EAST HARDWICK— Conditions started to dry out on Monday following the passage of a frontal boundary Sunday evening that brought widespread showers and thunderstorms. A spot shower or two was noted on Monday, but sunshine was otherwise abundant with highs reaching the mid-60s. Highs should be in the low 70s[Read More…]
Columns
You’ve heard me complain many times
EAST MONTPELIER – We’ve all seen this at one time or another. Russet dry maple leaves raked into a pile for collection, lying quietly, till suddenly a zephyr seemingly from nowhere stirs them into a live, rustling mass. Then a stronger puff takes a whack at them, and the top[Read More…]
Jackson Dam changes raise common questions from community
by Kristen Leahy HARDWICK – As conversations about Jackson Dam continue, a few questions tend to come up repeatedly. That is not surprising. When a piece of infrastructure has been part of a landscape for generations, people naturally think about what might change and what might be lost. One of[Read More…]
Weeks Gone By, May 27
100 years ago in The Hardwick Gazette, May 27, 1926MEMORIAL WEEK IN HARDWICK Exercises Beginning Friday Afternoon by School — Pre-Memorial Sunday Forenoon — Memorial Day Program Monday Under auspices of Ellsworth Relief Corps, the citizens of Hardwick once more will be given an opportunity to unite with this organization[Read More…]
Wild oats is a bashful bellwort for spring
NEW ENGLAND – On a recent walk through a woodland strewn with underfoot color, my rapt gaze floated, like a bumblebee queen on her first foray after winter, from trout lilies to trilliums to spring beauties, all blooming across the forest floor and exulting in the sun shining through the[Read More…]
Bobolink is grassland bird in reverse tuxedo
MILLBROOK, N.Y. – If you live near a large meadow, hayfield, or grassland, you may have recently noticed some bubbly robotic noises emanating from those areas. It might sound like an overexcited android, but the real source is a medium-sized songbird, the bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus). One of the few avian[Read More…]
Hydrangeas are easy to grow, popular garden additions
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Hydrangeas are such a familiar fixture in home gardens, it’s easy to assume there’s not much know about them. While it’s true they’re easy to grow, there are a few things to know when adding a hydrangea to a yard. Hydrangeas are deciduous shrubs. Some have[Read More…]
Cool and wet conditions persist through the week
EAST HARDWICK – Another weekend with soggy conditions as the prominent feature started later Saturday and persisted through Sunday and Monday, with a total of 1.04 inches of rain. We remain about an inch and a half above normal for the month’s precipitation. Days throughout the forecast period originally projected[Read More…]
I watch her watching
EAST MONTPELIER – The apocalyptic traffic predicted for the last day of the Memorial Day weekend hadn’t become evident before Kiki and I covered the three hours and change from the North Shore back to Montpelier. As usual, I emptied everything temporary out of the car, put the leftovers from[Read More…]
Cooler weather for forecast period; showers again by late weekend
EAST HARDWICK – We continue to outpace the rainfall norms for this month after a week featuring showers and several hours of heavy downpours Wednesday into Thursday. Most rainfall amounts for this storm ranged from an inch and a half to two inches, with Woodbury reporting 2.19 inches and Cabot[Read More…]
What happens when a dam comes down?
by Kristen Leahy HARDWICK – Over the past few weeks I’ve written about Jackson Dam, the sediment that has accumulated behind it, and the reality that rivers and infrastructure do not remain frozen in time. One of the questions that naturally follows is simple: what happens when a dam is[Read More…]
Tussock Cottongrass is champion of bogs, alpine areas
BURLINGTON – A bog is a special natural community, characterized by deep, wet and acidic soil below an open sky. Soft sphagnum mosses squish underfoot, dominating the surface of the bog and making up the mostly undecomposed organic soil below. The ground springs up and down with each step, a[Read More…]
