EAST MONTPELIER – The events of this past weekend in the Mad River Valley of Vermont highlighted a well-known, but rarely discussed, feature of Washington, D.C., politics: the tin ear. I like to call it the imperial ear. It listens, but doesn’t hear. Instead, it assumes. And last weekend, it[Read More…]
Columns
A Most Harmonious Town Meeting
Important Measures Passed Without Opposition, New Bridge to be Erected, Tax Less Than Last Year. HARDWICK, Thursday, March 5, 1925 — When Moderator, John E. Hancock, Sr., called the annual town meeting to order at ten o’clock Tuesday forenoon, there were just forty people in the building, most of them[Read More…]
Survival in the Cold
HILLSBOROUGH, N.H. – The new year ushered in an Arctic blast that has only recently let up. This extreme plunge in temperature is referred to as a polar vortex. While it may seem that this is a new term, it has been in use since the 1800s. These periods of[Read More…]
Get Ready for Spring with a Garden Party
BOLTON –By this time of the year, it may seem like winter will never end. Many of us are eager to start gardening knowing that spring is right around the corner. While we can’t make the calendar pages turn more quickly, we can get ready for the upcoming gardening season[Read More…]
Former Peace Corps Volunteers Share Strong Spirit of Service
CABOT— Established by President John F. Kennedy in 1960, the Peace Corps organization has been a longtime pillar of volunteer organizations, serving international communities with the mission of promoting world peace and friendship through community-based development and intercultural understanding. Peace Corps Week 2025 is February 23 to March 1. This[Read More…]
A Legally Nonexistent Creation
EAST MONTPELIER – The news, the commentaries, the opinions, and the speculations all flood in here like the water we used to shoot under dormitory doors with dustpans and watering cans. The net effect is hard to ignore. You’d have to be a confirmed Luddite or hermit to be unaware[Read More…]
Warm, Wet With Switch To Subzero Wind Chills
EAST HARDWICK – A little taste of sunshine brought back some moderating temperatures Monday and Tuesday as highs made it into the low to mid 40s. These temperatures arrived on a moderately strong southwest wind on the backside of a high-pressure system. The moderation comes after a start to the[Read More…]
Ravens Foraging in Winter
Washington, D.C. – It’s a familiar sight in winter: An inky-black raven soaring over a landscape white with snow. Though similar in appearance to the American crow, the common raven (Corvus corax) is distinguished by its large size, fluffy neck feathers, and long, thick beak. The ubiquitous raven croak can[Read More…]
The Bewitching Witch Hazel Tree
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – You may be familiar with its name from the bottle of astringent found in your home medicine cabinet or for sale on pharmacy shelves near rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. What you may not know is that the leaves, bark and twigs from American witch hazel,[Read More…]
Drier Forecast Period Ahead
HARDWICK – What a week of racking up the white stuff. It started with a burst of mixed precipitation on Thursday that left us with two to five inches of snow and sleet, before a nice break in the action for Friday. The heaviest snowfall of the season arrived this[Read More…]
Last Week was no Exception
EAST MONTPELIER – I once had a student who collected inspirational quotes, aphorisms and sage-sounding advice. He’d become a leader of groups of young boys in a program that borrowed extensively from the Outward Bound model that posed challenges designed to stimulate personal growth and self-reliance, and made good use[Read More…]
Carolina Wren Moves North
HARDWICK – The wren was the first to our feeder, 6:45 a.m., the snow blowing, temps around four degrees without the wind chill. A line from an old poem came into my head. “The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow, and what will the robin do then,[Read More…]
