Recently, the editor of the editorial page of the Valley News received a letter from a student named Izzie in “Mrs. B’s Class” at the Langley School of McLean, Virginia. As part of a “state fair” project, his third-grade class had been given an assignment to study various states of the union…
A series of six deer meetings, called to gather input on several far-reaching deer hunting proposals, begins on March 25 in Rutland.
I’ve taken to wandering the night lately — one of the pleasures of having a puppy. Willow, my pup, and I walk at all hours, from twilight to midnight and into the shadowy early morning. Some nights we walk under the cover of stars and moonlight, and other nights the world is so dark, my blac…
Parents have been quite anxious to ask me what to do for their child or teen’s feelings of anxiety. Let me see if I can relax everyone with some information on this topic.
The classic tune by John Denver could have just as easily been about Vermont instead of West Virginia. When it comes to country roads, Vermont has a lot of them — more than most other states, thanks to its rural development pattern over the past few hundred years.
When I say “pollinator,” you think bee, right? Honeybee, bumblebee, wild bee. But what about moth, butterfly, beetle or fly? Many of those are pollinators, too. I recently read an interesting article about pollinators by Dan Jaffe and Jane Roy Brown in the “Native Plant News,” a magazine put…
Somewhere around the middle of the night at about the 90-mile mark, the course of the marathon fell in with a “seismic line” — a straight swath cut through the bush and used by energy companies to explore for oil with bulldozers and explosives — and began to follow it up and down hill regard…
The climb up that steep ridge is tough enough in daylight; in hours of darkness, it is downright dangerous. One slip down on that bad knee could mean the end of the deer season. But this is a place where I have killed deer and, on this morning, I take the half-hour trek, all uphill, with the…
Like most people, I thought I knew where to find fireflies: in back yards and fields on summer nights, flickering on and off like dollhouse-sized lanterns or like Tinker Bell, the tiny fairy that the author of Peter Pan invented while observing fireflies near a Scottish lake.
One foot in front of the other is my mantra when hiking, whether it has been the short trek to the height of Stowe Pinnacle Trail, hiking the full stretch of Long Trail from Massachusetts to Canada, three weeks on the John Muir Trail in California, or my 1,200-mile journey covering half of t…
With the change of seasons just weeks away, we decided to do some early spring cleaning of our eating routines. We don’t mean dieting. We mean taking stock of what we eat and why we eat to optimize health, wellness and energy. For guidance, we turned to Kate Bean, a registered dietitian, cer…
Mothers-to-be have been cooking up lots of questions about what they should eat to ensure a healthy baby. Let me see if I can provide some food for thought on this topic.
Mothers-to-be have been cooking up lots of questions about what they should eat to ensure a healthy baby. Let me see if I can provide some food for thought on this topic.
With the change of seasons just weeks away, we decided to do some early spring cleaning of our eating routines. We don’t mean dieting. We mean taking stock of what we eat and why we eat to optimize health, wellness and energy. For guidance, we turned to Kate Bean, a registered dietitian, cer…
The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department’s plan to close down the Salisbury Fish Culture Station came under much criticism and the response was overwhelming. Now, Fish & Wildlife may come up with another proposal to cut $250,000 from its budget.
Act One opens in a forest on the western slopes of the Taconic Mountains in southwestern Vermont. A man in his 40s is walking with his former high-school geology teacher, a man now in his 70s. Amid the towering trees, they come across a VW bus-sized boulder, sitting alone and somewhat out of…
Many Vermonters received a confusing postcard from the Department of Motor Vehicles in January. The card thanked readers for their participation in Vermont’s new statewide electronic inspections program, called the Automated Vehicle Inspection Program, or AVIP.
Parents have been babying me with questions about when their child is old enough to babysit. Let me take on the job of discussing babysitting and provide some more information on the topic.
If I’d known what I was getting into, I’d’ve brought the Delorean instead of the Prius. The Prius was fine for getting me here — I just typed “Black Mountain Ski Area, Jackson, NH” into the GPS route-finder, and the lady with the precise accent took care of the rest. But once I got out of th…
The New York Times recently reported that opioid overdose was the leading cause of death for people under the age of 50 in the United States (2018). The incidence of prescription medication overdose that occurs outside of health-care facilities has increased exponentially in the last 20 year…
White. Cold. Winter.
We celebrate George Washington’s birthday this month, during a long cold and flu season. Much like President Washington, I cannot tell any lies — about these winter illnesses. Instead, I want to speak the truth about some rumors regarding the common cold.
That sweet time of year is almost upon us. Soon, Vermont’s sugarhouses will come to life as sap starts flowing from the maple trees and into plastic piping and metal buckets, to be collected and boiled down into one of our state’s favorite sweet treats, maple syrup.
It was sort of a mutual curiosity society: The wolves were watching us from perches on hillsides, and we were watching them from our canoes as we passed. We lads of the Geriatric Adventure Society’s Arctic Division were a long way from anywhere, on the Hayes River in Nunavut; coordinates rou…
I love trees, and find them endlessly fascinating. Each is unique, much as we are. One winter I attempted (and failed) to read all of Michael Dirr’s authoritative “Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs” — all 950 pages of it. I only read about trees that are hardy here, and still only foun…
A few winters back, there was a doe who frequented our compost heap. The garden fence around it proved an inadequate barrier, as she simply hopped over it to nosh on the rotting shards of jack-o-lanterns and the latest veggie scraps tossed atop the pile. Not far from the garden sits an old o…
Right around Valentine’s Day, parents always crush me with questions about their son’s or daughter’s first romantic relationship. Take heart, and let me provide some information on this heartfelt topic.
Let’s face it. It can be hard to get outside during a Vermont winter to get some exercise and activity every day. The good news is that the Rutland region is brimming with programs, new and old, to make it easy and fun to play outside in the snow. So, let’s talk about all of the outdoor acti…
When we’re filing out our income tax returns, most of us are focused on how much money we’re going to get back. But when it comes to the Vermont state income tax return, there is an invitation to donate some of your refund to a good cause.
The only thing I dislike about New England is that whenever I have an inspiration about a feature of our beautiful, but sequestered life, I discover that another immigrant far more talented — Robert Frost — has already been there. Likewise commentary on the socio-political scene: Whenever I …
Remember that sweet, sunny June morning when you took your children to the local kids’ fishing derby? You captured those big smiles on camera as your kids held up the very first trout of the day, maybe the first fish of their young lives, then looked on as they munched on hot dogs and drank …
On winter mornings when I look out my window, I often see a gray squirrel clinging upside down to the post supporting my bird feeder, with his front paws in the tray, munching sunflower seeds. Sometimes, a much smaller red squirrel is perched on the opposite side of the feeder.
I am always perked up when the spring flower shows arrive, and I always try to get to a couple of them. If you’re feeling the midwinter blues, I highly recommend attending one, or more. Here’s this year’s lineup.
As part of a campaign in support of nuclear cardiac imaging, The Rutland Health Foundation, the fundraising department at Rutland Regional Medical Center, recently launched a campaign to raise $500,000 in support of a new nuclear medicine camera for the Rutland Heart Center.
Winter is a good time to look at the trees and shrubs on your property. Even though the snow may keep you from working on your trees, study your landscape now to see if you need to do some judicious tree removal or pruning before summer.
Bodegas Naia
Had a unicorn pranced across the trail in front of me, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
With February being National Heart Month, parents have been pumping me about their children’s heart health. Let me get to the heart of the matter and talk about the prevention of heart disease, beginning in childhood.
So here’s the scoop on Stu Bristol. You probably haven’t heard of Stu unless you go way back — back before the wild turkey walked and flew among us.
A husky, dark-haired man, looking to be maybe in his 50s, stands at the edge of a freshly frozen black-ice lake, wearing a bathing suit and a pair of ice skates. He steps onto the ice carrying a short-bladed chain saw. He starts the saw and, squatting down, touches it to the ice between his …
"The LEGO Movie" is a hard act to follow. Its world was so fresh and vibrant and unexpected, it's no wonder that it spawned a number of spinoffs of varying quality. But the big test was always going to be the sequel and whether or not it could recreate the magic of the first. And I'm pleased…
While many Vermonters are downhill skiers, some like to ski uphill, too. Called skinning, these skiers head to the resorts or their favorite backcountry locales to “earn their turns” — that is, to ski up the mountain, then turn around and ski back down.
Did you know that heart disease affects one in three women? That’s one in three of our mothers, wives, aunts, sisters, and best friends. In honor of American Heart Month this February, we are sharing tips from seven employees who are committed to living heart-healthy. Some of these women hav…
Looking out the kitchen window the other evening, before I turned in for the night, I was amazed to see a temperature reading of 16 below. The next morning, just before 7 a.m., it was a jaw-dropping 23 below zero. I think we can say that the two big February ice fishing derbies, set for late…
When I’m skiing or skating across a pond, I observe the shoreline, surrounding hills, islands, maybe a woodpecker or blue jay winging its way to the opposite shore. I look up at the sky, the clouds, swirling snowflakes. But there is a world beneath my feet that I don’t see, in what Henry Dav…
