I lay in my bed, the sun shining through the windows and turning our nighttime fortress into an unavoidable brightness.  The heat is off, but the weather hasn’t quite warmed up yet and I really don’t want to get out from underneath the covers until the sun has actually warmed up the house.   But…

  In 1984, my high school basketball team had one of the best records in the state. My teammates and I had been playing together for years, so we were a well-oiled machine. We also had a diverse set of players that covered all the needed attributes for a championship team.  I was a tall,…

   Call it a flower or call it a weed – clover is a plant everyone knows. Who hasn’t idled away an hour hunting for a four-leaf clover, hoping for good luck? A member of the legume family, clover is common in lawns and fields, in disturbed sites, and along roadsides. Of the world’s 300…

  Much has changed since last week. We exited the fiery inferno of Aries season under a cloak of darkness and entered the serene pastures of Taurus. Though this time around, they don’t look to be the fields of green and skies of blue to which we are accustomed.  There’s a lot of confusion, instability…

  The spirited performance troupe known as Barn Opera is inviting the Killington-Rutland community to a unique meet-and-greet plus a concert, being held on May 3, from 6-7 p.m., at The Hub CoWorks, 67 Merchants Row in Rutland. Most area residents refer to that location as The Opera House, and next week, Barn Opera’s performers…

During the course of our lives most of us have played the role of a “sales person” even if it wasn’t by choice at times. For many of us it began in our elementary school days when we sold items for fundraisers. When you were “peddling your goods” you often went with a friend. That…

It was early in the day at Tuckerman Ravine and we had just finished breakfast over our small canister stove that we use for fast and light camping. It’s a tiny metal thing that opens up like a butterfly and screws into the top of a small canister of isopro fuel. It’s pretty neat actually,…

I remember that it was Christmastime in the mid-1970s. I was at the local mall with my mother in the now defunct retail chain, Montgomery Ward. I liked going into Montgomery Ward because they had a little bit of everything. But during the holiday season, they beefed up their toy section, which made it especially…

Years ago, when I worked at a nature center in Connecticut licensed to care for injured and orphaned wildlife, a baby opossum was brought to us. It was found lying on a golf course, and was too young to be on its own. We named the opossum Alice and estimated it was 9 weeks old.…

A song was quite famous here in Australia several years ago called “One Crowded Hour.” That’s how this week’s Solar Eclipse will likely feel. While technically an eclipse in Aries, its energy swiftly captures the Sun’s entrance into Taurus as our brightest star clashes with Pluto.  This eclipse might feel like you’ve turned up to…

Dear Editor, Recreational marijuana is legal in Vermont. 4/20 Day promotes a growing industry nationwide. Cannabis companies leverage the day as another opportunity to promote the industry and its products, similar to alcohol companies during the Super Bowl or St. Patrick’s Day.   These events have long moved past being counterculture protests. It’s a growing…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 1 office and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) honored 11 New England companies and organizations, including Efficiency Vermont, as Energy Star partners for their outstanding leadership in promoting energy efficiency and tackling climate change, according to a news release March 28. “As we accelerate historic efforts to address…

I started playing competitive basketball when I was in the fifth grade. That was the first year where the elementary schools in my town (of which there were many) formed a league for intramural play. I competed for Dana School, which was located a few blocks up the road from where I lived.  I started…

I’m often tempted to peek at the eggs inside a phoebe’s nest when the parents leave it to forage for food. I’ve picked up a fallen robin’s egg shell and admired its delicate color and smoothness. I’ve marveled at the primal determination of the chick that pecked its way out of an egg to become…

Careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. I’m sure that’s a phrase you’re familiar with. This week, agreeable Venus shifts signs from where she’s strong, stable and secure to where she’s adaptable, curious and more easily influenced. Sure, the social mood may become lighter and more fluid, but are you actually…