EAST MONTPELIER – I see by the news that the Iditarod Race is in full cry up in Alaska. There’s a ceremonial false start right near Anchorage: kind of a parade, really, with celebrities everywhere. Then next day, safely out of downtown, the real thing begins: a roughly thousand-mile slog[Read More…]
Columns
True Religion
The only possible true religion (if there could be such a thing), would be a whole new way of seeing, which our divine Source, in and through us, would weave in tandem. And through the lens of that re-perceiving, —and re-partnering— could come a re-membering —of our birthright member-ship— in[Read More…]
Backyard neighbor: the song sparrow
Brookfield – In early March, birds that have been gone all winter begin appearing at my feeder. One of the earliest of these spring migrants is a brown-backed sparrow with a white breast coarsely streaked with brown. The streaks converge in a dark central breast spot, an easy identification mark.[Read More…]
Combat high prices with a garden
CORNISH FLAT, N.H. – It seems to me that the prices of many things have gone up significantly in recent times. One way to combat that, as a gardener, is to start plants by seed instead of buying plants that someone else has started, watered and mothered for months. Many[Read More…]
Spring cover crops for vegetable gardens
SOUTH BURLINGTON – The ground may still be covered in snow, but now is an excellent time to start planning to improve the soil in vegetable gardens for the planting season ahead. Cover crops are effective tools in the gardener’s toolbox for soil improvement. While some are food crops, they are[Read More…]
Trend toward substantial warming by weekend
EAST HARDWICK – More daylight is evident on both ends of the day as the time between sunrise and sunset extends beyond 11 hours this week. Some events that come with that include a higher sun angle, some competition between airmasses, and the prospects of our clocks moving ahead so[Read More…]
Bread and circuses
EAST MONTPELIER – I had the experience, some thirty years ago, of sharing a canoe in the Canadian Arctic with a delightful child psychiatrist. Naturally, we talked all day long of shoes and ships and sealing wax, I suppose, and I remember a few of the things I learned. One[Read More…]
Sue Slayton remembers Hardwick history: Upstreet, downstreet, overstreet
HARDWICK – Claire “Sue” (Goodrich) Slayton, grew up hearing stories about her grandfather, Samuel Daniels of Sam Daniels Manufacturing Company Inc., a maker of wood and coal furnaces in Hardwick and Montpelier from 1908 through 1969. Graduating from Hardwick Academy in 1966, Slayton has many memories of Hardwick’s unique community[Read More…]
Two fishers meet in the winter woods
DEER ISLAND, Me. – Fishers (Pekania pennanti) have a reputation as the northern forests’ ultimate misanthropes. These mesocarnivores are so territorial that within six to eight months after their birth, young fishers are unceremoniously pushed out of their mother’s home range to fend for themselves. This forced eviction leads to[Read More…]
Seeds, frazil, and flocs: the story of ice
HANOVER, N.H. – Mile-long Trout Brook cuts downhill through heavily bouldered glacial moraine in the Indian Ridge area of western New Hampshire. Like any woodland brook, it features waterfalls, cascades, pools and coves. By mid-December it is usually frozen over, with audible water running under the ice and snow. Only[Read More…]
Late winter is best time for pruning
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Just because there’s snow on the ground doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do in the garden until spring. Late winter is often the best time to prune many deciduous trees and shrubs while they’re still dormant. Pruning during dormancy poses less stress on trees and shrubs[Read More…]
Ups, downs with temperatures; snow on Wednesday and Saturday
EAST HARDWICK – The observation station logged several no-precipitation days this forecast period, which included most of Saturday into Monday. Much of northern New England dodged a powerful Nor’easter that brought feet of snow to places like Connecticut, Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts, coastal Maine and New Hampshire. Providence, R.I., had[Read More…]
