By Joe Rankin It’s still the middle of winter, but the sun is climbing higher each day and I know that it won’t be long until my honeybees are out seeking nectar and pollen. From early-blooming red maple trees. Then sugar maples, apple trees, dandelions. From blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. From clover, staghorn sumac, and…

  By M. Kathleen Shaw, DVM Vermont Veterinary Medical Association Retractable leashes. They’re oh, so convenient! Instead of struggling with your dog to stay at your side, you can let them trot ahead of you to explore as far as 18 feet away. Dogs can sniff to their heart’s content, while you still have control…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Void-of-Course, Aquarius Moon that will entered Pisces. Within a bevy of aspects that includes Mars moving from Scorpio to Sagittarius, and Vesta’s entrance into Taurus, the big news highlights March 8, and centers around a Full…

Brickdrop—they may be a new band to many, but they plan on being around for a long time, so folks will be able to get to know them. If you want that to be sooner rather than later, go to Merchants Hall in Rutland this Saturday at 7 p.m. Brickdrop is comprise of Ben Bivins,…

By Brady Crain

Friendship has phases that begin with our childhood friends and continue throughout our entire life. When we are old enough to go outside and play with the children in our neighborhood, we begin the process of choosing our friends. We sort out the traits and characteristics that meet our needs. Betty was the first neighborhood…

By Rachel Sargent The bare ground of the trail wound through dead leaves and patchy snow. At a short overhang in the trail, I noticed spiky threads of ice growing up from the soil in crunchy clusters. A careless boot revealed how fragile these formations are; the fine ice threads crumbled readily. This was needle…

By the time this column reaches you, reader, the 88th Academy Awards will have come and gone, and you’ll barely be able to remember what happened. But as I write this, the Oscars are still a couple of days away, and both the professional and amateur spheres of movie criticism are abuzz with predictions and…

The Witch By Dom Cioffi It’s customary for me to come home after work and immediately wash dishes. This is something I’ve done for years. I don’t know why; it’s just an activity I have to complete before I relax in to the evening’s activities. This past week, I came home, dropped my bag by…

By Robin Alberti

Courtesy of Devious Planet RUSTED ROOT Rusted Root makes it’s triumphant return to the Pickle Barrel in the midst of its 25th Anniversary Tour on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 9 p.m. I had the pleasure of having a phone interview with Michael Glabicki who founded Rusted Root. He is looking forward to this show and…

Jan. 27: In response to tweets by rapper Wiz Khalifa alleging that Kanye’s new proposed album title (“Waves”) plagiarizes the catchphrase (“wavy”) of rapper Max B, Kanye unleashes a Twitter rant proclaiming that he is “the greatest artist of all time” and that Khalifa has “distracted from my creative process.” He will later change the…

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul At this time of year, many a gardener’s daydreams turn to the springtime promise of sprouting plants. Seed catalogs start arriving in the mail months before the soil will be thawed and drained enough for planting, and we use this downtime to plan for the coming season. At Green Fire Farm…

By Dom Cioffi Other than the chants of racism in the weeks leading up to this year’s Academy Awards broadcast, it’s still shaping up to be an enthralling night for movie buffs. There’s little doubt that host Chris Rock will address the elephant in the room within minutes of the show’s start, but hopefully, after…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a full, Virgo Moon, with the Sun newly ensconced in the early degrees of the sign Pisces. This is the point in the yearly cycle when the snake meets its tail and new beginnings emerge out of…