The Parks Place Community Resource Center's 6th Annual Garden Event, “The Art of Growing Food,” featuring Ellen Ecker Ogden, will take place Sunday, April 10, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Alyson's Orchard in Walpole, N.H.
Ogden, author of The Complete Kitchen Garden and co-founder of The Cook's Garden seed catalog, will share her six steps to successful kitchen-garden design, with fresh ideas for ways to elevate a vegetable garden into a European-style potager, where plants are chosen as much for their color and form as for their functionality. Ogden's articles and garden designs have been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including Eating Well, Horticulture, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Country Gardens, and Martha Stewart Living.
June Lupiani will demonstrate creative ways to prepare foods from your kitchen garden. Lupiani is a registered dietitian and co-owner of MKT Grafton, a modern general store and eatery in Grafton. Lupiani focuses on food that aligns with values of community, quality, and sustainability. She has coauthored two cookbooks and promotes health and wellness on Dr. Oz, and on ESPN and NBC. Her recipes can be found in publications such as Yoga Journal, Wine Enthusiast, Martha Stewart, Self, and Parenting.
Admission to the event is by donation. Silent auction items can be previewed at 1:30 p.m. the day of the event. Refreshments will be provided. All contributions go to support Parks Place.
Members of the team behind a planned expansion and renovation of the Bradley House residential-care facility presented their preliminary designs to the Development Review Board (DRB) March 21. The Bradley House provides congregate housing - independent living with opportunities for shared activities - and nursing care for senior residents.
“Our laws should reflect our reality,” said Sen. David Zuckerman, P/D-Chittenden. The law vs. reality, in this case, is the use of marijuana in Vermont. The current laws force “responsible adults to live secretly,” said Zuckerman, a Hinesburg resident and lieutenant governor hopeful. Meanwhile, kids, whom the law should...
College news • During the week of March 7, Caitlyn Reilly of Wilmington and 17 other student from Emmanuel College in Boston participated in the college's annual Alternative Spring Break (ASB) trip to New Orleans. ASB is a week-long, faith-based service trip held during the College's traditional spring break that bridges volunteer work with education and reflection on larger social issues. The New Orleans group continues to focus on rebuilding a city still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
What does fossil-fuel stock divestment have in common with the closure of Vermont Yankee? Three state senators claim the answer is simple - bad government. Sens. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle; Robert Starr, D-Essex/Orleans; and Peg Flory, R-Rutland have penned a letter sharply criticizing Gov. Peter Shumlin's push to divest the state's pension fund from investments in coal and ExxonMobil stocks. In doing so, they draw a straight line from divestment to the state's - and Shumlin's - long-standing, staunch opposition...
University of Vermont professor Major Jackson will read from his new book, “Roll Deep,” and discuss how poetry not only serves as a record of our existence but also enlarges us as human beings, on April 6, at 7 p.m., at Brooks Memorial Library. His talk, “An Evening with Poet Major Jackson,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. Jackson is the author of three collections of poetry:
It's been the warmest winter on record in Vermont, with mean temperatures five to 10 degrees above normal and snowfall several feet below normal statewide, the National Weather Service reported at a meeting here March 17. Such statistics meant that the gathering of state officials and emergency responders took on a different tone than originally intended. Rather than the usual discussion of ice-jam inundation, talk turned to earlier-than-usual brush-fire risks and possible flooding from heavy rainfall. In spite of the...
On the morning of Feb. 12, nine Windham county residents sat down in a hotel conference room in Nairobi, Kenya to talk about the day-to-day details of their journey through cultures and time. Thanks to Guilford Community Church Pastor Rev. Lise Sparrow, who had made this journey a number of times before, all the bases were covered, and just about nothing was left to chance. This was no ordinary trip, and riding the roads of Kenya is not exactly the...
Once we arrived in the village, we were greeted by the women and were taken into a traditional Kenyan dance. Feeling very welcomed, some went on a walk to the sacred stream that never dries up. It is said that the water heals. Everyone then went to the dispensary to hand out medical supplies such as the new otoscope. Next, we went to the sacred tree with the benches. Happily to say, the benches are still in great condition, and...
WKVT to host public forum on mental health issues BRATTLEBORO - From 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, March 31, WKVT Radio will present a live broadcast of a public forum about mental health needs and services in the community. WKVT hosts Peter “Fish” Case and Chris Lenois will moderate the panel in the style of the 2014 “Call to Action” program that addressed opiate abuse. The forum will include personal accounts by affected individuals and families as well as...
Vermont's congressional delegation is asking federal regulators to “give local stakeholders a seat at the table” when nuclear plants decommission. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., joined a dozen other legislators in writing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as that agency begins developing new regulations for shut-down plants. As Vermont Yankee transitions toward decommissioning, a frequent complaint has been the lack of participation for host communities and state governments. So that is an...
Saxophonist and composer Bob Stabach, keyboardist and Director of the Vermont Jazz Center Eugene Uman, and special guest percussionist Stephan Brandstatter will present spiritual songs and contemplative improvisations in a benefit concert at the Brattleboro Shambhala Meditation Center Sunday, April 3, at 2 p.m. The concert will aid the meditation center in meeting operating expenses. The Shambhala Meditation Center is part of the worldwide Shambhala Meditation community begun by Tibetan Master Chogyum Trungpa and operates by donation. It is located...
While the fate of a marijuana-legalization bill remains unclear in the Statehouse, Windham County’s Democratic leaders have left no doubt about where they stand. The county committee has voted to support legalization and also to join the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana as the second Democratic committee in the state to join its ranks. County committee Chairman Brandon Batham said he pushed for a vote on marijuana legalization because “on issues like this, Windham County Democrats can’t afford to shy...
In a community celebration of spring, the Blanche Moyse Chorale joins the Windham Orchestra and Windham County high-school choirs in two performances of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Carmina! A Concinnity of Choral Community Collaboration! will feature student singers from Brattleboro Union High School, Bellows Falls Union High School, Leland & Grey Union High School, and The Putney School. They will be joined by the Blanche Moyse Chorale and the Windham Orchestra under the baton of Hugh Keelan. Performances are Friday,
The Department of Public Works will post its final gravel roads report on Monday, March 28. Compared with previous years, this mud season was kind to the town's gravel roads, said Water & Highway Superintendent Hannah O'Connell. She called the change “great and refreshing.” O'Connell said the mild winter meant less frost buildup in the roads. Mud season usually follows sugaring season, she said, when warm days and cold nights thaw and harden the frost in the roads. The DPW...
Tulip Café moves to Main Street BRATTLEBORO— Tulip Café is moving in April, from its old location on Elliot St. to the Brooks House at 126 Main St. Hale Kiziltan, who co-owns the cafe with her father, Michael, said of the transition, “Why wouldn’t I move? It’s on Main Street.” A further advantage of the move is a larger kitchen, shared with adjacent Turquoise Grille, which is also owned by the family. Having the two locations in one spot also...
A proposed 28-turbine wind project has grown so contentious, even the format of public meetings spurs vehement debate. As international wind developer Iberdrola Renewables continues to refine plans for what could be Vermont's largest turbine site, the company has scheduled public “technical workshops” for April 5 in Grafton and April 6 in Windham. “The goal of the public meetings [...] is to share information gleaned from site-specific evaluations of the Stiles Brook tract by the experts performing the actual scientific...
On a recent unseasonably warm, rainy day, Jonah Mossberg, who was hired last fall as the farm manager at Food Connects' School Harvest Farm, offered a tour of the field, the buildings, and the spiffy equipment. But the first stop was inside the offices of Food Connects, a nonprofit organization with a simple mission: “to cultivate healthy food and farm connections in classrooms, cafeterias, and communities in and around Windham County, Vermont.” “I'm pretty excited about these,” he said, pointing...
Probably since the first paintings started appearing on cave walls, people have argued over art: What is in and what is not? Continuing this age-old discussion, a new exhibit at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (BMAC) challenges traditional views of fine art. “Visions from the Edge: An Exploration of Outsider Art” showcases art from 12 artists whose creative impulses emerge from their personal experiences with autism and other developmental disorders. All 12 artists featured in the exhibit - Oscar...
Rep. Mike Hebert was no fan of Vermont's new education-governance law when his colleagues approved it last year. Now, the Vernon Republican is questioning the transparency and integrity of the process by which Act 46 is being implemented in Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, which includes his two-town district. Hebert is concerned enough that, on March 23, he submitted a public-records request for all written and electronic communications among representatives of Windham Southeast; the supervisory union's Act 46 Study Committee; the...
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music will present contemporary folk singer/songwriter and comedienne Cheryl Wheeler, plus Lizzy Mandell, at Next Stage on Friday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. According to her website, “it has always seemed as if there were two Cheryl Wheelers. … There is poet-Cheryl, writer of some of the prettiest, most alluring and intelligent ballads on the modern folk scene. And there is her evil twin, comic-Cheryl, a militant trend defier and savagely funny social critic.”
Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV), the community media center serving southern Windham County, will offer small group classes with hands-on experience in video production this spring. BCTV offers individual training on an ongoing basis for Video Camera Basics, Editing with Adobe Premiere, and Studio Production. Call 802-257-0888 or email info@brattleborotv.org to schedule a one-on-one training. Spring 2016 Workshops: • Audio for Video: Nothing sets a video production apart like good audio. Local audio professional Jeff Mastroianni presents this workshop dedicated to...
The Putney Public Library will host three local poets for a free reading in celebration of National Poetry Month on Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m. Toni Ortner, Lee Bramble, and Becky Dennison Sakellariou will all read from their recent works. Books by the poets will be available for sale. Ortner is a Putney resident who is vice president of Write Action, a nonprofit group that supports and celebrates the efforts of New England writers. Her most recent books are:
The Arts Council of Windham County (ACWC) invites local artists to submit works for ARTstravaganza, May 6-8. Art of all kinds - including movement, visual art, glassblowing, and many others - made in Windham County will be considered for inclusion in the ACWC slideshow that will run during the event's celebratory kick-off on Friday, May 6. Artists may submit photos of their work, clips from a performance or exhibit, illustrations of the creative process or anything else that can be...
Three area a cappella groups will perform a benefit concert, “Gimme Shelter,” for Groundworks Collaborative on Saturday, April 16, at 7:30 p.m., at the Hooker-Dunham Theatre, 139 Main St. Groundworks is the recent merger of Brattleboro Area Drop In Center and Morningside Shelter. It offers the second largest food shelf in Vermont and a 30-bed shelter, as well as a seasonal shelter from November through April, a day shelter, and a youth shelter in Bellows Falls. The three vocal groups,
Write Action is sponsoring a weekend memoir workshop on Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24, from 1 to 3 p.m., at Marlboro College Graduate Center on Vernon Street. The workshop leader is Ann Anderson Evans. “After years of writing and teaching, I have concluded that everyone has a story,” Evans wrote in a news release. “It’s easy to talk about life, but difficult to write about it.” Evans has been helping people write their stories for over a decade.
VTel Wireless will hold an information session at the Halifax Community Hall in West Halifax on Thursday, April 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. As VTel Wireless expands its service in Vermont, it is holding sessions to describe the 4G LTE (Fourth Generation/Long Term Evolution) service and answer questions. The term 4G LTE describes the version of the high -speed, wireless Internet that VTel Wireless is providing to a growing number of users in Vermont. Area residents can visit www.vtelwireless.com/high-speed-internet/search-for-availability...
The Inclusion Center has designed “knock for assistance” signs for display in storefronts of local downtowns. The 2-by-2-inch signs are for stores that have doors that must be either pushed or pulled to open. “Something as easy as opening a door can be a challenge for someone in a wheelchair, using a walker, or pushing a stroller,” said Julie Tamler, director of The Inclusion Center, in a news release. Store owners will be asked to display the “knock for assistance”
I agree with Senator Jeanette White that marijuana “prohibition has not worked.” She says marijuana “is illegal now, and it will remain so - it will not become more illegal.” But with the bill Senator White supports, a Vermonter not lucky enough to possess a license would face draconian penalties. Four plants would put a Vermonter behind bars for three years and demand a $10,000 fine. More than 10 plants would punish that Vermonter with five years in prison and...
When I watch the racist violence at Trump rallies, it really gets to me. I see the faces of young people filled with hate and wonder who taught them to be so hateful. I think of the song “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught” from the 1949 musical South Pacific. Here is one stanza: “You've got to be taught before it's too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You've...
Starting June 28, an outside contractor will provide armed, round-the-clock security for Vermont Yankee and its radioactive spent nuclear fuel. Entergy announced Tuesday that it is outsourcing protection of the Vernon plant to Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, a subsidiary of Securitas AB — a Swedish company that bills itself as “one of the world’s largest providers of security services.” Officials say the five-year deal will save millions of dollars and will ease Entergy’s “administrative burden” at the shut-down plant SCIS...
Last week, I was hit with a major health crisis, but thanks to the rapid intervention of the hematology/oncology team in One West at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., I was able to recover. I am grateful for the medical miracle that DHMC pulled off - quickly reviving a red-blood-cell production system that suddenly went haywire. The One West staff pulled me through and were unfailingly caring and kind to me and my wife, Joyce Marcel. But I also...
You can tell when a presidential candidate has tapped into our national consciousness. The name is inescapable; Facebook feeds wash out in a tidal wave. As a candidate, Bernie Sanders has reached this stage. Businesses, especially throughout Vermont, are highlighting the Vermont senator’s campaign through food and apparel. Left-leaning Windham County might be a natural base of support for Sanders, even without the state pride. Voters in the county favored Obama in 2012 by a margin of 49 points, greater...
On New Year's Day, 2015, when Thomas Nöla moved from the Boston area to Brattleboro - the city was “way too doom-and-gloom, not fun, and too modern for my taste” he said - he brought his record label, Disques de Lapin, with him. Now that he has settled in, it's time to celebrate. On Saturday, April 2, Nöla will perform with Disques de Lapin artists and friends to honor the label's 10th anniversary in an eight-hour music festival, Decade de...
Middle relief is an unheralded but crucial role in any baseball team’s bullpen. The pitcher might only see action every fifth or sixth game, and the goal is typically to eat up innings and preserve the better members of the staff for more critical situations. He is often a veteran who relies on guile because he’s lost velocity on his fastball, and it helps if he’s a southpaw for situational match-ups against tough left-handed hitters. It is in that vein...