Did you know that Mansfield is known as home of the oldest silk mill in the U.S.?
According to Connecticut Place Names, Horatio and Rodney Hanks established the first silk mill in America on Hanks Hill in Mansfield in 1810. The original building is now at the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

Learn more about how the town once led the nation in silk production with Ann Galonska, director of Mansfield Historical Society, who will talk of “Spectacular Silkworms,” at a free family (ages 6 and older with an adult) lecture event on Saturday, July 27, 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, Storrs. Get a look at living silkworms and the cocoons they produce. No registration required. Introduced to Mansfield in 1790, silk production was a popular home industry with families raising silkworms in their homes and processing resulting threads by hand.

Silk-like ribbons flutter in a breeze – fair season has started. The New London County 4-H Exposition is on through Sunday, July 28 at the Grange Grounds in North Stonington. “Make your own sundae” fundraiser and activities. Visit www.ctagfairs.org to find a new fair – large or small – to enjoy every weekend. The 17-day Big E, the largest fair in the Northeast, starts Sept. 13.

Saturday, July 27, is “Hay Day” at the Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont. Watch the traditional haying techniques done with draft horses and equipment. Especially for families: penny-in-the-haystack, making clothespin horses. Admission is $12; less for seniors and children. The Annual Quilt Exhibition starts Aug. 1, a juried exhibition of quilts made exclusively in Windsor County to celebrate 27 years of quilting excellence at the Billings Farm. Demonstrations, programs, and activities continue into September.

A farmers market with artisans plus live music is part of what is so appealing at the Saturday, July 27 Old Lyme's Midsummer Festival. Registration for the “Parading Paws” dog show starts at 9 a.m.; judging begins at 10:30. Don't miss a visit to the Florence Griswold Museum. Artists and lovers of beauty know this town for the glory of natural light and as a source for inspiration. Visit and you'll see why.

Love old mills and walking? A “mill of the month” tour on Saturday, July 27, is part of the ongoing series (what a great idea) of the Windham Textile and History Museum. Local historian Bev York will lead participants along mill sites on the Willimantic River located in Mansfield, Conn. Participants will also visit mill sites in Merrow, makers of stockinette material and Eagleville, which made cotton thread and gun parts during the Civil War. The mills are gone, but remnants and dams still remain.