“We were new in Vermont,” Don Avery writes in the forward to his 2014 nursery catalogue, “In the spring of 1980 Cady’s Falls Nursery started out with three cold frames and a glassed in porch. We had the simplistic idea of making a living growing plants. In the decade that followed, a miracle unfolded and […]
Julia Shipley
Real books. New books, the kind with covers that feel slightly grainy and have freshly cut pages. In an era when thriving independent bookstores seem just slightly more plausible than a cow jumping over the moon, The Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, VT is celebrating its 25th year. A quarter century ago, Linda Ramsdell opened […]
Starved for colors, I found myself marveling at the platinum-hued potato chip bag by the side of the road as if it were a marsh marigold or goldfinch. Right now I find even the jewel tones of a green plastic bottle and cobalt Bud Lite can beautiful, basking next to mud. Our spiffy tubs of […]
Atop the chilly expanse of Joe’s Pond in West Danville, Vermont, a pallet awaits the moment when the ice starts breaking up, heralding the much-anticipated spring thaw. Credit: Corey Hendrickson When the pallet sinks, the connection to the clock on the dock breaks, stopping the clock at the official “ice out” time.Credit: Corey Hendrickson Credit: […]
Firsts are easy: first red-winged blackbird wheeze, first hopping robin, first crocus then daffodil, first surge of emerald grass. The lasts are harder to discern. In August, each time a loon wailed and hermit thrush trilled, I wondered, is this last? Is this? This? Lacking the bubble and fizz of firsts, lasts can have a […]
Magazine
Town Meeting | A Sign of Spring
[slideshow post_id=”547686″ exclude=”547705″] One hint of spring in Vermont is the unfolding of an aluminum chair. On the second Tuesday in March, shortly after dawn, one chair is assembled, then another, and another, and soon a chorus of aluminum screeching fills gymnasiums and town halls throughout the state, as chairs are passed from hand to […]
Magazine
PoemCity | Here in New England
It sounds like the start of a joke: A man walks into a poem. Except … that’s what actually happens if he’s running errands in Montpelier, Vermont, in April—returning library books, say, or picking up some sheet music, batteries, sandpaper, a bottle of wine … stopping at the bank, then grabbing a bite to eat […]
As long as I’ve had livestock, no matter how cozy, how dry and warm, how peaceful the atmosphere inside, some part of my awareness stays out on the range. I feel this especially in late spring when the lambs are out on pasture, and in the dead of night, a coyote yowls half a mile […]
Lacking a thermometer, I gauge how cold it is by icy calligraphy on the living room windows: a little rime means we’re nosing zero, but once designs like down feathers and fractals show up—oh boy, we’re trolling in the negatives. This morning: a whole pane of paisleys, which the town website confirms is -17. To […]
Magazine
The Old Stone House Museum in Brownington, Vermont | Where Legend Wraps Itself around History
It’s startling—you see it and think: What the heck is that? On a back road in Brownington, Vermont, a five story granite building looms all by itself on a plateau. It’s not a barn, it’s not a mansion—though it is an ample enclosure of space. And there’s nothing else like it around for miles. The […]
Dairy farming and rural mail delivery actually have a lot in common: they both involve physical labor, a circuit of routine and a love of– or at least an ability to function in– the wee hours. “Except with dairy farming, you don’t have to leave home to go to work,” Alan Young tells me as […]
Dashing through the snow? Check. In a one horse open sleigh? You betcha. O’re the fields we go? Yep.Get Our FREE Yankee Best New England Vacations Guide! Email(Required) Subscribe Laughing all the way? Ah, not really. It was more like speechless awe. Our Vermont sleigh ride had us riding on rails instead of radials, with […]