January is Mentoring Awareness Month!
It’s lunchtime on a regular Tuesday at Vermont Bicycle Shop on Main Street in Barre, and owner Darren Ohl is tending to two fat bikers. It’s not a comment on the body size of either of the riders. Rather, their winter mountain bikes are equipped with 5-inch-wide wheels, about twice the thick…
Hundreds of years ago, haunting bugle-like calls echoed through these hills and valleys. The sounds were made by bull elk to attract mates and fend off rivals. Elk in the Northeast? Yes, elk were once the most widely distributed of North American hoofed mammals. Millions roamed over much of …
I love hot and spicy peppers. As a young man, I lived in West Africa for nearly 10 years, first as a traveler, then as a Peace Corps volunteer and Peace Corps country director. I lived in Cameroon and Mali, where hot peppers were an integral part of the diet. If peppers are hot enough, they …
It’s National Ski Safety Awareness Week, so let me glide through a few tips on ski and snowboard safety.
We were saddened to learn of the deaths in 2018 of people we were fond of. Two of them were avid striped bass fishermen. We swapped stories. I fished with one of them; the other angler I never met.
We’re finally getting some winter. It may be nothing like what my friend Larry up in Kugluktuk gets — he had -40º Celsius the other day, and if you know your tables, that’s the same as -40º Fahrenheit — and it may be nothing like what we old-timers remember 60 years ago, but it’ll do. The sn…
Ever see an old chair that seems different — the parts are a little more curved, the stretchers between the legs have more shape and the seat seems a little low? The informal slat-back chairs made in Canada and what would become the United States in the 17th and early 18th centuries are ofte…
At this time of year I like to look back on the past year to reflect on wonderful events — in the garden and in my life. I take time to count my blessings, look at my mistakes and plan for the future.
Parents have been asking for my aid, I guess you would say “First aid,” in stocking a first-aid kit. Let me bandage up those concerns and provide some answers on this topic.
The other day I was driving through New Hampshire’s Crawford Notch, where my eyes are usually drawn to the tall mountains and long, cascading waterfalls on either side of the road. But on this day my gaze shifted toward the snowbanks lining the narrow highway. The sun was shining and the lan…
Some years ago now, I saw a cartoon — in New Yorker, I think — of two old nabobs in leather armchairs at their club. One of them, frowning, says, “The thing I hate most about the sexual revolution is that I’m too old to take advantage of it.”
Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in the United States. States are embracing legalization one by one with widespread support as the national market for weed continues to increase rapidly.
So, it’s January, the winter has taken hold of your soul and you haven’t a clue as to what you can do about it.
Anna de Codorniu Blanc de Blancs
Claire Robinson-White didn’t set out to be an ultra-runner and snowshoe racer, but once she discovered these sports, she was hooked. A resident of Richmond for 17 years after moving from England, she first found herself in a surgeon’s office four years ago treating a complication with her brain.
It is very difficult to identify early blown glassware from the 18th century because talented modern glass blowers can make good copies in the earlier styles and colors. Today, chemical analysis of the glass, along with other modern methods, can identify the source of the sand (silica) used …
In 2009, the Affordable Care Act set a new rule requiring hospitals to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment at least every three years in order to find out what the community sees as important to their health. Rutland Regional Medical Center has been conducting these assessments (call…
Few things seem as remote as the January sun in northern New England. We see the light, but we feel almost no heat. In this way, winter can feel like a kind of exile — there’s a sense that the Earth has been flung to the farthest reaches of its orbit.
In the garden
The first time I went ice fishing, I knew as much about the sport as I did sewing. There were about a dozen anglers out, all jigging. It was early January and, of course, I was well aware of my shortcomings.
My granddaughter couldn’t have been sweeter or more solicitous as she asked, “Do you know how to turn on the flashlight?”
Parents have been asking me some cool questions about how to recognize whether or not their child has frostbite. Let me see if I can warm things up and provide some information on this topic.
Short days and cold temps don’t lend easily to keeping families entertained, especially outdoors. Downhill skiing, sledding at the local hill, and ice skating at rinks or outdoor ponds are all great options that almost go without saying. In addition to those classic winter pastimes, here are…
Visiting a garden in winter allows me to see the bones of a garden, the internal structure which supports and enhances the flowers and leaves of the other three seasons. I like to go slowly through a winter garden to allow the spirit and essence of the garden to sink in. I recently visited t…
On any given morning, thousands of Vermonters emerge from their bedrooms and head to the kitchen for a warm cup of coffee or some breakfast. But imagine if, instead of the easy and safe journey into your kitchen, you first had to dart across a busy two-lane highway before you could find some…
My irreplaceable late wife used to get nervous when in a weekly column I announced our imminent departure for more than a day or two. She didn’t want folks to know we weren’t going to be here, with the house unguarded. Thus, I restrained myself from the habit of spilling those beans until ju…
Some people keep lifelong birding lists. I’ve tried, but birds and I have never really hit it off. Too many colors, too many species, and I’m tone deaf, so birding by ear is completely beyond me. I do keep a lifelong weasel list. I can tell you exactly where I was when I saw my first white-c…
The holiday season is here, and parents have been cooking up lots of questions about food safety. Let me see if I can provide a few safe ingredients on this topic.
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico — Imagine a botanical garden, and acres of carefully designed, highly manicured, delicately pruned “zoos for plants” may come to mind. But at El Charco del Ingenio, a botanical garden and natural protected area in central Mexico, the sprawling scrubland has been…
Happy New Year! Is your 2019 resolution to stop using cigarettes, cigars, chew, electronic cigarettes or the JUUL? If so, congratulations, this is a great first step towards a healthier you. Here are some tips and information to help you achieve your goal of a healthier lifestyle.
Winter can be a real pain. It’s cold and you’re not all that eager to get outside. But there is an opportunity out there, if you have the right clothing, the right gear and the right frame of mind.
We may remember 2018 as the year when technology’s dystopian potential became clear, from Facebook’s role enabling the harvesting of our personal data for election interference to a seemingly unending series of revelations about the dark side of Silicon Valley’s connect-everything ethos.
The cañada, or canyon, in El Charco del Ingenio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
The Conservatory of Plants in El Charco del Ingenio.
Director Mario Arturo Hernández Peña showing endangered cacti grown in El Charco’s greenhouse at El Charco del Ingenio in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
(Sung to the tune of “The First Noel”)
Winter came earlier than usual to northern New England this year — we had a white Thanksgiving — and shows no signs at the moment of going anywhere till maybe April. Most of us accept this with a certain Yankee philosophical calm — what’s the rush, when the next thing coming is mud season? —…
There’s a giant living in northern Coös County, New Hampshire. It’s a 61-foot-tall tree, the country’s largest known American mountain ash. At last measurement, it stood at a height of 61 feet and had a circumference of 70 inches. That’s outstanding for a tree that’s described by most source…
The deer season is over. The next rifle season is almost a year away. And now the long, cold winter months are upon us. What to do? Get out, whenever you can, and walk the woods, get some exercise, look for deer sign or, better still, buck sign.
Famille Perrin
Sometimes people may develop problems with their eyelids and wonder what to do about the condition. These conditions may include lumps and bumps, drooping, or malpositions such as eyelids turning in or out, or lashes growing into the eyes and irritating them. Some conditions may be benign an…
For many of us, the coming days are a great time of faith, gratitude and celebration. Some of us, I suspect, miss the true meaning of Christmas because we get wrapped up in the giving and getting of presents. How can we not? We are constantly bombarded in the media about Black Friday, can’t-…
Over much of the world this year, desperate people have decided that their living conditions — poverty, hunger, violence, corruption — are insupportable, that almost anyplace else has got to be better than where they are, and have begun migrating toward what they hope will be better lives. T…
I once lived in a cottage perched atop a sloping field in Western Massachusetts. It was the lone structure at the edge of undeveloped forest and sat far from the road. The cottage had a large front deck with an expansive view, and a smaller one in back that faced the forest. It was under the…
This is not the time for planting trees in New England. But it is a good time for looking at them and deciding what to plant, come spring and summer. Since we have five months or so without flowers growing in our gardens, look at the silhouettes of trees, decide what pleases you, and read up…
The biggest threat to the health of children older than 1 year is not disease, it’s accidental injury. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, each year thousands of children suffer injuries from toys severe enough to be treated in a hospital emergency room.
Parents have been stressed out asking me how to make the holiday season less stressful for children and for themselves. Let me see if I can ease some holiday anxiety and provide some information on this topic.
