As I sit here in sunny but not too hot weather, I’m in a wonderful mood. Since we are having a short burst of fall weather (my favorite) in my summer I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics! I know I have a lot of favorites, but one that could use a revisit is pain. I don’t like to…
A vegetable garden is a wonderful thing. Not just for the food it produces, but for the attention it requires. No, really. Hear me out on this.
This week I’m going to continue my delayed July 4th article by talking about barbecues. This may seem like a silly topic, but coming off a year of not many social outings, new dogs and now introducing parties with food I promise it is not.
A recent chat with a Vermont author reminded me that there are two distinct subgenres of “thriller” … mysteries and spy novels. I am an avid mystery reader who dabbles in spy novels, but if there’s a good story and hopefully a puzzle to work out as I read, I’m not that concerned with which g…
So I dropped the ball on the 4th of July article (as usual, time is passing much faster than I can keep up with!) Now the 4th has clearly passed. I was thinking I missed my chance to talk about booms and barbeques, but then I realized that fireworks, barbeques, and thunderstorms last all sum…
Summer is here, and gatherings are back on. That means you’re going to need to bring something to share with those family and friends you haven’t seen so much of lately. And since it’s been a while, it better be good.
Summer is here, as evidenced by our hot thunderstorm week. School is out, the heat is out and vacations are planned. Especially after lockdown last year, the freedom of vaccines is making everyone extra excited to get out and about. However, vacations can’t be planned without planning for ou…
“Nonfiction” covers an enormous range, from cookbooks to self-help titles, biographies, or the latest political tell-all book. Some have long shelf lives, some are essentially disposable (quick, who remembers what “Primary Colors,” an NYT bestseller from 2006, was about?).
Lately, I have been getting many questions in the same vein, so I’m going to do a question and answer article. A lot of questions end up repeating themselves over time because you don’t worry about them until they happen for YOU and your pet, but these have come up a lot lately so are worth …
As a food writer, it won’t surprise you that I have a running list of foods I want to make and recipes I want to create. Spring rolls have been on that list for weeks. I had the wrappers but kept putting off making the rolls, thinking that it would be a project that required a lot of time an…
I often get a lot of people that are reluctant to start medications for different things, but we still need to do something. There is a really great place for holistic medicine during this ‘“in-between” phase, and also that we can add on when our current medications just aren’t quite cutting…
Cardamom is one of my favorite spices, and I’m always finding new ways to use more of it. So I figured, why not add it into something I enjoy every day and make cardamom flavored coffee? It turns out, this is a common flavor of Thai Coffee.
So I have written a lot of articles about feline cystitis, but you’re going to get one more! For some reason, we have been seeing and talking about these guys a lot lately. This issue is truly so widespread, and many cats have bladder inflammation long before they show us signs.
While it’s Stanley Cup playoff season in my house, good books about hockey are few and far between. It’s also baseball season, and there is an absolute embarrassment of riches when it comes to baseball books. Because there are so many, there are also hugely specialized categories of baseball…
It is time to kick off this (coldish?) summer week with some Mythbusters! The kids are getting unfocused, you keep thinking about vacation plans instead of work. Essentially, it is time to take a fun break! We will get back to serious information next week. That isn’t to say these aren’t imp…
Is it early for summer, late for summer, in between for summer? Who knows anymore. I feel like dates have become fluid and the weather does what it wants. But as I sat out scorching in the sun I realized it’s time to talk about the heat.
Last year a generous friend divided up her rhubarb plant and shared some with me to plant in my own garden. Now, after taking time to get established, it’s finally ready to harvest.
We’re doing lots of our annual exams right around now. But what does that really mean? Why not just go to a shot clinic or find your own? What’s the benefit of an annual exam? We will be transitioning off curbside soon, but it can be extra hard to know what’s happening when you’re in the car…
I know it’s spring in the garden when chamomile starts to pop up like a weed.
The warmer weather is here, the vaccines are here and all of our covid puppies are raring to go.
The literary canon is constantly undergoing revision and rethought. Some titles seem to go on regardless; some fade and return to popularity, or go through changes over time. My favorite Shakespeare play is King Lear, which almost disappeared from the stage after its first run, being conside…
Ticks, ticks, ticks! I went walking this past weekend and my dogs were covered in ticks. I found a tick on my human child as well. Thus starts the time of year when I am emotionally scarred from ticks and consider surrounding myself with a ring of fire to stay safe. I start thinking I see th…
Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics. I know I say that about weight control, tick prevention and a hundred other things. I suppose I have a lot of favorites, but one of my all time passions is pain control. There are a lot of reasons that I am passionate about pain contro…
I’m a sucker for buying frozen drinks when the weather is nice. How often do I make them at home? Rarely. Even though I have a decent blender and the main ingredient for any frozen beverage: ice.
Normally I avoid titles that are new to the library – they get heavily browsed and don’t need any extra love to be found / cherished by readers. Instead I generally dig into the stacks to find forgotten gems. But with no in-person browsing (likely coming in early May), we have more new title…
Off the leash
I’ve always thought it funny that carrots are considered a spring vegetable. By always, I mean for as long as I’ve known a few things about how vegetables grow.
So now we are moving on to dog vaccines. All vaccines are important, but since our dogs are out and about more often than most cats, they become especially important. In addition, several of the diseases that we vaccinate dogs against are fatal in many cases. So these vaccines don’t just hel…
So now that we have talked about the basics of immunity and vaccines, I’ll talk about the actual diseases that we vaccinate pets against. As I discussed last week, what we consider “core” changes based on area and lifestyle, but I’ll talk a little bit about that as we go.
This soup reflects a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the past year. For starters, it reminds me to appreciate simplicity. Humans have a knack for overcomplicating things and for better or worse, we’ve had to learn to simplify our lives in some ways lately. A soup made of mostly celery, …
With NASA’s Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars, it’s a great time to do some reading about Mars. Our closest planetary neighbor has fascinated people for thousands of years, with its vivid color and wandering path across the sky. It was among the first handful of planets identified in…
So while we often do vaccines throughout the year, a lot of people think of Spring as “vaccine season” so it is a great time to discuss them. Since puppies start their vaccine series whenever they arrive in a home that can be any time of year. I actually love to spread out vaccines throughou…
While my yard is still mostly snow, the warm days last week are a sure sign that Spring is coming. I went out to talk to clients in just my scrub top. The birds are singing, the snow is melting and the mud is becoming plentiful. While it is Vermont and we might get more winter, it’s time to …
Chances are that you use olive oil in your everyday cooking. But have you tried it for baking? It may sound unusual, but baking with olive oil is common in countries such as Spain, where there is a fresh and flavorful supply of olives.
Avid readers are often jealous of my job as a librarian, thinking it involves a lot more reading (for fun) than it does. Honestly, sneaking in an occasional picture book is a victory most weeks. But one advantage I do have right now is proximity … I can wander the stacks looking for semi-ran…
So while I yapped on about my by-product pet peeve last week, it got me thinking about some other veterinary-related fallacies that I try to educate against. We’ll now be discussing what things in this profession that irk me and how it affects my practice model. Don’t worry, it won’t necessa…
This winter, my wife and I joined a winter CSA from a local farm. A CSA is essentially a subscription with a local farm where you pay in advance and sign up to receive a regular schedule of in-season goods. Though CSAs also exist for meat, baked goods, and other specific niches. Depending on…
One benefit to my readers is that whatever continuing education I’m currently doing comes through into my articles. This may not seem like a huge benefit because I get excessively excited about random topics, but I swear it is. The great thing about all of my continuing education is that I a…
Imagine you create something so good that people name it after you. But then, you get into an argument, and someone takes your creation away and changes its name on you. As the decades pass, your creation lives on, yet you go forgotten.
Genres have been combining and breaking down for decades now, to the education and joy of readers everywhere. One of the most experimental, vibrant areas for this is biography. Once the home of often-dry, tome-like paperweights about Important Men, biography has expanded into a wide variety …
Pandemic stress talk time! While I could go on about human stress for a long time, I won’t because that’s not my area of expertise (well, at least not giving advice on it.) A lot of people got new pets during the pandemic. A lot of schedules changed during the pandemic. Many schedules aren’t…
Heart disease is checked off for this month of hearts, but now we will move on to my other heart favorite-heartworm. Those of you who are less veterinary inclined probably don’t automatically associate heart holidays with heartworms as I do, but since this is my article you still have to joi…
If I had to pick my favorite fruits, I don’t know that citrus would come close to topping the list. Yet my feelings on the matter change about this time each year. The dreary days have me craving foods that pack a punch of flavor. I’ll take anything to help me get out of my winter rut and fr…
What does a picture of a heart bring to mind to you? Love? Chocolate? Heart disease? Heartworms? I think it is clear by now that my mind travels to strange places, and for the next two weeks while others think of loving hearts I will talk about issues with pet hearts. I swear I did get invit…
I am once again starting my article by telling you a personal story. If we aren’t careful, 2021 will reveal more about my life than you ever wanted to know! So I got up to pee in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. I’m shuffling along, only 10% awake, in my bare feet, and WHAM! I step i…
I try to read 104 books each year – two books per week. I failed in 2020 (78 books) largely due to my daily doom-scrolling of Twitter during morning reading time. My hope is to get back on track in 2021. Here’s my entirely subjective list of favorites from the past year. And just a pitch for…
If you find pancakes boring, then it might be time to give aebleskiver a try. Aebleskiver are round, Dutch filled pancakes, and they’re about to bring some excitement to your breakfast game. Think of them as pancakes crossed with donut holes with the added lightness of popovers. In other wor…
I am going to start this article with a personal story. So if you’re not ready to learn more about my personal life you should probably skip it. But if you alternately want to know more about cat bathroom habits — read on.
So let’s say you read my resolution article. You’re thinking I’m being unrealistic right? You’re feeling a little bit salty because let’s face it, 2021 also is sort of terrible. Then I start talking about making your pet lose weight like you don’t have anything else to worry about. It’s icy …
Nonfiction often doesn’t get as much attention as fiction, and I’m not sure why. In the right hands, a true story can be as suspenseful as a made-up one, and there’s the added little excitement that it’s true. I’m reminded of Fargo, the Coen brothers’ 1996 movie and subsequent TV series that…
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Rutland artist Lopi Laroe (LMNOPI) has created giant timely murals around Rutland and the United States.
Currently open public art exhibits, galleries and museums throughout the region.
Currently open public art exhibits, galleries and museums throughout the region.
Currently open public art exhibits, galleries and museums throughout the region.
