By Merisa Sherman Almost despairingly, I lifted my head. I could see the towers sticking up from the summit of Pico and they seemed so very small from so far away. I was worn out and frustrated, my skins sticking to the snow just enough to make each glide forward feel like a battle between…

By Susan Shea A few winters ago, I snowshoed along a trail that led below a series of cliffs with rows of huge, hanging icicles. These icicles were up to 40 feet long, with colors ranging from blue-green to yellowish-brown. In some spots, the icicles extended from clifftop to base, forming thick columns of ice.…

By D0m Cioffi My wife and I have an agreement that when either one of us travels by air, we always let the other one know when we take-off and land. I guess it’s one of those meaningless marital things that develops over the years, but we’ve always done it. Recently, I was about to…

 By Anna Morris Humans often ascribe traits that we admire to other animals. We treasure a dog’s loyalty, revere an eagle’s power, and applaud a dolphin’s intellect. We hold these creatures in high esteem, whether they are spotted rarely in the wild or are daily lounging at our feet, because we value these same attributes…

By Merisa Sherman I hadn’t realized it was spring yet.  Only last week, we were freezing standing in the cold, skiing snow so firm that your entire body shuttered when you maneuvered away from the groomed trails. That was only last week right? Today my face is on fire and I am sweating. The sky…

By Dom Cioffi  Recently, I told my son that I thought he was old enough and mature enough to watch “The Godfather” trilogy (I left out the fact that all three films run nearly 3 hours, which would have dissuaded him). He agreed, mostly because he’d been hearing pop culture references to the films for…

By DJ Dave Hoffenberg This Thursday you don’t want to miss Chadwick Stokes of Dispatch at the Pickle Barrel Nightclub. He’s bringing his friend Brooke Annibale to open the show. Chad said she’s a great singer-songwriter. I had a great chat with Chad about what he’s up to now and the many times I’ve worked…

By Mary Ellen Shaw There is talk of building a hotel in downtown Rutland in the same location where the Berwick Hotel once stood. That hotel was destroyed by fire 50 years ago and since then the spot has been a vacant lot, known locally as “The Pit.” Recently there have been both TV and…

By Declan McCabe If you get a chance this winter, take a peek through the icy window of a pond surface. You may see water boatmen (order Hemiptera: Family Corixidae) clinging to the pond floor. Long oar-like hind legs propel these insects, inspiring their common name. Shorter, scoop-like front legs are used for feeding and…

By Merisa Sherman It was quiet. A little too quiet. An eerie quiet. No fresh animal tracks on the ground, no wind moving the trees around. It’s so cold, you feel like even the surrounding air must be frozen even though it truly freezes at temps colder than 300 degrees. You couldn’t hear anything from…

By Dom Cioffi My wife and I were having dinner with some friends recently when the couple started talking about a wedding they had just attended. It was a destination wedding near the ocean with about 25 close family and friends. Apparently, the bride and groom wanted something simple since it was a second marriage…

By Jen Weimer A winter walk in the forest reveals a flurry of wildlife activity that often goes unnoticed during other times of the year. Often among the many tracks in the snow are the nearly heart-shaped prints of deer. The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is common throughout the United States, with an estimated population…

By Dom Cioffi I just spent the past week in Florida with my mother. She’s been returning to the same little community on the Gulf Coast seasonally for over 50 years. Over the years, on the occasions when I’ve visited, the nostalgia of the area has always overwhelmed me. When I drove in this past…

By Merisa J. Sherman “The next challenge,” I yelled out, “is to see who can stand on one foot the longest!” The kids all scrambled into position, making sure they had just enough room to flail their arms as they were going down. It was a tight space, but not a single one of them was…

By Sandra Dee Owens I  bought another half gallon of eggnog—my fourth of the season. Dammit.  What began years earlier as a benign, seasonal treat, has blossomed into a full-blown, eggnog addiction.  How did I get here? Each year, when eggnog arrived on grocery store shelves, I gleefully bought a carton, raced home to drink…