially ethic food festivals.

One of the festivals features music and food.

The 2024 Chester County Blues Barbecue will be held on June 1 at Wyndsor Farm (2550 Ridge Road, Elverson, http://www.chestercountyblues.com).

The 13th annual staging of the event, which is sponsored by the Coventry Lions Club, is slated to run from 2-7 p.m.

The festival features four headline blues acts – Voodoo DeVille, Little Red Rooster Blues Band, Blue Cadillacs, and Porkroll Project.

Tickets are $15.

Food, refreshments, and beer will be available for purchase from vendors on site. Admission ticket does not include food and beverage.

The Blues Barbecue will be held June 1 — rain or shine. There is a large tent for shelter and attendees are welcome to bring their own canopies.

If it’s Greek food you’re looking for, you’re definitely in luck.

The Grecian Food Festival at St. Sophia Church Grecian Festival (900 South Trooper Road, Jeffersonville, 610-650-8960, www.saintsophiachurch.org) is running now through June 2.

The 2024 Greek Festival at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (808 North Broom Street, Wilmington, 302-654-4446, www.holytrinitywilmington.org) opens on June 5 and runs through June 10.

The list of main dish items at St. Sophia’s festival has a wide variety of meat and vegetable items. Chicken Oreganato is Grecian-style chicken roasted with a mixture of lemon, oil and oregano, while souvlaki is grilled pork tenderloin marinated with special herbs.

Gyros are pita sandwiches featuring a spice-infused ground beef-and-lamb mixture that is grilled, sliced fresh and served with tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt sauce), tomatoes, onions and olives.

Pastitsio is a macaroni dish with braised ground lamb and beef that is topped with béchamel sauce and baked. A similar entrée is mousaka, which features layers of eggplant, potato, ground lamb and beef, which is then baked and topped with a light béchamel sauce.

Saganaki is a dish with seared vlahotiri cheese that is flamed with brandy and lemon and served fresh. Greek Salad, which is always a favorite, includes lettuce, feta cheese, tomatoes, Greek olives, oregano, salt, onion, cucumbers tossed in a light olive oil dressing.

Other selections that can either be a main meal or a side dish are tyropita, which is a Greek-style cheese pie in a crispy phyllo crust; spanakopita, which is a tyropita that has spinach added; and Dolmades, which are rice and meat wrapped in grape leaves.

The menu at St. Sophia’s also includes a fried calamari dish with fresh lemon, and patates tiganitres, which are deep-fried potatoes that have been lightly seasoned with Greek herbs and spices and topped with feta cheese.

For dessert, it’s impossible to go wrong with any of the traditional Greek pastries. The most well-known Greek dessert is baklava, which is made with multiple layers of thin buttered phyllo dough cooked with walnuts, spices and honey syrup. Kataifi features shredded wheat with chopped nuts and honey syrup.

Loukoumades, the Greek version of doughnuts, are deep-fried and dipped in honey with a dash of cinnamon. Floyeres is a baked dessert prepared with thin layers of buttered pastry sheets, almonds, spices, and honey syrup. Galaktoboureko is a custard dessert baked between carefully placed pastry sheets and covered in syrup.

Karidopita is a moist walnut cake with spices and syrup. Kok, which is the Greek version of Boston cream pie, is a chocolate-covered cake that is filled with custard. Diples are crunchy treats featuring crisp folds of thin rolled pastry dough that are deep fried and topped with syrup, cinnamon and nuts.

Greek cuisine also includes a variety of mouth-watering cookies including melomakarona (oval cookie dipped in honey and rolled in nuts), kourabiedes (butter cookie served with confectioner’s sugar), paximadia (zwieback-type cookie that is baked then sliced and toasted in the oven), koulourakia (butter cookie that is twisted, basted with egg yolk and baked.)

Greek American groups from the Delaware Valley will play popular Greek songs and standards and theer will be performances of traditional Greek folk dances. The festival also features a taverna – a bistro-style site for dancing and drinking.

Other attractions are Greek grocery stores and sales booths with items such as Greek music, icons, custom-made jewelry, leather goods and fabric. There will also be a variety of children’s activities.

The Greek Festival at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church opens on June 3 and runs through June 8.

The list of main dish items at Holy Trinity has a wide variety of meat and vegetable items. The menu is almost identical to St. Sophia’s.

Greek American groups will play traditional and modern Greek songs and there will be performances of traditional Greek folk dances. The festival also features an outdoor taverna, Greek grocery stores, and sales booths with items such as Greek music, icons, custom-made jewelry, leather goods and fabric. There will also be a variety of children’s activities.

There will also be a Greek Festival in Philly at St. George Cathedral (256 South Eighth Street, Philadelphia, saintgeorgecathedral.org).

The festival is running now through June 2 –11 a.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and noon-6 p.m. on Sunday.

There will be traditional Greek food dishes, live music, vendors and church tours at the free festival.

This is the time of the year when there are ethnic food festivals almost every weekend. This weekend’s schedule has another interesting option — St. Maron’s Lebanese and Middle East Cultural Festival (10th and Ellsworth streets, Philadelphia, 215-389-1000, http://www.saintmaron.org).

St. Maron’s Lebanese Festival, which runs now through June 2, offers a wide array of tantalizing Middle Eastern dishes such as kibbe (bulghur, minced onions and finely ground lean beef or lamb), baba ghanoush (eggplant mixed with onions, tomatoes, olive oil and various seasonings) and tabbouleh (vegetarian dish with bulgur, tomatoes, finely chopped parsley, mint, and onion).

There will also be hummus (food dip made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic) and freshly cooked shish kabobs and chicken kabobs. A kabob is a Middle Eastern dish featuring pieces of meat, fish, onions and peppers grilled on a skewer).

Other attractions at St. Maron’s free festival will be folkloric exhibits, arts and crafts booths, hookahs, children’s games, a performance by St. Maron’s Dabke Troop, cash prize raffles and live music by Meesha Dance and Said Abi Akl & Band.

St. Mary Coptic Church of Delaware (644 Otts Chapel Rd, Newark, Delaware, stmaryde.org) is holding its popular Egyptian Festival on June 1 and 2.

The Coptic Church was established in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by St. Mark the Evangelist in the city of Alexandria around 43 A.D. The church adheres to the Nicenen Creed.

Fewer changes have taken place in the Coptic Church than in any other church in both ritual and doctrine aspects. Additionally, the succession of the Coptic Patriarchs, Bishops, Priests and Deacons has been continuous.

This weekend’s festival will feature such Egyptian delicacies as kofta kabob, falafel, lamb shish kabob, kobaeba, shepherd’s pie, moussaka and gyro sandwich.

There will also be sweet treats such as babousa, baklava and konafa with nuts.

Also featured at the festival will be an Egyptian gift shop, Christian items and kids’ games.

Hours are 11 a.m.-7 p.m. both days. Admission is free.

The Philadelphia Dyke March (www.facebook.com/philadelphiadykemarch) will be held on June 1 starting at noon at Louis I. Kahn Park (328 South 11th Street, Philadelphia, https://www.facebook.com/events/1795478350754427/).

The Philadelphia Dyke March draws hundreds for a proud march through Center City that spotlights Philly’s lesbian community and their allies.

According to the event’s Facebook page, “The Philly Dyke March is not a parade. It’s a march, a protest, a movement” and the invitation to participate is extended to “femmes, butches, andros, queers, studs, AGs, lesbians, tops, bottoms, tomboys, womxn of color, asexual dykes, bidykes, boidykes, pandykes, UHaulers, QPOC, and transgender, intersex, gender nonconforming, gender non-binary, and genderqueer dykes of all flavors, and all of those who love and support us.”

This weekend, it’s also time for the annual Strawberry Festival at Linvilla Orchards (137 West Knowlton Road, Media, www.linvilla.com). The free festival will be held on June 1 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Linvilla’s grounds in Media.

The festive event will feature children’s entertainment, hayrides, pony rides, face painting, costumed characters, children’s games and contests, live music, ice cream sundaes, giant strawberry shortcake and strawberry treats.

Linvilla Grill will be serving hamburgers, pizza, fries, Ship Bottom Beer Garden, and corn roasting favorites, Roasty Toasty.

Other special attractions will be the Delaware Valley’s largest Strawberry Shortcake, special appearances by Silly Joe, the Ridiculous Nicholas Comedy Variety Show and the Ultimates.

If you get thirsty, Ship Bottom Beer Garden will be open all day.

An interesting and educational look at America’s past with a special focus can be found in downtown Philadelphia his weekend.

Visitors to the old, historical district in Philadelphia on June 1 will be able to enjoy Fete Day 2024 at Elfreth’s Alley, which is located off Second Street (215-574-0560, http://www.elfrethsalley.org).

From 1-5 p.m., the oldest residential street in America will be hosting a traditional festival with colonial flavor.

This is an event which dates back to 1934 (90 years!), in which residents of Elfreth’s Alley open their doors to allow visitors a glimpse of 21st century life in these 18th- and 19th-century houses.

Visitors can discover how generation after generation have continued to preserve, alter and add to these historic structures.

The popular annual festival will feature colonial crafts, music, storytelling, refreshments, scavenger hunts and a wide array of hands-on games.

Historic Tours of the 32 historic residences on Elfreth’s Alley will be offered between noon and 5 p.m.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for children.

On June 1, Hope Lodge (553 South Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington, 215-343-0965, http://www.ushistory.org/hope/) will be hosting the “Eighth Annual Ales & Petals/Cars & Motorcycles of England Car Show.”

The event will open at 10 a.m. and run until 4pm on June 1 at the historic site in Montgomery County. The event will feature a nationally sanctioned Jaguar Concours d’Elegance.

Visitors can enjoy food, live music, kid’s activities and craft beers and wines and a tour of one of the largest British motoring shows on the East Coast. The show will include more than 250 classic British cars and motorcycles.

Hope Lodge was built between 1743 and 1748 by Samuel Morris, a prosperous Quaker entrepreneur. Morris acted as a farmer, shipowner, miller, ironmaster, shop owner, and owner of the mill now known as Mather Mill. Hope Lodge is an excellent example of early Georgian architecture, and it is possible that Edmund Woolley, architect of Independence Hall, offered advice in building. Samuel Morris owned the estate until his death in 1770.

Visitors are invited to set up lawn chairs and picnic blankets in the site’s splendid gardens to enjoy food, live music and tastings of craft beers, wines and ciders. This event will also feature tours of the mansion.

Tour admission is $10 for adults and free for children (12 and under). Hope Lodge is a Blue Star Museum which means that active duty military personnel, including National Guard and Reserve and their families, are admitted free for regular tours from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

You still have a few days left to catch one of the area’s top festival events — the Devon Horse Show (Lancaster Avenue, Devon, 610-688-2554, www.devonhorseshow.org), which is one of the oldest events of any kind in the state.

The Devon Horse Show is and always has been special.

More than just another annual equestrian event, it is a family event that spans generations and traditionally marks the start of summer. It is a place where attendees go as much to see and be seen as to watch horses compete — a sporting event and a tradition-based social event.

No-one on earth right now is old enough to have attended every edition of the Devon Horse Show.

The 2024 show, which is running now through June 2, is the 128th Annual Devon Horse Show and Country Fair.

The oldest living person in the world is Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who is 121 years old having been born on January 2, 1903. When she was born, the Devon Horse Show had already been held for seven years.

The Devon Horse Show began in 1896 as a one-day show with 28 classes. By 1914, it had grown immensely and had become the largest outdoor horse show in the country — a distinction it still holds.

In 1919, it was decided that a “Country Fair” should be held in conjunction with the horse show and that the event should benefit Bryn Mawr Hospital.

In 2010, the Devon Horse Show became just the fourth American horse show to be honored with the designation as a USEF Heritage Competition.

This award is reserved for those competitions that have been in existence for more than a quarter century, promoted and grown the equestrian sport, and made a contribution to the community outside the gates of the horse show by achieving, maintaining and promoting the equestrian ideals of sportsmanship and competition.

More than 3,000 horses are entered in the Devon Horse Show in over 30 divisions and more than 200 classes with prize money totaling over a quarter of a million dollars. The equestrian competition reaches its peak the final few days with the Devon Grand Prix and the Idle Dice Open Jumper Stake.

The Country Fair offers concessions featuring lemon sticks, cotton candy and buckets of fudge. Other main attractions at the fair are the garden café, sales booths featuring antiques, toys, hand-crafted items, Devon Horse Show souvenirs and over 30 other shops with jewelry, art, clothes and equestrian-related items.

Another popular family attraction is the Midway with its huge Ferris wheel, old-time carousel and wide array of amusement rides and games — plus kid-favorite goodies such as popcorn, cotton candy and funnel cake.

A special attraction will be appearances by the Budweiser Clydesdales. A great American tradition celebrating their 91st Anniversary, the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales are scheduled to appear again here at Devon on May 30 and June 1.

Admission is $25 for adults and $10 for children (under 12) and seniors (over 65).

On June 2, the Upper Main Line Memorial Association will sponsor the 156th Annual Memorial Parade in the Borough of Malvern. The parade, which is held every year on the Sunday after Memorial Day, will start at 1:30 p.m.

Founded in June 1869, the parade is recognized as the oldest continuously held Memorial Parade in America. The parade is expected to include at least eight bands including military color guards, military and antique vehicles, floats, fire trucks and a few special surprises.

After the Parade, there will be the 208th Memorial Commemoration in Monument Park.

Penns Woods Winery (124 Beaver Valley Road, Chadds Ford, http://www.pennswoodswinery.com) will present “Live Music on the Lawn” every weekend in May.

Chris Despo will perform on May 27 from 2-5 p.m. and again on May 31 from 5-7 p.m.

The Brandywine Valley has quite a few museums and tourist sites that provide residents and tourists ideal opportunities to spend leisure time — and you can maximize your effort if you take advantage of the 2024 Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport (www.visitwilmingtonde.com/passport/).

The cost is $49 for an individual pass and $99 for a family pass (for up to five family members).

The Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport is good for one-time admission to Wilmington and the Brandywine Valley’s top attractions now through October 31.

A family pass, which includes one-day admission to each of 12 sites, can bring a savings of over $200 for the holders — especially since many of the participating institutions have regular admission fees in double figures.

The list of locations covered by the Brandywine Treasure Trail Passport includes Longwood Gardens, Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, Brandywine River Museum, Delaware Art Museum, Delaware History Museum, Hagley Museum and Library, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Nemours Mansion & Gardens, Read House and Garden, Mt. Cuba Center, Rockwood Museum and Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library.

The newest exhibition at the Brandywine Museum of Art (1 Hoffman Mill Road, Chadds Ford, brandywine.org), “Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled,” opened in the spring and will run through June 9.

“Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled” will trace a persistent vein of intriguing, often disconcerting imagery over the career of renowned artist Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946).

This major exhibition — organized by the Brandywine and five years in the making — features more than 50 works drawn from museum and private collections across the country that focus on the artist’s arresting, visceral imagery, revealing fascinating insight into Wyeth and the art of visual storytelling. Following its debut at the Brandywine, the exhibition will travel to four additional art museums around the United States.

As the title suggests, “Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled” focuses on a single through line in Wyeth’s work — one in which ominous stillness, postapocalyptic skies, frightening shifts in scale, and strange vantage points seem to highlight the vulnerability of the human condition. With his startling compositions and a masterful use of media, color and texture, Wyeth creates an immersive, synesthetic experience that both engages and upsets visual and emotional equilibrium.

While frequently countered and even hidden by the artist’s fuller body of work — particularly his well-known coastal views, farmscapes, and portraits — a consistent thread of darker, more troubling imagery has been a constant in the artist’s work over the past 60 years. His work has evolved from the ultra-realistic visions and virtuoso brushwork of his youth into a mature expressionism in which intense color and dramatic use of paint electrify his canvases.

As this exhibition demonstrates, Wyeth is at home with uneasy subjects and a master of the unsettled mood in each of these stages of his career.

The exhibition immerses viewers into natural and supernatural worlds, from works inspired by the artist’s time spent in Maine—which frequently acknowledge the power of the sea and its fearsome ability to render humans helpless—to forest-based works from Pennsylvania that delve into the supernatural side of nature.

“Jamie Wyeth: Unsettled” is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue co-published by Rizzoli Electa and Brandywine.

Following its presentation at the Brandywine, the exhibition will travel to the Farnsworth Art Museum (Rockland, ME), Greenville County Museum of Art (Greenville, SC), Dayton Art Institute (Dayton, OH), and the Frye Art Museum (Seattle, WA).

Museum admission is $20 adults, $18 seniors (65+), $8 children (ages 6-18) and students with ID and free for children (ages five and under).

Hagley Museum and Library (Buck Road East entrance via Route 100, Wilmington, Delaware, 302-658-2400, www.hagley.org), a 230-acre historical village on the site of the original du Pont Company gunpowder mills in northern Delaware, has a popular ongoing attraction – “Nation of Inventors.”

Additionally, there will be a “Walking Tour” on June 3 at 11 a.m.

With the “Walking Tour,” participants can walk through history during an in-depth, 90-minute guided tour each Monday morning from March through December. This week’s topic is “Trees of Hagley.”

“Nation of Inventors” celebrates the American spirit of ingenuity by taking visitors on a journey from the early years of the patent system, in the 1790s, through the “golden age” of American invention, in the late 1800s. The exhibit features more than 120 patent models from Hagley’s unique collection highlighting the diverse stories of inventors from all walks of life.

Patent models are scaled representations of inventions and were part of the patent application process for nearly 100 years. “Nation of Inventors” showcases patent models representing innovations in a variety of industries from transportation and manufacturing to food preservation and medical devices.

In the exhibition, visitors will enjoy engaging experiences around every corner, testing their knowledge of innovation and hearing personal accounts from inventors.

The patent models in “Nation of Inventors” were created between 1833 and 1886. “Nation of Inventors” not only features patent models submitted by inventors from the United States, but also models from inventors in England, France, Ireland, Russia, and Spain, demonstrating an international interest in America’s intellectual property system.

“Nation of Inventors” includes patent models from well-known inventors and companies like Ball (Mason Jars), Jim Beam, Bissell, Corliss, Steinway, and Westinghouse. The exhibit presents important topics and timely themes including women inventors, Black inventors, immigrant inventors, improvements in urban living, and the ways Americans learn about and understand progress and change.

“Nation of Inventors” is located on the first two floors of Hagley’s Visitor Center. Visitors can plan to spend about 30 minutes on their self-guided tour of the exhibition.

Admission to Hagley is $20 for adults, $16 for students and seniors (62+) and $10 for children (6-14).

On May 31, Rockwood Park & Museum (4671 Washington Street Ext, Wilmington,  Delaware, 4671 Washington Street Ext, Wilmington, www.newcastlede.gov/431/Rockwood-Park-Museum) is presenting “Self-Guided Museum Tours.”

Visitors will be able to explore the grandeur, history and beauty of Rockwood Mansion, home of the Shipley, Bringhurst and Hargraves families for 120 years. This tour emphasizes the magnificent mansion interiors and stories of the families that lived there.

On June 15 from 7-9 p.m., there will be a “Walking Rockwood Paranormal Tour” at Rockwood Museum. This is Rockwood’s classic Paranormal Program to investigate the mansion from the unfinished attic to the decayed basement through the highly polished living spaces in between.

Guests will be instructed how to use sophisticated paranormal equipment to be central to the investigation. Visiting investigators will learn how instrument results relate to those who may have once lived or worked at Rockwood.

Attendees must be able to traverse many stairs throughout the museum.

The 2004 season is underway at Nemours Estate (1600 Rockland Road, Wilmington, Delaware, nemoursestate.org). The entrance is located on the campus of Nemours Children’s Health, follow signs for Nemours Estate.

Originally constructed in 1910, Nemours Estate is one of Delaware’s grandest buildings and includes the largest formal French garden in North America.

Nemours Estate comprises an exquisite, 77-room mansion, the largest formal French gardens in North America, a Chauffeur’s Garage housing a collection of vintage automobiles, and 200 acres of scenic woodlands, meadows and lawns.

Nemours was the estate of Alfred I. duPont.

Alfred named the estate Nemours, after the French town that his great-great-grandfather represented in the French Estates General. While looking to the past and his ancestors for inspiration, Alfred also ensured that his new home was thoroughly modern by incorporating the latest technology and many of his own inventions.

The Gardens are one of the estate’s prime attractions.

The two elk at the top of the Vista are the work of French sculptor Prosper Lecourtier (1855–1924), a specialist in animal figures. Lined with Japanese cryptomeria, pink flowering horse chestnuts and pin oaks, the Long Walk extends from the Mansion to the Reflecting Pool.

The 157 jets at the center of the one-acre pool shoot water 12 feet into the air; when they are turned off, the entire “Long Walk” is reflected in the pool. The pool, five and a half feet deep in its deepest section, holds 800,000 gallons of water and takes three days to fill. The Art Nouveau-style, classical mythology-based “Four Seasons” around the pool are by French-born American sculptor Henri Crenier (1873–1948).

Admission to Nemours is $23 for adults, $21 for seniors and $10 for children.

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library (Route 52, Wilmington, Delaware, 800-448-3883, www.winterthur.org) has attractions both indoors and outdoors going on right now.

There seems to be no end to what’s in bloom — and in almost every corner of the garden.

White flowers of kousa dogwoods, deutzias, and mock oranges invite you to visit Sycamore Hill. Visitors can wander the garden paths to discover the delicate beauty of pink mountain laurels and pale Pink Leda roses at the Bristol Summerhouse.

In Azalea Woods and Enchanted Woods, look for the flowers of martagon hybrid lilies opening. A few late-flowering peonies can be found in the Lower Peony Garden, while ferns cover the shady March Bank.

Admission to Winterthur is $22 for adults, $20 for seniors and students and $8 for children.

The Delaware Art Museum (2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware, delart.org) currently is a special exhibition –

“In Focus: Photography from the Collection.”

This exhibition spotlights the work of female photographers in the Museum’s collection, bringing together more than 40 photographs representing a range of techniques and subjects.

Highlights include Susan Fenton’s extraordinary hand-painted silver prints and a complete portfolio of Eva Rubinstein’s photographs from the 1970s.

Other featured artists are Gertrude Käsebier, Imogen Cunningham, Berenice Abbott, Donna Ferrato, and Kristin Capp.

Admission to the Delaware Museum of Art is $18 for adults, $7 for college students and $6 for youth.

Historic Odessa (Main Street, Odessa, Delaware, 302-378-4119, www.historicodessa.org) is both a scenic and an historic site in Delaware.

At the beginning of March, Historic Odessa reopened for spring tours and celebrated the beginning of its 2024 season.

Known in the 18th-century as Cantwell’s Bridge, Odessa played a vital role in commercial life along the Delaware River as a busy grain shipping port.

Today, visitors can stroll along tree-lined streets and admire examples of 18th- and 19th-century architecture in one of the best-preserved towns in Delaware. They can also tour a remarkable collection of antiques and Americana preserved in period room settings and quaint exhibits.

Historic Odessa is open to the public from March through December, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Sunday from 1-4 p.m.  The site is also open Monday by reservation.

The 2024 season is in full swing at Chanticleer (786 Church Street, Wayne, www.chanticleergarden.org).

The Chanticleer estate dates from the early 20th-century, when land along the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad was developed for summer homes to escape the heat of Philadelphia. Adolph Rosengarten, Sr., and his wife Christine chose the Wayne-St. Davids area to build their country retreat. The family’s pharmaceutical firm would become part of Merck & Company in the 1920s.

The Rosengartens hired architect and former classmate Charles L. Borie to design the house, which was completed in 1913. Landscape architect Thomas Sears designed the terraces as extensions of the house. A 1924 addition converted the summer home into a year-round residence and the family moved here permanently.

Rosengarten’s humor is evident in naming his home after the estate “Chanticlere” in Thackeray’s 1855 novel “The Newcomes.”

As the home of the Rosengartens, Chanticleer was beautiful and green with impressive trees and lawns. Most of the floral and garden development you see today has occurred since 1990 — designed by Chanticleer staff and consultants.

There are seven horticulturists, each responsible for the design, planting, and maintenance of an area. The areas are continually evolving, each with its own feel, yet joined together as one complete unit. The Teacup Garden and Chanticleer Terraces feature seasonal plants and bold-textured tropical and subtropical plants. These areas change greatly from year to year. Non-hardy plants overwinter in greenhouses and basements.
The Tennis Court, Ruin, Gravel Garden, and Pond Garden focus on hardy perennials, both woody and herbaceous. The Tennis Court builds on the idea of foliar display introduced in the Teacup. The Ruin is a folly, built on the foundation of Adolph Rosengarten, Jr.’s home. It is meant to look as if the house fell into disrepair. The Gravel Garden is hot and dry, a touch of the Mediterranean in Pennsylvania. The Pond area is exuberantly floriferous.

Asian Woods and Bell’s Woodland are shady areas. The former features natives of China, Korea, and Japan; the latter, plants of eastern North America. The Serpentine celebrates the beauty of agricultural crops. The cut flower and vegetable gardens produce flowers for arrangements and food for the table.

Admission to Chanticleer is $12 for adults and free for pre-teen children (12 years and under).

Andalusia Historic House, Gardens and Arboretum (1237 State Road, Andalusia, www.andalusiapa.org) had its “Season Opening” on April Fool’s Day 1.

Located on a wooded promontory overlooking the Delaware River, Andalusia has been a stately presence on this stretch of water, just north of Philadelphia, for more than 200 years. The ancestral home of the Biddle family, Andalusia is also a natural paradise of native woodlands and spectacular gardens that have evolved over time.

Placed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks in 1966, the Big House — one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the United States — provides an unparalleled look into our nation’s past, while also offering a glimpse into the life of a family that helped to shape its future.

Its surrounding gardens delight the senses all through the year, from the tumbling, brightly colored leaves of fall to the floral extravaganza of spring and the abundance and scent of summer.

Self-Guided Garden Tours will be available Mondays through Wednesdays through November 4 (excluding holidays) at 10 a.m. or 1 p.m.

Visitors can stroll the spectacular formal gardens and native woodlands during a self-guided garden tour at their leisure and enjoy sweeping views from the banks of the Delaware River. Picnics are allowed on the grounds (with a “carry-in, carry-out” policy).

“Under the Canopy: Animals of the Rainforest,” which will run now through September 2 at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, ansp.org), is an immersive exhibition introducing visitors to the fascinating world of rainforests and the animals that inhabit them.

You can learn about unique plants and rainforest ecology as you encounter a live sloth, boa constrictor and other animals that call these habitats home. You will see the importance of rainforests to the planet as you explore interactive discovery stations, dynamic displays and engaging programming.

Presented in English and Spanish, “Under the Canopy” will engage students of all ages, with accompanying curriculums on rainforests, water cycles, the science of diversity, deforestation and soil, how kids can save the planet and so much more. Hands-on interactives are complemented by life-size, climbable animal sculptures, including a gorilla, tortoise, crocodile, red-eye tree frog and Banyan tree.

All exhibits are included with the purchase of a general admission ticket.

Admission prices are — Adults (Age 13 and above), $22; Children (Age 2 – 12), $18.

Wonderspaces at the Fashion District (27 North 11th Street, Philadelphia, philadelphia.wonderspaces.com) is an experiential, interactive arts venue.

Building on the success of annual pop-up shows in San Diego, and its first permanent location in Scottsdale, Arizona, Wonderspaces opened a 24,000 square foot gallery space in Philly two years ago.

Wonderspaces features 14 art installations that all play with the idea of perspective.  New artworks are rotated in every few months, creating an ever-evolving, year-round show.

Tickets are for entry at a specific date and time. Visitors are welcome to stay as long as they please during operating hours. The average time spent experiencing the show is 90 minutes.

A few installations contain flashing lights, images, and patterns that may trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. All visitors must sign a waiver prior to being admitted into the space. Adult supervision is required for visitors under 16.

Some of the current featured exhibits are SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime, ERUPTURE, Rainbow Rooms and RADIANCE (INFINITY BOX NO. 6).

Grim Philly’s “Dark Philly History Tour” (www.grimphilly.com) will be held every evening throughout the winter.

Participants can walk with tour guides from the grounds of America’s first White House, Congress, and Liberty Bell to homes and sites of Hamilton, Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and more than 10 other Founding-Fathers. The surprising dirt of espionage, murder, sexual license and blackmail highlight the secrets of 1776 with a ghost story or two along the way. This tour is highly researched. And your guide is a historian.

Tickets are $35.

Ghost Tour of Philadelphia (215-413-1997, www.ghosttour.com), Ghost Tour of Lancaster (717-687-6687, www.ghosttour.com) and Ghost Tour of Strasburg (717-687-6687, www.ghosttour.com) operate throughout the winter and offer an eerily entertaining evening of true ghost stories and real haunted houses.

The Ghost Tour of Philadelphia, which is based on the book, “Ghost Stories of Philadelphia, PA.,” is a candlelight walking tour along the back streets and secret gardens of Independence Park, Society Hill, and Old City, where ghostly spirits, haunted houses, and eerie graveyards abound.

Participants can discover the ghost lore of America’s most historic and most haunted city with stories from the founding of William Penn’s colony to present-day hauntings.

The activity is open year-round – weekends, December-February; every night, March-November. Tickets are $24.

The Ghost Tour of Lancaster and the Ghost Tour of Strasburg are based on the book, “Ghost Stories of Lancaster, PA.”

Participants in the Ghost Tour of Lancaster explore the long-forgotten mysteries of one of America’s oldest cities, with haunting tales of otherworldly vigils, fatal curses, and star-crossed lovers. The tour provides the opportunity to experience 300 years of haunted history from the Red Rose City’s thorny past. Tickets are $20.

The Ghost Tour of Strasburg is a candlelight walking tour of the quaint and historic town of Strasburg in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Visitors will experience an entertaining evening with a costumed tour guide spinning tales of haunted mansions, eerie graveyards, and spirits that roam the night … in a town lost in time. Tickets are $20.

A comfortable way to sit back and enjoy the colors of spring is to take a ride on a tourist rail line train.

The West Chester Railroad (610-430-2233, www.wcrailroad.com) is running its “Summer Picnic Specials” every Sunday now through September 22 at noon each day.

Passengers can enjoy a relaxing 90-minute train ride from West Chester to Glen Mills and return on a warm summer afternoon. They can also pack a lunch to have during the excursion’s stop at the Glen Mills train station picnic grove.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children (ages 2-12).

Wilmington and Western Railroad (Greenbank Station, 2201 Newport-Gap Pike, Wilmington, Delaware, www.wwrr.com) is running a special train on June 1—the “Wine and Cheese Express.”

Riders can enjoy fine wines from Harvest Ridge Winery and a selection of all-natural cheeses by Chesapeake Gold Farms. Your ticket fare includes three glasses of wine paired with three types of cheese as you travel on a two-hour round-trip along Red Clay Creek.

This departure is powered by one of the rail line’s historic first-generation diesel locomotives.

The express train departs at 6 p.m. Tickets are $100 for a two-seat table.

The Strasburg Rail Road (Route 741, Strasburg, 717-687-7522, www.strasburgrailroad.com) is running a special train – “The Wine & Cheese Train.”

Passengers can enjoy the luxurious, climate-controlled first-class accommodations and a tasting of select wine, cheese, and crackers as they travel in style down the tracks from Strasburg to Paradise and back. The train departs at 6 p.m. and the total trip time is 45 minutes.

“Wine & Cheese Train” boards 30 minutes before the scheduled departure. Riders must be 21 or older and have their photo ID ready when they board.

Featured wines are carefully selected from Waltz Vineyards, and cheeses are paired accordingly. Beer and select non-alcoholic beverages are also available for purchase upon request. Riders can purchase a souvenir wine glass on board the train if desired. Glasses are $7 each.

In accordance with Pennsylvania law, alcohol is only served during the train ride. The rail line is not permitted to serve alcoholic beverages while the train is berthed in the station.

Departures are scheduled for May 31 and June 1 at 4 and 6 p.m. and June 2 at 4 p.m.

Tickets are $70.

The Colebrookdale Railroad (South Washington Street, Boyertown, www.colebrookdalerailroad.com) is running its “Secret Valley Expedition” on June 1 and 2.

The Colebrookdale ride is billed as “your ticket to a verdant land lost in time.”

Passengers board one of the railroad’s meticulously restored century-old rail cars for a two-hour expedition into one of the most scenic and historic regions in the northeast.

Deluxe coach fares are $40 for adults (13-64), $30 for children (2-12), $35 for seniors (65 and older) and $10 for toddlers.

The Northern Central Railway (2 West Main Street, New Freedom, www.northerncentralrailway.com) is running its “Hanover Junction Flyer” on May 31 and June 2 at 1 p.m. each day.

The “Hanover Junction Flyer” will run through the beautiful Heritage Rail Trail County Park and southern York County countryside on this trip to Hanover Junction. The excursion includes a 20-minute stopover at the Hanover Junction Museum.

Tickets are $36.99 for adults and $24.99 for children (ages 2-12).

On June 2, the Marshall Steam Museum at Auburn Heights Preserve (3000 Creek Road, Yorklyn, Delaware, 302-239-2385, http://auburnheights.org) is presenting “Steamin’ Day at Auburn Heights.”

The site, which features the Marshall Steam Museum and the Auburn Heights Mansion, focuses on steam power when it presents “Steamin’ Days,” which run from 12:30-4:30 p.m.

General admission tickets are $15 (13 and older) and $10 (age 12 and under). “Mansion Add On” tickets are $8 and $4.

Special attractions include a “Firing Up” demonstration using a Stanley steam car, tours of the antique-furnished Auburn Heights Mansion (which was built in 1897), rides on the Auburn Valley Railroad and in select antique automobiles from the Marshall Collection.

Also included is entry to the Marshall Steam Museum, which features the world’s largest operating collection of Stanley steam cars along with a 1930s working Lionel electric train display, a hands-on engine display, kids’ activities and exhibits.

If you enjoy walking around garden displays or if you like to look at model railroad layouts, then you should definitely check out the Garden Railway Display at the Morris Arboretum & Garden (100 Northwestern Avenue, Chestnut Hill, www.morrisarboretum.org).

The ultra-popular Garden Railway Display has become a major summer attraction at The Gardens at Morris Arboretum. The 26th annual edition of the display has its official season opening scheduled for May 25 and then will remain open until September 30.

This summer, Morris Arboretum will unveil a brand-new exhibition in its popular Garden Railway – “Garden Railway: Dinos!”

With more than 15 different rail lines running along a third of a mile of track, visitors will enjoy a spectacular display of dinosaurs including Triceratops, and Velociraptor, as well as other Mesozoic creatures—all made out of natural materials such as bark, leaves, and twigs.

As one of the largest outdoor miniature train displays in the United States, the Garden Railway will delight and amaze visitors of all ages.

The railway has a quarter mile of track featuring seven loops and tunnels with 15 different rail lines and two cable cars, nine bridges (including a trestle bridge you can walk under) and bustling model trains.

The buildings and the display are all made of natural materials – bark, leaves, twigs, hollow logs, mosses, acorns, dried flowers, seeds and stones – to form a perfectly proportioned miniature landscape complete with miniature rivers.

Philadelphia-area landmarks are all meticulously decorated for the holidays with lights that twinkle. There is even a masterpiece replica of Independence Hall are made using pinecone seeds for shingles, acorns as finials and twigs as downspouts.

Visitors will be able to see miniature replicas of iconic structures at some of America’s most famous public gardens including the Climatron at Missouri Botanical Garden, Torii Gate and Pavilion at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Science Pyramid at Denver Botanic Gardens, and so much more.

The Garden Railway is celebrating 25 years with a new addition — 300 feet of track. This is the largest expansion of the Garden Railway since it was installed in 1998. The new looping section of track extends the total model rail trackage to a third of a mile, making it one of the largest outdoor model train displays in the country.

Admission is $20 for adults; $18 for seniors (65 and older); $10 for students (ages 13-17 or with ID), active military and retired military; and free for children (under 3).

Tyler Arboretum (515 Painter Road, Media, 610-566-9134, www.tylerarboretum.org) is getting into spring big time.

The arboretum’s schedule for this weekend features the “Saturday Wildflower Walk,” on June 1 at 1 p.m.

At the “Saturday Wildflower Walk,” wildflower expert Dick Cloud will lead an informative two-hour hike that will take visitors through meadows, woods, and occasionally streamside.

These walks are for those who have a love of plants, their role in ecology, or for those who want to learn more.

Admission to Tyler Arboretum is $18 for adults (ages 18-64), $15 for Seniors (65+) and $10 for children (ages 3-17) and Military with valid ID.

On June 1,  Laurel Hill Cemetery (3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, 215-228-8200, www.thelaurelhillcemetery.org) will present “Out of the Closet and Into the Crypt” from 10 a.m.-noon.

Most Laurel Hill East residents lived at a time when it was illegal and/or unsafe to be out as an LGBTQ+ person. Sexual orientation was not mentioned in obituaries — or in cemetery records.

Nonetheless, Laurel Hill East has always had queer residents. On this tour, guests will meet some of them — from lesbian artists and a cross-dressing cleric to 21st-century gay activists.

The Tour Guide will be Pat Rose.

Tickets are $17/General Admission (Ages 13 and up); $15/Seniors (Ages 65+) and Students with ID; $12/Members of the Friends of Laurel Hill; and $8.50/Youth (Ages 6-12).

The Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard (1124 East Seventh Street, Wilmington, Delaware, www.kalmarnyckel.org) is beginning its 2024 season of live sails.

Sailing season for the Kalmar Nyckel returns with river cruises in Wilmington and tall ship sails in Historic New Castle. Tickets for day sails plus private ship rentals are now available.

Day Sails from New Castle are scheduled for May 31 and June 1. Ticket prices start at $40.

The ship is a beautiful recreation of the original Kalmar Nyckel, which was built in Holland in the 1620s. Her mainmast is taller than a 10-story building, and she carries 7,600 square feet of sail area and six miles of rigging.

The original Kalmar Nyckel was a Swedish-owned, three-masted armed pinnace that sailed from Goteborg, Sweden in November of 1637 and brought the first permanent European settlers to the Delaware Valley.

In 1986 a group of citizens established the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation to design, build and launch a replica of the Kalmar Nyckel at a shipyard adjacent to the original landing site.

The new Kalmar Nyckel was constructed there and was launched on September 28, 1997. She was commissioned on May 9, 1998, and now serves as Delaware’s sea-going Ambassador of Good Will. She is a fully functional sail training vessel and has represented Delaware all over the country.

Elmwood Park Zoo (1661 Harding Boulevard, Norristown, www.elmwoodparkzoo.org) will also be hosting several of its ultra-popular “Dog Days” over the next week.

The Zoo’s “Dog Days” event will be held on May 31 and June 2, 5, and 7 from noon-4 p.m. each day.

All guests visiting the zoo with a furry friend must complete an online waiver and submit required documents before visiting the zoo. You must upload a copy of your most recent veterinary visit, including proof of vaccine and heartworm test here. All items will be required for you to attend “Dog Days.”

Pricing is $10.95 per dog with each additional dog at $9.95. Regular zoo admission is required for all humans.

Sesame Place (100 Sesame Road, Langhorne, www.sesameplace.com) will be presenting “Elmo’s Springtacular” every weekend now through June 16.

“Elmo’s Springtacular” at Sesame Place is filled with furry fun and exciting events – including an exciting line up of meet & greets, music, magic, pirate adventures, and fireworks.

This weekend will feature “Bluey Meet & Greet” on June 1 and 2.

According to the staff at Sesame Place, “There’s nothing wackadoo about it! Get ready to say g’day to Bluey at Sesame Place! Don’t miss your opportunity to get a hug and take a photo with everyone’s favorite six-year-old Blue Heeler puppy.”

Sesame Place’s special guest Bluey will even be featured in a pre-parade, where fans can wave hello to Bluey. The Bluey Pre-Parade Procession will begin 15 minutes before the 3 p.m. Sesame Street Party Parade.

Kids can enjoy an action-packed day with their favorites. The location will be the Sesame Street Theater.