Features
Love for bassoon falls out of tune in NH woodwind sections
By DAVID BROOKS
The last couple of years have seen such a parade of problems that it’s hard to be surprised by them any more. Even so, here’s a problem you probably haven’t thought of: New Hampshire is facing a shortage of bassoon players.A combination of factors...
Upper Valley Fourth of July events 2022
Fireworks Brownsville: Dusk, July 3, Ascutney Outdoors, 449 Ski Tow Road.Claremont: 9:30 p.m., July 4, Monadnock Park, 190 Broad St.Fairlee/Orford: Dusk, July 4, Lake Morey.Hartford/Wilder: Between 9:20 and 9:30 p.m., July 4, Kilowatt South Park, 61...
The Claremont Opera House has its own epic story to tell after 125 years
By PATRICK O’GRADY
It was almost never built and came perilously close to being torn down.Now, after musical and theatrical performances of every kind imaginable, including one featuring an elephant, Claremont Opera House will host a 125th anniversary party with a stage...
Vermont on the lookout for new tick that can cause a meat allergy
By CLAIRE POTTER
Volunteers picked through feathers probing for small ticks with a white blaze on their backs at weighing stations during turkey hunting season. Vermont is on the lookout for the lone star tick, a species spreading north.“Climate change, that’s why we...
Windsor couple turn egg rolls into a full-time endeavor
By ROSE TERAMI
WINDSOR — Messay Hall has always loved cooking, and she knew after experimenting in her kitchen with egg roll recipes several years ago that she wanted to turn the idea into something more, she just didn’t know when. While living in Arizona several...
Out & About: The Upper Valley has open mic nights aplenty
By LIZ SAUCHELLI
Open mic nights have long held a role in performance life in the Upper Valley. At these events, musicians, poets and comics have a chance to share new material in a supportive setting. They play an especially crucial role for those just starting out...
Bert Dodson, prolific Vermont artist, dies at 83
By ALEX HANSON
BRADFORD, Vt. — Bert Dodson, an influential artist and illustrator who spent the bulk of his prolific career in the Upper Valley, has died at the age of 83.A draftsman of daunting skill, Dodson asserted that drawing, and art-making in general, is...
With artists from afar, White River Junction galleries bring the outside in
By ALEX HANSON
At tonight’s First Friday receptions in White River Junction, a pair of recently opened galleries will do something local art viewers don’t often see.Both Tourist, a gallery on South Main Street that opened in January, and Kishka Gallery & Library,...
Tropical Storm Irene, 10 years later: Preventing the next Irene, or at least the catastrophic flooding
By CLAIRE POTTER
In the wake of Irene, Vermont nonprofits, state agencies and residents have worked together to make their communities more resilient as climate change threatens to unleash more extreme weather.Planting a tree may seem like an insignificant act when...
Upper Valley food scene has grown more diverse, more informed over the years
By ALEX HANSON
The shortage of restaurant workers in the Upper Valley has been well-documented, but one factor has gone unexamined.There are a lot of restaurants, food trucks, caterers, sandwich shops, roadside stands, diners, food markets, farmers markets, dining...
White River Junction gallery and library set to open
By ALEX HANSON
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — For the past few years, Ben Finer and Bevan Dunbar have been mulling over what they would want an art gallery to look like.At first, they considered opening a gallery in a room of their Hartford Village apartment, which would...
The Outside Story: Caterpillers offer a sting of nature
By RACHEL MIRUS
Last October, a young student in one of my nature journaling workshops pointed out a fuzzy yellow caterpillar with long black tufts. “Those kind sting!” he declared. He was the third student that month to point out the same kind of caterpillar as...
Henry Homeyer: Japanese pruning techniques are a useful gardening tool
By HENRY HOMEYER
A few weeks ago I traveled to Shin Boku Nursery in Wentworth, N.H., to attend an all-day workshop on Japanese pruning techniques. Many of the techniques are useful to any gardener. The workshop was organized and taught by Doug Roth, the publisher of...
By BRETT AMY THELEN
New England is home to dozens of species of mammals, hundreds of varieties of birds, and tens of thousands of different insects, but only one lizard: the five-lined skink. Though I am fond of reptiles and often seek them out, I have never seen a...
Foe or friend? Blue jays provide an important service to other wildlife
By LEE EMMONS
Plenty of backyard birdwatchers consider blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) the villains of the avian world. Mark Twain best summarized anti-blue jay sentiment when he compared the bird’s principles to that of an ex-congressman. In Native American lore,...
Hanover artist Varujan Boghosian dies at 94
By ALEX HANSON
HANOVER — Varujan Boghosian, the puckish artist who mined the castoffs of material culture to assemble works both powerful and whimsical, died Monday at his home in Hanover. He was 94.He had suffered a broken hip last week and died of complications...
The Outside Story: Horsehair worms survive plot twists worthy of a Tolkien tale
By DECLAN McCABE
Some of my favorite children’s books describe life cycles as heroic tales of persistence and redemption. From “The Ugly Duckling” to “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to “A Seed is Sleeping,” these stories have brought the miracles of growth and...
The Outside Story: Garter snakes can be surprise guests
By SUSAN SHEA
One summer day I lifted the black plastic top of our composter and jumped back, startled — a large snake was curled up on top of the compost. The yellow stripe down the center of its dark back and two yellow stripes along its sides identified it as a...
Those webs in trees are ugly but not really a problem
By DAVID BROOKS
So many bad things are happening in the environment that the sight of what looks like huge balls of cotton candy all over some trees feels like the latest new disaster.But don’t fret: They’re routine and not as bad as they look.These aren’t gypsy...
Fishing spiders are fascinating but their size can scare people
By DECLAN McCABE
Large fishing spiders walking on water can be fascinating — or terrifyingly unnerving. The latter reaction is common among Saint Michael’s College students as we sample Vermont’s streams and ponds. On one occasion, a normally macho student screamed,...
