Course Schedules

All Intersession programs will be with the exception of Book and Film Discussion Groups will be field trips. Book and Film Discussion Groups will be Zoom only.

Please check your email for the weekly program announcement and any last-minute changes.

LIRA Summer 2023 Event Descriptions

Tour of Bedrock Gardens

Wednesday: June 7: 11 a.m. Cost $15 per person. Meet at the location or arrange to carpool; About a 1-hour drive.
Bedrock Gardens is located at 19 High Road, Lee New Hampshire.

For GPS: 19 High Road, Lee NH 03861; Note* continue past North River Road until you get to Route 152 and then take left. Telephone number for Bedrock Gardens 603-659-2993.

This will be a self-guided visit. We will be given a map and suggested route through the gardens. Last year they required a mask for any indoor areas. We are welcome to bring our lunches but must bring out what we bring in.

For more information on this LIRA outing contact Beverly Rudeen by email: beverly.rudeen@gmail.com or call: 603-966-0313.

Tour of Wolf Hollow

Wednesday: June 14: 11 a.m. (arrive by 10:45 a.m.) $20 per person. $15 per child .

Wolf Hollow, 114 Essex Road, Ipswich, Mass. 01938; Phone: 978-356-0216. 

Wolf Hollow (the North American Wolf Foundation) is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, and was started by its founder with a mission “to preserve the wolf in the wild, through education and exposure.”

We have set up a private walking tour of Wolf Hollow. Our docents ask us to arrive at 10:45 a.m. This is a good hour drive, so we will be leaving at 9:30 a.m. sharp from the side parking area at Hannafords at Drum Hill Chelmsford. Please plan on carpooling.

If you are planning to attend, please send a check made out to LIRA Inc. for $20 for each member in your party to: Beverly Rudeen, 3 Thoreau Lane, Tyngsboro, Mass. 01879 603-966-0313

We will have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.

I will also need the names and a contact number for you and your group. We are thinking some of you might want to have lunch after the tour. Woodman's, a rustic seafood restaurant in Essex, is just a few minutes further on Route 133.

Let’s find out about the wolves!

Nashua Silver Knights Baseball Evening Outing

Wednesday: June 21: 6 p.m. Note the time is later than usual. Cost is $8 per person.
Historic Holman Stadium 67 Amherst Street Nashua, N.H.

The Nashua Silver Knights are a summer, wood-bat baseball team competing in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England (FCBL). The roster consists primarily of New England athletes currently playing collegiate baseball at the Division I, II or III levels.

Since the league's founding in 2011, the Silver Knights have won a league-record six championships (2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2020 & 2022)!

We have purchased 20 tickets in advance to sit together along the 3rd base line. Additional tickets may be available at the gate for $10 if not sold out.

Cost is $8 per person. Please sign up with Jim Rutter via email at james.rutter@comcast.net or call 978-405-4373. Please send a check for $8 per person (made out to LIRA Inc.) to Jim Rutter, 6 Hart Road, Chelmsford, Mass., 01824.

We will also have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.

Come, enjoy the game, and visit the concessions stand for some good old-fashioned ball park food!

Lowell Canal Tour

Wednesday: June 28: Noon-2 p.m. Cost is $11. Note time is later than usual.

This is a one-and-a-half-hour boat tour through the canal and locks out to the Merrimack River with guided narration by a Park Ranger. We may also stop to visit the Francis Gate-house en-route. The tour is in an open-top motorboat. It is not accessible for wheelchairs but if you can make it down three steps, you should be fine. Park in the Hamilton Garage off Dutton Street and keep your ticket to be validated at the Park Visitor Center so that it’s free. The group will then go together to catch the trolley to Swamp Locks, where we will board the boat. Boats hold 18. Limit 18 with waitlist. No cancellations but waitlist folks can send you a check if you need to drop out. Please send your $11 payment made payable to Sally Coulter to reserve your space: 200 Market Street #611, Lowell MA 01852. Information from the Park Service was not complete at the newsletter deadline and any changes will be communicated later.

We will have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.

New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill

Wednesday: July 5: 10 a.m. - noon

New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill is a 171-acre botanic garden and arboretum located in Boylston, Massachusetts. The Garden features 18 distinct gardens, preserved wood-lands, and miles of walking trails. Experience the wonder of plants at a botanic garden in the heart of New England. The Garden includes conservatories, formal and naturalistic gardens, a Garden Shop, café, and expansive views of the Wachusett Reservoir. NEBG cares for an irreplaceable collection of plants and places sustainability and environmental stewardship at the fore-front of its work. Here, wandering is always welcome, and no two visits will ever be the same.

Cost is $25 per person which includes admission and a guided tour. The visit is limited 20 members and guests. Please sign up with Peter by email at: sebes3@yahoo.com or call 978-251-7202. Make check out to LIRA Inc. and send to Peter Sebelius, 20 Draycoach Dr., Chelmsford, Mass., 01824.

We will have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.

Millyard Museum

200 Bedford Street, Manchester, NH 03101
Wednesday: July 12: 10 a.m. - noon

Operated by the Manchester Historic Association, the Millyard Museum is housed in Mill No. 3 at the corner of Commercial and Pleasant Street in the historic Amoskeag Millyard. The Museum’s Henry M. Fuller State Theatre Gallery features rotating exhibitions on a variety of topics. The Millyard Museum also features the Discovery Gallery, a multi-purpose space used for school groups, family programs, lectures, temporary exhibits and other activities. For current exhibit visit Historic Manchester's website.

Cost is $9 per person and includes a guided tour of the museum. Please sign up with Peter at sebes3@yahoo.com or call 978-251-7202. Make check out to LIRA Inc. and send to Peter Sebelius, 20 Draycoach Dr., Chelmsford, Mass., 01824.

We will have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.

Historic Houses Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Wednesday: July 19: 11:45 a.m.
Note the time is later than usual.

The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, N.H., is the only art museum in the world that owns two Frank Lloyd Wright homes. Accessible by guided tour, they are the only Wright buildings open to the public in New England. Both homes were built in the 1950s when Wright’s domes-tic architecture reshaped American home design. The Usonian Automatic and the Zimmerman House express two equally beautiful visions through their closely related designs and contrasting materials.

Access to the homes is available by tour only. The tours last about two hours. Visitors meet at the museum (150 Ash St., Manchester, NH) and are driven by van to the houses and afterwards back to the museum. Groups are limited to 10 guests.

We have reserved all 10 places on this tour for members of LIRA. The cost of admission is $35 per person. Admission to the art museum after the tour is included in the price. Please email: alan-friedman@comcast.net to reserve your place, first come, first served. If a place is available, I will request that you mail me a check. If the number of people interested exceeds the limit, we can look into scheduling another tour in a subsequent semester.

Visits begin with a brief introduction and close looking together outdoors, followed by self-guided exploration inside the houses with docents present to answer your questions. They have created a handout to enhance your discoveries. The tour of each house concludes with interactive outdoor viewing and time for questions with Currier staff and docents.

Both the Kalil House and the Zimmerman House are historic structures with original floor plans. Although there are accessible spaces in both houses, there are also narrow hallways, staircases, and uneven terrain. The maximum width for mobility devices is 29 inches (73 centimeters). For more information about accessibility on house tours, please contact guest services by phone at: 603-518-4908.

The above information is taken from the Currier Museum of Art website.

We will have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.

Alnoba Original Art Tour

Monday: July 24: 10 - 11:30 a.m. Note different day than usual.
24 Cottage Road, Kensington, N.H.

Meet at location or arrange to carpool.

Cost of admission and tour is $150 for up to 12 people, then $15 for each additional person up to 15 people total. This works out to $13 each if we get 15 people.

Alnoba’s renowned art collection was created to inspire, delight, challenge, and provoke.

Here, art isn’t something precious, admired from a distance. It’s bold and wild, springing from Alnoba’s unique natural landscape and daring you to engage. The collection includes masterworks by some of the most respected artists of our age, including Andy Goldsworthy, Orly Genger, Jaume Plensa, John Lopez, Allan Houser and Ursula von Rydingsvard.

On your tour, enthusiastic volunteer guides will introduce you to the stories behind the artists and their work. Many of the pieces represent vital themes of social justice and sustainability, challenging us all to go one step further than we thought we could toward a better world.

Guided tour details:

• Walk starts at 10 a.m. promptly and lasts for roughly 90 minutes. Please make sure you are in the parking lot before then. Guide will meet you there.
• Guests must stay with the guide at all times.
• Please dress appropriately for exploring the outdoors.
• Wear appropriate footwear and bring a bottle of water and sunscreen.
• Be prepared to walk at an easy pace, with some breaks, for the full ninety minutes.
• Alnoba’s buildings are closed. Walkers may use the portable restroom in our parking lot.
• No dogs are permitted on the property.
• This is a walking tour only – no bicycles.

The tour takes place outdoors, sometimes on uneven terrain, with a roughly 2-mile walk. Hiking shoes and casual attire are recommended. Bring bug spray or sunscreen.

The visit is limited to 15 members per tour, but multiple tours can be done at the same time. Please sign up with Jim Rutter by email at: james.rutter@comcast.net or call: 978-405-4373. Make check out to LIRA Inc. and send to Jim Rutter, 6 Hart Road, Chelmsford, Mass., 01824. We will also have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook. Lunch There is no food on site nor any place to eat a packed lunch, but The Farm at Eastman’s Corner (approximately 1/2 mile from Alnoba) is a local eatery offering hot and cold selec-tions for those who wish to get together after the tour.

We will have a sign-up sheet at Town Meeting on May 10. Bring your checkbook.