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Weston Playhouse re-opens with 'Mountain Top,' 'Ring of Fire,' 'Seussical'

Weston Playhouse re-opens with ‘Mountain Top,’ ‘Ring of Fire,’ ‘Seussical’

Susanna Gellert, executive artistic director of Weston Playhouse Theatre Company, has announced her third season at the helm of Vermont’s award-winning professional theater. It is also the 85th anniversary of the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company. It was just a year ago that the playhouse announced that it was canceling the 2020 season due to the […]

Left in Andover: Perfectly ordinary beauty

Left in Andover: Perfectly ordinary beauty

By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I spent most of my year and a half in Japan, from late 1972 to early 1974, bent over a potters wheel. But I did take a monthlong break between apprenticeships to hitchhike around the country. I managed to visit every single one of the six ancient kiln […]

Chester Chatter: Support your local businesses

Chester Chatter: Support your local businesses

By Ruthie Douglas ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Decades ago, one did not have to leave Chester for most things. We had three grocery stores: Jamison’s Market, Al’s IGA and Gould’s. We had two hardware stores, a grain store, two diners and gas stations galore. Usually, you would travel to Claremont, N.H. for special purchases, such […]

Photo gallery: Great Cavendish Easter egg hunt

Photo gallery: Great Cavendish Easter egg hunt

By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC There wasn’t a cloud in the sky on Saturday morning as the Cavendish Recreation Department held its annual Easter Egg Hunt. But while the sunshine was bright, the freezing temperatures and gusty winds made the event a chilly one at Greven Field. After all 37 children were […]

Henry Homeyer: the art of timing veggie planting

Henry Homeyer: the art of timing veggie planting

By Henry Homeyer ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC Iknow some gardeners that plant their potatoes or tomatoes in the garden on the same day every year. Not me. I think planting time is best based not only on the last frost date in your garden, but also the soil temperature and up-to-date weather predictions. And of […]

Cavendish Community Fund accepting grant applications

Cavendish Community Fund accepting grant applications

The Cavendish Community Fund is accepting grant applications for spring 2021 awards. The fund will consider applications filed anytime, but will only award spring grants to those who file by May 8. Applications can be made by letter that describes the organization that is applying, the project proposed and the overall budget, including the amount […]

State urges mud-season hikers to be cautious - for themselves and fragile trails

State urges mud-season hikers to be cautious – for themselves and fragile trails

The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation and its partners remind hikers of mud season at this time of year and ask for the public’s help protecting Vermont’s trails. This year, Covid-19 is still a dominant concern, even with more people vaccinated. FPR and partners are asking for the public’s assistance with making smart […]

Left in Andover: A personal Passover celebration

Left in Andover: A personal Passover celebration

By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC The eight days of Passover celebrate the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Especially at this latitude, it is also a festive welcoming of spring, symbolizing rebirth and hope in the Jewish context. The Passover ritual, held around the dinner table, is called a Seder, meaning […]

Chester Chatter: My resilient grandmother Mabel

Chester Chatter: My resilient grandmother Mabel

By Ruthie Douglas ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC My grandmother Mabel was raped. She was barely 16 years old and discovered later that she had become pregnant. This was in the late 1800s. The small Canadian town she lived in was religiously conservative; upon learning of Mabel’s situation, her mother threw her out of the house. […]

Henry Homeyer: Floral arrangements to welcome spring

Henry Homeyer: Floral arrangements to welcome spring

By Henry Homeyer ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I miss being able to go to my garden and pick flowers for the table. Yes, spring is on the way and even feels present on good days now. But it will be awhile until my daffodils and tulips bloom. My winter aconite, small yellow bulb flowers, are […]

Grace Cottage seeks Fair Day auction items; Agriculture Hall of Fame seeks nominations

Grace Cottage seeks Fair Day auction items; Agriculture Hall of Fame seeks nominations

Grace Cottage Hospital Fair Day seeks donations Do you have items to donate to Grace Cottage Hospital’s 71st Annual Hospital Fair Day? Grace Cottage is seeking items for its online auction to be held Aug. 1 through 8. To donate high-value new or used items (including jewelry, antiques, household items, cars, trucks, snowmobiles, ATVs, motorcycles, […]

Left in Andover: A Latin lover lives in Vermont

Left in Andover: A Latin lover lives in Vermont

By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I was the beneficiary of my father’s unfulfilled ambition to be a high school Latin teacher. An insatiable lifelong learner, he sprinkled his every day speech with Latin phrases and aphorisms. Of course, more than 60 percent of the English language has roots in Latin and Greek. In […]

Chester Chatter: A short-order cook stands tall

Chester Chatter: A short-order cook stands tall

By Ruthie Douglas ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC In the late 1950s, my husband Don bought a pair of Morgan draft pulling horses. The matched pair were strictly for showing. On the country fair circuit, they won many awards and appeared on television at the Eastern States Fair — the Big E — in Massachusetts. We […]

Henry Homeyer: Let's fine prune those fruit trees

Henry Homeyer: Let’s fine prune those fruit trees

By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I was a boy I loved to climb trees. I had no fear of heights, and loved the unique perspective I got looking down from the top of a tall pine or maple tree. Now that I’m all grown up, I no longer climb trees – unless […]

Winter goods sale at Family Center; deadline nears for Townscape plant purchase

Winter goods sale at Family Center; deadline nears for Townscape plant purchase

Family Center Thrift Shop holding winter merchandise sale It is time for the Chester-Andover Family Center Thrift Shop to clear winter merchandise and get ready for spring. That means it is bag sale time. For four days on two consecutive weekends, March 19-20 and March 26-27, all clothing and accessories will be on sale. Fill […]

Left in Andover: The many paths to becoming <br> an independent woman

Left in Andover: The many paths to becoming
an independent woman

By Susan Leader ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC I was 14 years old when Lydia Ratcliff bought Lovejoy Brook Farm on East Hill. It was 1965, and back then, single female farm owners were not a thing. Like everyone else in Andover, I wondered how long she would last. By that age I was on the […]

Chester Chatter: Honoring Helene for Women's History Month

Chester Chatter: Honoring Helene for Women’s History Month

By Ruthie Douglas ©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC This is the month of the woman, Women’s History Month. Who is the woman you honor? My mother-in-law, Helene Douglas, meant a lot to me. It started when I married her son and moved into their farmhouse. I was 16 and didn’t know how to run a vacuum […]

Henry Homeyer: Starting seeds – it's time!

Henry Homeyer: Starting seeds – it’s time!

By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC I love starting seedlings indoors when it’s still cold and raw outside. It makes me dream of summer and the first red tomato. For me, it is still too early to plant most things, and I certainly don’t want to have to baby my seedlings along for 12 […]

Cavendish (and more) turns out for Jim Hasson's 95th

Cavendish (and more) turns out for Jim Hasson’s 95th

By Shawn Cunningham © 2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC The coronavirus pandemic has been tough on an active nonagenarian, keeping him in his rural home. But family, friends and neighbors conspired to give Jim Hasson of Cavendish a 95th birthday to remember with a parade on Sunday. As Hasson sat in a folding chair on Main […]

VeggieVanGo comes to Townshend March 10

VeggieVanGo comes to Townshend March 10

 The next VeggieVanGo free food event, hosted by Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital of Townshend and organized by the Vermont Foodbank, will be held on Wednesday, March 10. This VeggieVanGo event takes place on the second Wednesday of the month, from noon to 1 p.m., in front of Leland & Gray Union Middle High […]