By Susan Shea Black birds with a greenish sheen and brown heads sometimes visit my yard during spring migration. These are male brown-headed cowbirds, and they often arrive in mixed flocks of red-winged blackbirds and grackles. Cowbirds breed in most of the Northeast and have an unusual reproductive strategy. Instead of building their own nests,…

A Tribute, Part 3  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 a wide range of topics. …

Lilacs, All purple and pink, How very beautiful they are, Magical and enchanting, You just want to sit there, Enjoying the scenery, By the sparkly lake, In the crystal clear water, The reflection is wondrous, With petals drifting in the water, The most beautiful scene, You just want to stay there, Enjoying it, The beauty…

The recent Full Moon brought light to an area of life that will set the stage for further unfoldment in the weeks and months to come. When something is seen or revealed, it can’t be unseen. You can ignore it. You can bury your head in the sand. Eventually, though, it will come back to…

Last Monday the Vermont Legislature reconvened to override six out of the seven gubernatorial vetoes issued since the regular session ended a month ago. Clearly the Democratic supermajority in the legislature and Governor Scott are not on the same page and see such issues as affordability differently. Among the bills overridden were ones increasing the…

Beacons of positivity in Vermont Summer in Vermont sparks contrasting desires: for some, bingeing beach books and streaming thrillers and comedies in air-conditioned living rooms are optimal choices. Others opt for self-improvement via thought-provoking content. Though beach reads and streamers are as essential for summer survival as sunscreen and shorts, this piece leans more towards…

Building our Killington Dream lodge, Part 18 Mom and Dad were digging in deep to tie us to the state of Vermont and all it stood for like self-reliance, hard work, and the courage to create an authentic life. These qualities to me represented Vermonters and what Dad was striving to accomplish. Mom supported him…

I have been to the new Yankee Stadium once. Obviously, since I still call it the “new” Yankee Stadium even though it’s over a decade old. Maybe it smells older now, that combination of piss, hot dogs and popcorn that lingered throughout the stadium. It was too new then, the smells were wrong, the field…

The PGA’s U.S. Open was held this past week. The tournament is traditionally considered the hardest test of golf in the calendar year. It is also one of four “majors,” meaning, of all the tournaments on the golf schedule, this is considered the most important, most profitable, and most coveted by the players. If you…

By Bruce Bouchard and John Turchiano 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 collaborating to tell short stories on a wide…

By Rachel Sargent Mirus Last July, I crossed paths with an insect that looked like the living embodiment of my favorite drawing game. Using folded paper, players add to a communal image without seeing previous contributions, such that the finished work is a surprise to everyone: the head of an eagle, on the body of…

“Girls, come over here!” I heard my neighbor say. “There’s a bear!”  When we bolted to his house I felt super excited. I hadn’t seen a bear near our house in a long time. We arrived just as the bear went into the woods, but then there was another, much bigger bear.  “That must be…

Three planets changing signs, plus a Solstice (June 20) and a Full Moon (June 21), you can expect things to turn around this week. So much has changed and it will take time to figure out your feelings about it all. It will be easier to connect thoughts and feelings, but possibly, not so easy…

Building a Killington Dream Lodge, part 17  What a difference a year can make. I was really excited about the changes taking place in our Killington ski lodge while I was away attending Schiller College Paris my sophomore year and Graz Center for the second summer. Meanwhile, in Vermont once the roof was done, Dad…

June is usually thought of as the beginning of summer. School is out, we open our summer houses and maybe plan a vacation. I was given a book called “The Big Book of 30-Day Challenges” written by Rosanna Casper. It sat on a table for a long time with me just looking at it every…