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…]
Columns
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…]
Headwater Streams Are Vital Sources of Clean Water
FRANCESTOWN, N.H. – For nearly 15 years, I have been exploring the headwaters of a river near my home. The entire drainage area, encompassing all the streams, rainfall, and snowmelt that pass into a single river, is called a watershed. Within each watershed, a system of rivers and streams forms[Read More…]
Willette and Peak are now too Busy for Retirement
WALDEN – Colleen Willette and George Peak of Walden seem to have worked themselves right out of retirement with their Top of the Mountain Vegetable Farm and Bakery. The two native Vermonters began their lives pretty typically. Colleen grew up in Burlington and graduated from Burlington High School in 1974.[Read More…]
Making Outdoor Spaces Work
NORTHFIELD – As warmer weather approaches, it is a great time to consider how to use the outdoor spaces. Whether renting or owning, using public land or private, there are things to think about to help make these outdoor spaces work better. Ideally, the landscape should match needs, lifestyle, time[Read More…]
Bancroft was One of Plainfield’s Early Settlers
by Carla Occaso, The Bridge PLAINFIELD – Baxter Bancroft resided in Plainfield longer than any other, 84 years (by 1882), per an entry in Volume IV of the Vermont Historical Gazetteer edited by Abby Hemenway in 1882. This section is titled “The History of Plainfield, Roxbury, and Fayston.” Bancroft had[Read More…]
Growing Up Black in Hardwick
HARDWICK – My name is Orin LeRoy Bracey Jr. This article describes the youth of an octogenarian African American man, who had the uncommon good fortune to have grown up in rural Vermont in the late 1940s. It will become obvious upon reading this seven-year snapshot of my recollections of[Read More…]
