NEW ENGLAND – On warm days through early fall, you can find two large species of digger wasps flitting about late-blooming flowers. Like many wasps, these species elicit strong, often negative reactions in humans. But digger wasps inhabit a critical niche in invertebrate communities and can lend a natural hand[Read More…]
Columns
If You Live Here, You Should Learn It
EAST MONTPELIER – Of all the cultural commentary that floods in here daily on the internet, this little story is one of my favorites. A man standing in a checkout line in a supermarket is talking in a foreign language with someone on his cell phone. The woman standing behind[Read More…]
Creamery in Cabot Dates to 1893
CABOT – The Cabot Creamery that we know today was formed in 1919, but it was not the first Cabot Creamery. The “Cabot Creamery Company” was formed by 90 farmers on June 19, 1893. The March 9, 1893, “Burlington Free Press” reported: “The citizens of Cabot have raised $3,000 for a creamery to[Read More…]
Planting in October
CORNISH FLAT, N.H. – For some of us, planting time is long past – but not for me. I am always busy in the fall, planting everything I can. It is almost time to plant garlic, which is my easiest crop of all. And I’ll soon be planting spring bulbs,[Read More…]
Raise a Glass of Cider to the Jeudevine
HARDWICK – Some of you may have wondered if you actually felt the earth tremble under your feet; others may have cocked your heads, wondering was that a distant roaring you heard; or, even in the midst of this run of magnificent weather, did some feel an extra rush of[Read More…]
Cooler with Chance of High-Elevation Snow Showers
HARDWICK – Cooler weather is seeping in from the northern half of Canada, as an upper-level low slowly spins just east of Hudson Bay, turning the flow northwesterly and causing lingering clouds and scattered light rain showers. That air-mass transition became especially evident Monday morning, after an evening of scattered[Read More…]
Sporadic Rain for Week; Snow Possible at Elevation Monday Night
EAST HARDWICK – The colors are starting to pop across the region, as daytime temperatures cool. But we’re still treated to intervals of sunshine. We’ve avoided a significant frost so far and look to continue with that plan for the rest of the week, which is when the growing season[Read More…]
Some Snow Expected
We’ve been socked in with several days in a row of alternating overcast and breaks of sunshine. Precipitation has largely fallen as light showers, amounting to just under an inch of rainfall over the past week, with temperatures hovering precariously close to freezing. Somehow we’ve managed to avoid accumulating snow[Read More…]
I Discovered Her a Few Years Ago
EAST MONTPELIER – Bridget, the young Irish woman who lives in my dashboard, led us unerringly across the glacier-striated grain of New England for almost five hours and popped us out onto Main Street in Rockland, Me., directly across from our favorite local seafood shack. Almost beside it, Front Street[Read More…]
Fall Garden Cleanup: Yes or No?
CABOT — Most of us were taught to clean up gardens in the fall. Our parents, grandparents, and the neighbors who hired us as kids would tell us to cut everything to the ground, and rake out any remaining debris. Lately, you may have seen articles saying the opposite: leave[Read More…]
Late Blooming Flowers Feed Native Bees
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the height-of-summer floral abundance fades, goldenrods and asters fill the landscape with hits of yellow, purple, pink, and white. Beyond the beauty they provide, these late bloomers are a critical food source for several native species of wild bees. During late summer and fall, many specialist[Read More…]
All About Apples
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – They’re the most familiar of fruits, but how much do you really know about apples? Apples (Malus domestica) are members of the rose family (Rosaceae). So are crabapples, pears, apricots and cherries. If looking for a native apple tree, apples aren’t native to the Americas. They[Read More…]
