The problem with a mother-in-law is that she is not from your tribe.

Older than the town itself, this antique farmhouse at 149 Dudley Rd. provides both an unmistakable connection to Colonial days and a dazzling dwelling for today's life.

When he flew to the Middle East to take portraits of former Iraqi detainees, commercial photographer Chris Bartlett captured images far removed from the world of high fashion where he makes his living.

This past January, when Wilton's director of social services finished presenting her department's 2009-2010 budget request to the board of selectmen, a question was posed that caused some jaws in the audience to drop.

In the bleak mid-winter, made bleaker by a plummeting economy, it's cheering to know that out in the garden at least, things are looking up.

Carefully chosen ornamental objects—a graceful sculpture, a weathered birdbath, or a simple bench—can inject elegance or wit to an otherwise predictable swath of yard or plantings and offer a glimpse into the gardener's personality.

More than 70 YEARS ago, back when Wilton was not much more than dirt roads and farmland, a group of like-minded residents, hungry for culture and intellectual connection, began meeting periodically to discuss plays they had seen in other local communities. At one of these gatherings, a brave soul raised his hand and suggested that if the towns around them, such as Westport and Norwalk, had their own theater groups, why shouldn't Wilton?

During an economic downturn, shabby chic threatens to become just plain shabby. But those who've had to put major home-improvement projects on hold indefinitely don't have to settle for shabby.

This lean, green, living machine sits on a ten-acre site on Esther's Island, a small spit of land just off the tip of Nantucket. Sustainability is truly the name of the game in and around this house. Recreated to exist indefinitely, the house makes use of renewable resources and was built with recycled products whenever possible.

Solar energy shines, decorating on less, changes on the home front, growing your own, the play's the thing.