MARSHFIELD – After two years of going up a division for the varsity girls program and one season for the boys, the Vermont Principals’ Association have slated Caledonia United back into division IV for the upcoming soccer season. Head coach Spencer Morse will take on his third season leading the[Read More…]
Columns
Some precipitation to begin, end forecast
EAST HARDWICK – After another brief period of warmth during the middle of last week, the onion is starting to peel a bit to give us a preview of the fall-like conditions that will be more consistent in our future. The first frontal passage on Thursday led to a drop[Read More…]
Re-enacting the first lap of the Gran Prix
EAST MONTPELIER – It’s hard for me to believe that I ever drove the width of New York State in vehicles of obviously uncertain (but certainly brief) futures without thinking twice about it. Thanksgiving holiday? No problem, even on an ancient Indian motorcycle with no windshield. Date in Buffalo? Here[Read More…]
I heard it through the Jeudevine
HARDWICK – As school administrators and faculty begin preparations this week for the upcoming school year, I hear echoes of my teachers from long ago as they prompted my classmates and me to write a composition on “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”. Year after year I struggled to inject[Read More…]
Sacramental Space
Up here north, in verdant friend Vermont,as today’s dawn seeped in,I walked our grassy, backyard labyrinth,as mowed upon our mound.Deep thanks rose up—and now recur—for her who fashioned such a sacramental space,and shares this brickless, green cathedral(and that of her life) each day with me.When the labyrinth path led me[Read More…]
Syrphid flies puzzle and pollinate
NEW ENGLAND – Survey the insects orbiting a globe of milkweed blossoms or the delicate blooms of a chokeberry, and you might spy an apparent chimera. It looks a bit like a bee, perhaps a tad like a wasp, and it darts and pauses mid-flight like a hummingbird. These diminutive[Read More…]
Hot days perfect time for shady gardening
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – It’s the height of summer, and the weather is hot, hot, hot! That doesn’t mean work in the garden is done. Instead, venture outdoors in the early morning or late in the afternoon. Avoid working in the sun during the hottest part of the day. If[Read More…]
Lilacs losing leaves to blight
BURLINGTON – Lilacs are currently losing their leaves due to a disease called lilac leaf blight, caused by the fungus Pseudocercospora spp. Common throughout Vermont and the Northeast region, this disease also occurred in 2024 because of the wet weather in the spring and early summer. The fungus overwinters on the fallen[Read More…]
Today, No One Remembers
EAST MONTPELIER – It’s often difficult, given the evidence all around us, not to be pessimistic about the future of the human race. We seem to progress at a rate significantly slower than we regress or remain fixed in place, which is pretty much the same thing. The prime example,[Read More…]
Small Amounts of Rain and Cooler Conditions
EAST HARDWICK – A stretch of fair weather with moderating temperatures was the primary theme for the previous forecast period. Little in the way of rainfall accumulated across a large portion of our forecast area in the Lamoille and Winooski River headwaters. Less than a tenth of an inch of[Read More…]
Positive Possibilities
SHELBURNE – “The unknown is where all outcomes are possible; enter it with grace.” That was the wisdom on my Yogi tea bag this morning. I sipped and sat with Grace as I welcomed the positive possibilities of the day. A few I could name. Most would be a surprise.[Read More…]
The Fruit of the Spirit Changes Us
HARDWICK – It’s hard to look at all the things happening in our world and think we can have an impact. It’s difficult to know how to make a difference. How can we live out our lives in ways that are meaningful, important and life-giving to our world? One overarching[Read More…]
