by Elise Tillinghast Several weeks and many baths ago, my dog discovered a black-and-white stranger crossing our lawn. Wagging vigorously, and ignoring my frantic shouts, she ran up and offered her canine greeting: a nose-to-tail sniff. The encounter end... More »
by Tena Starr For the most part, Vermont cultivates a vanilla image — a small, pretty state, full of cows, skiers and maple syrup. But if you poke it a little, Vermont is weird. It used to be weirder, but there are still remnants of eccentricity and odd cha... More »
by Tena Starr I’m a fan of James Lee Burke, who writes gritty crime novels based in New Orleans and the bayou country of Louisiana. Mr. Burke’s books are punctuated by alligator growls in the night, by the life of the bayous and the Atchafalaya, the biggest r... More »
by Tena Starr I’m a convert to train travel. Steve and I were going to New Orleans and points south — as far south as we could in Louisiana, until the road ran into the ocean. More than once, when we said we were going to Venice, a Louisiana resident said, ... More »
by Joseph Gresser An unusually high number of people attended the Lake Region Union High School Annual Meeting on a stormy night and voted 97 to 51 to approve a budget of $9,907,398 for the 2024-2025 school year. At the March 20 meeting, voters were led throu... More »
by Michael J. Caduto Boiling maple sap into syrup is a time-honored tradition in the Northeast, to the olfactory delight of anyone who has spent time in a steamy sugarhouse while inhaling the sweet maple scent of the season. It used to be that trees were tappe... More »
The Outside Story by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul I’ve always loved the idea of watching the sky for shooting stars. But I’m much more likely to be up to watch the sunrise than I am to stay awake past midnight, when most meteor showers happen. Lucky for me, the... More »
The Outside Story by Doug Facey During the autumn months, many birds migrate from their summer breeding grounds in the Northeast to warmer wintering areas south of our region. Migratory birds include many species of raptors and waterfowl, which we often noti... More »
The Outside Story by D. Glenn Miller In late autumn, well past the showy blossoms of summer, after even fall’s late bloomers have faded and the trees have dropped their leaves, there is one shrubby plant still putting on a flower show: American witch hazel (... More »
The Outside Story by Susan Shea On an October day years ago, my husband and I were canoeing on a pond in the Green Mountain National Forest. We heard crashing in the bushes along the shoreline just before a magnificent bull moose with large antlers appeared.... More »
The beginning of the fall season means that Halloween is on its way. Scary movies, spooky costumes, and pumpkin carving are all time-honored Halloween traditions, but trick or treating—and the accompanying appetite for candy—is perhaps the season’s most distin... More »
The Outside Story by Declan McCabe In May of this year, when a cottonwood measuring over three feet in diameter and more than 100 feet tall fell across a trail in the Saint Michael’s College natural area, I saw the event less as a tragedy, and more as a circ... More »
