CABOT – When I was growing up, the Fourth of July was not especially significant for me. I lived on a farm on Cabot Plains and looked forward to my city cousins arriving each summer, and if they arrived around the Fourth, they’d have colorful boxes of firecrackers and sparklers[Read More…]
Columns
Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday in the garden
SOUTH BURLINGTON – As we prepare to celebrate 250 years since our nation’s founding, it seems like an opportune time to take a retrospective look into what gardening was like in America in 1776. Long before the days of grocery stores and industrialized farming, early Americans planted gardens to provide[Read More…]
Dangerous Dragonflies
DUXBURY – Imagine you’re a fruit fly by the pond on a sunny day, whirring along in search of food or other flies. Suddenly, you’re scooped up, whisked to a perch, and efficiently devoured by a blue dasher dragonfly. For little flies like you, blue dashers have a 97 percent[Read More…]
The America I used to know
EAST MONTPELIER – Every once in a while, amid the cacophonic news that pours in through the various speakers here and there in the house, I detect a bit of the America I used to know. It’s not necessarily an explicit image, but more of a remembered aroma; as Eliot[Read More…]
Some relief from showery weather; seasonable temperatures
EAST HARDWICK – The persistent rainfall has made it challenging to plan any outdoor activities that require things to be dry. Not every day during the previous forecast period was a washout, but the sporadic nature of showers meant that even with some appearances of the sun, a premonition existed[Read More…]
Relationships are infrastructure, too
HARDWICK – Earlier this month, I received a national award for floodplain management. The recognition is meaningful, of course. But honestly, what has stayed with me most is how the nomination happened in the first place. Five women working in Vermont state government coordinated the nomination effort, gathered support and[Read More…]
Fortification Hill gets historical marker
CABOT – The Cabot Oral History Committee has placed an historical marker identifying the area known as Fortification Hill and its history. Next to the Cabot Plains Cemetery, the sign explains the history of that section of the Cabot Plains Road, which is part of the Bayley Hazen Military Road.[Read More…]
It’s time to pay attention to vegetable gardens
CORNISH FLAT, N.H. – By now, most of us have planted our vegetable gardens. My peas, onions, lettuce, spinach and potatoes went in early, and now our tomatoes and peppers have settled in and are starting to grow. Is it hammock time? No, now it’s better to do some maintenance[Read More…]
Cecropia is a moth with a mission
HOPKINTON, N.H. – My first sighting of a cecropia moth was from a boat. It was a sunny morning and I was paddling along the lakeshore, expecting to see familiar birds. Instead, my eye was drawn to a large brown spot covering an alder leaf. My first thought was that[Read More…]
A meal worth the sting
NEW ENGLAND – One predator-prey interaction always leaves me torn. Birds sparked my love for the natural world years ago, but after my interest lapsed during adolescence, bees brought me back into the fold. So I found myself split between two allegiances the first time I watched a bird, in[Read More…]
Wednesday rain brings flash floods
VERMONT – Vermont’s flash flood season opened with washed-out roads and a heat advisory right behind it. With heat index values forecast to approach 100 and more thunderstorms possible through the past weekend, state officials say they’re watching both threats at once after storms washed out roads in Hardwick and[Read More…]
Heavy rain Thursday, cool, unsettled most of week
EAST HARDWICK – Prevailing conditions last week put us in a soupy air mass that coincided with some heat. The moisture hanging around, combined with frontal systems that were slow to move resulted in some pockets of heavy rain that added up quickly. Wednesday evening, parts of Hardwick west of[Read More…]
