Kennett Square

Can't wait to shake off the cold and gloom of winter? Longwood Gardens can get you in a springtime mood real fast. Its "Welcome Spring" display, featuring 16 indoor gardens, is in full bloom. The 3-acre display highlights thousands of familiar and exotic flowers, including daffodils, blue poppies, hyacinths, tulips, roses and orchids. Visitors also can enjoy gardening and cooking demonstrations, as well as Sunday concerts in the gardens. A free audio tour with more than two hours of information about the gardens is also available.

Want to see an acrobat balance one-handed atop a stack of chairs? How about flying tumblers hurling themselves through the air? Yes, you do? Then head to Pennsylvania to see the Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats. The troupe will be at Longwood Gardens, near Kennett Square, on Saturday. (Rain date is Sunday.) The acrobats, who have performed in more than 65 countries, will begin their show at 7 p.m. in the 1,500-seat Open Air Theatre. Wearing traditional and colorful costumes, they will incorporate balancing, juggling, dancing, contortionism, comedy and magical elements into the performance.

More than 30 chefs from the some of the country's best restaurants and culinary schools (including New York's Culinary Institute of America and Rhode Island's Johnson and Wales College of Culinary Arts) will be poised to cook you a wine brunch Sunday in Wilmington, Del. While the event may be out of town, there's a local tie: The herbs and seasonings the chefs are using all come from Baltimore-based Vanns Spices. The annual event, called Meals From the Masters, raises money for local chapters of Meals on Wheels, a nationwide nonprofit program that delivers hot meals to homebound seniors.

`Christmas at Longwood Gardens' The sight of 750 fountains rocketing skyward greets visitors to "Christmas at Longwood Gardens," near Kennett Square, Pa. The fountains dance to holiday music each half hour, beginning at 11 a.m., and continuously from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily through Jan. 6. After dark, starry snowflakes up to 6 feet wide and icicles up to 5 feet long sparkle in surrounding trees. And thousands of poinsettias, towering trees, fragrant flowers and exotic plants fill 4 acres of gardens inside the gardens' conservatory.

Christmas at Longwood Gardens Longwood Gardens near Kennett Square, Pa., burst into bloom for the holiday season today, and visitors can marvel at the colorful and sparkling display through Jan. 7. Thousands of brilliant poinsettias, towering trees, fragrant flowers and exotic plants fill four acres of gardens inside Longwood's glass conservatory along with decorated trees and wreaths. And daily concerts, outdoor fountain shows and evening light displays add to the holiday magic. The gardens, off U.S. 1 three miles northeast of Kennett Square, Pa., are open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. - the conservatory opens at 10 a.m., including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is $12 for adults ($8 Tuesdays)

Shaker Forest Festival Step back to yesteryear and experience the life of Shakers, an industrious group of craftsmen who invented many essentials still in use today - the flat broom, clothespin, packaged seeds, washing machine and the simple but exquisitely crafted Shaker furniture and nesting boxes. For the next two weekends, you can observe craftspeople, dressed in period clothing, demonstrate their skills at the annual Shaker Festival, held amid a canopy of trees and mulched pathways at Seneca Creek State Park in Gaithersburg.

Concerts at Longwood Gardens Listen to traditional music tonight and cheer on musicians and dancers from New Zealand Saturday evening at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa., a horticultural display and former estate of industrialist Pierre S. du Pont. The performances are part of the gardens' summer Festival of Fountains, which runs through Sept. 2. A half-hour illuminated fountain show set to music takes place at 9:15 p.m. in the Main Fountain Garden after each performance. This evening, the Philadelphia group Gypsophilia presents Greek, Balkan and klezmer traditional tunes.

Romantic musicJoin pianist Liz Story (pictured) for a romantic evening on Saturday at Frederick Community College, in the Kussmaul Theater, featuring selections by the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. Additionally, Story will perform previously released compositions, "Church of Trees" and "Ana." She will be accompanied by bassist Joel Di Bartolo. The Howard Burns Quintet will open the performance.The performance will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Maryland Symphony OrchestraListen to German and Austrian music when the Maryland Symphony Orchestra continues "A Season of Favorites" this weekend at the historic Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown.Under the direction of Barry Tuckwell (pictured), the internationally renowned French horn player, the orchestra will perform Schubert's Symphony No. 8 ("Unfinished"), Strauss' "Don Juan," Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries."Join Tuckwell, the orchestra's founder, for an informal discussion about the concert at 12: 15 p.m. Friday in the Maryland Theatre.

Giving Thanks at Historic St. Mary's CityFor a look at how our Colonial ancestors celebrated the end of the harvest season, attend "Giving Thanks: Hearth and Home in Early Maryland" tomorrow and Saturday at Historic St. Mary's City, an outdoor living history museum at the site where Maryland's first settlement and capital were founded in 1634.The museum-wide exploration of 17th-century food-ways includes demonstrations of hearth cooking, pickling meats and vegetables, preserving fruits, dairying, smoking and drying.