BRATTLEBORO – When Peter Stickney walks along his cow paddocks in the morning, he notes the scattered patches of greener grass across the pasture. He knows what this means: It’s where his cows have peed. So when the Rich Earth Institute, a Brattleboro organization focused on turning human urine into[Read More…]
Columns
Willows and April Bees
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION – Willows (genus Salix) are pollen powerhouses in April. From river banks to roadside ditches, these fast-growing shrubs provide abundant food for early spring pollinators. Their inconspicuous, greenish flowers are visited by a variety of different bees and other insects and are likely the primary pollen source[Read More…]
Wet And Cloudy Weather Pattern Through The Weekend
HARDWICK – Even though we had a cold front come through at the beginning of the forecast period last week, we were treated to a couple of days of sunny skies and slowly moderating temperatures. Several precipitation reporting stations noted that as that front passed through Wednesday, precipitation ended in[Read More…]
Vermont Girl’s Disappearance Sparked Massive Search (Part 1)
VERMONT – The last time anyone had seen Lucille Chatterton was at 6 o’clock on April 24, 1925. That’s when the 11-year-old girl told her father she was going to fetch some water from the spring, which was 50 yards from the family’s home in Granville. Her father, Walter, wasn’t[Read More…]
Renewing Worn Items, New Board Chair, Teen Advisory Board
HARDWICK – Last week the Jeudevine Library hosted Elena Brotz, a seamstress who is traveling by bicycle west-to-east from Burlington to Bar Harbor, Maine. Elena is in her final semester at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. She finds happiness in bringing back to life worn items of[Read More…]
Keep Both Chickens and Plants Safe, Productive
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – There’s more to consider than fresh eggs when raising chickens at home. For gardeners, that includes keeping both chickens and plants safe and productive. Chickens love to dig in the dirt and that can be a problem. Take advantage of their natural tendencies by allowing access[Read More…]
Learning the Language of Birding
FRANCONIA, N.H. – The shift begins around the time we turn the clocks ahead, a gradual transition from winter’s steady chorus of chickadees, squawking jays, and crows cawing over the compost pile to, well, more. On an afternoon walk along back roads, I’ll hear an avian uprising and look up[Read More…]
It Wanders Today, as Often it does Lately
EAST MONTPELIER – The dying day breeze stirs only the treetops, and an evening stillness descends upon the woods. I sit on a bench in the park, as quiet myself as our surroundings. Kiki, restless as ever, alternates between the bench and my lap and short sniffing forays into the[Read More…]
What Will Karma Have in Store?
EAST MONTPELIER – Many of us are familiar with archy and mehitabel (more of us ought to be), a collection of essays, stories, and poetry written by archy, a cockroach with literary instincts and talents who’s been condemned to a life as a cockroach for the crime of having been[Read More…]
Back-and-Forth with Temperatures; Warming by the Weekend
HARDWICK – Clearing skies meant seasonable daytime temperatures and cool evenings starting in the middle of last week, as high pressure was in control of our weather. A frontal system approaching during the weekend brought scattered mixed precipitation and a return to below-normal temperatures, with lows Sunday night in the[Read More…]
Monthly Musings
Grace Space SHELBURNE – It feels fitting that what for many was a once in a lifetime spatial experience happened in April, poetry month. In January, as I reflected on the upcoming total solar eclipse and the violence around the world, I wrote the following poem for PoemTown St. Johnsbury.[Read More…]
