Green Mountain Tales By Izzy Gieder I look out onto the pond, at the ducks happily swimming, at the frogs hopping from rock to rock and at the people kayaking. I hear the crickets and birds, as the sun just barely peeks through the mountains. The sky is a beautiful display of red, orange, pink…

Building a Killington Dream Lodge part 23 Duane and I spent time in Vermont when we could get away for long weekends. Duane enjoyed helping Dad catch up with two-man jobs delayed due to his cancer surgery. They talked while they worked about their lives, careers, golf, fishing, and other guy stuff. Dad listened intently…

I went home last week. For the first time in almost a decade. Well, not exactly home because my mom sold my childhood house in New York almost a decade ago, but back to my family. My dad’s family. The kind of family where the first cousins were all so close growing up that all the…

 In the summer of 1518, the city of Strasbourg in France (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) was enjoying a rebirth after many troubling years. The markets were alive, merchants were trading, and the townsfolk were in high spirits, their worries swept away by the promise of a prosperous year. One bright July morning,…

Walking on a woods road beside a stream in early July, I spotted several tight clusters of butterflies perched on scat piles and on wet sand near the brook. When one of the butterflies spread its wings, I saw that its topside was black with blue shading, and had a broad white band running through…

One month ends, another begins. I do hope you get the chance to catch your breath a bit. Not just because you’re tired and not just because you need rest. But because the month of August is set up to be one of the most dynamic months when it comes to information overload, constant barrages…

Charles Wallace the Magnificent – A Tribute Part 8 Editor’s note: Bruce Bouchard is former executive director of The Paramount Theatre. John Turchiano, his friend for 52 years, was formerly the editor of Hotel Voice, a weekly newspaper on the New York Hotel Trades Council. They are co-authoring this column to tell short stories on…

The 2nd annual Vermont Film Festival is happening this Thursday through Sunday and is packed full with something for everyone. Because they offer so much, the best deal is the all-access $100 pass. That gets you all three days of films, the welcoming party at Ramunto's Brick and Brew of Bridgewater with comedic shorts upstairs…

Building a Killington Dream Lodge, part 22 Bright Vermont moonlight flooded the great room as we entered the upstairs of the Killington dream lodge. Flickering firelight from Dad’s new wood stove danced across ceiling, walls, and floor. The aroma of gingerbread filled our nostrils. Mom placed it on the counter to cool and cried out…

Yesterday overwhelmed me and I didn’t get to play in the mountains and now today it is raining. Like really raining, not the kind of rain where you can still venture out under the canopy and return home with wet socks and muddy boots. It’s the kind where you have to hold your steering wheel…

I’m currently at the beach on vacation. The daytime weather has been hot and humid with a slight cooling breeze blowing off the ocean. The nights have been hot as well, but the indoor air conditioning of our rented home is top notch, so sleeping isn’t an issue.  We awoke to dark, threatening clouds this…

I often see a “Student Driver” car going by our house. There was no such vehicle back in the ‘60s because Mt. St Joseph Academy, where I was a student, didn’t have a driving instructor. During that era girls didn’t seem to be in any particular hurry to get their license. Boys were more eager…

Behind my garden of native plants, one scrappy perennial holds its own among the tangle of goldenrod stalks and blackberry brambles. Its swaying flowerheads buzz with a throng of insects: golden digger and great black wasps, bumblebees, sweat bees, butterflies, and beetles. This pollinator magnet is mountain-mint. It hails from the same family, Lamiaceae, as…

Charles Wallace the Magnificent – A tribute part 7 Editor’s note: Bruce Bouchard is former executive director of The Paramount Theatre. John Turchiano, his friend for 52 years, was formerly the editor of Hotel Voice, a weekly newspaper on the New York Hotel Trades Council. They are co-authoring this column to tell short stories on…

I look out onto the pond, at the ducks happily swimming, at the frogs hopping from rock to rock and at the people kayaking. I hear the crickets and birds, as the sun just barely peeks through the mountains. The sky is a beautiful display of red, orange, pink and yellow. I wish I could…