All Entries in the "Community and Arts Life" Category
Left in Andover: Treasures within the thrift shops
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC The boxes of hand-me-downs mailed to us every fall by Mom’s cousins in Cincinnati were a high point of my young life growing up in Andover. We kids had never met these cousins in person but, like clockwork, one of them seemed to have always just outgrown my […]
Chester Chatter: Drive-ins were for family time
By Ruthie Douglas 2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Some Saturdays, my mother would begin to pop popcorn, filling a big paper bag and adding butter and salt. It was a signal that my sister and I understood. Later we would be going to the drive-in movies in Bellows Falls, one of my family’s favorite things to […]
Henry Homeyer: bedtime for the garden
By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Big yellow school buses are on the road again; or at least a few of them. Tree leaves in the swamps are turning red. Frost and cold weather are sneaking up on us. This year I resolve to get my garden put to bed early so that I […]
Grafton Firefighters raffle to replace annual Fall Festival Tag Sale
Like many other fall events this year, the popular Grafton Firefighters Fall Festival Tag Sale has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This would have been the 40th year for the Tag Sale. However, to keep the tradition alive the Grafton Fire/Rescue Auxiliary has created a new event. A raffle will be held on […]
Left in Andover: Peru Fair pottery sales & parades
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Ever since 1984, when I got serious about earning a living as a potter, I have looked forward to my annual Peru Fair “seconds sale” as a chance to clear away the old, to make space for the new — my pottery New Year’s celebration of sorts. In […]
Chester Chatter: A sad but true tale of cash cows
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC A Vermont farmer doesn’t always need to count on the New York City stock exchange for big money. On one hot summer night with our bedroom windows wide open, I awoke to hear the pounding of hooves and cows stampeding down the dirt road. Worse than that, I […]
Henry Homeyer: winter is coming, time to start blanching
By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Like a conscientious squirrel, I put away food for the winter in August and September. I freeze and dehydrate lots of vegetables, and store some in my cool basement. Here are some tips on ways to save food for later. I grew about a dozen kale plants this […]
Project Londonderry seeks community participation to move town forward
Project Londonderry is a new initiative from the Londonderry Planning Commission to create a citizen-driven group to “identify and implement strategies and activities that 1) sustain and improve the economic vitality of our town, and 2) meet the expressed needs of our residents, with special attention to the north and south village centers.” How did […]
Chester Townscape holds annual bulb sale; BRGNS cancels Stick Season Social
Chester Townscape taking orders for annual bulb sale Chester Townscape’s annual Fall Bulb Sale featuring top-quality, deer-resistant, easy-care, hardy bulbs that will bloom in 2021, will have a twist this year because of the coronavirus. Mail-in orders, which are due by Sept. 21, will secure a person’s bulb choices. In-person sales of remaining supplies by […]
Left in Andover: Ancient cellar holes a window to the past and future
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC A hundred feet off my front doorstep lies the original cellar hole to the “West Place, so-called,” as my property is referred to on the deed. Lucy Jones West bought her eponymous homestead in 1866, a year after her husband Henry West was mustered out of the Union […]
Chester Chatter: Memories of first day of school
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Come Labor Day, most Vermonters would head to the State Fair in Rutland and never ever did school start until afterward. As a student, I always loved stepping into my new classroom for the very first time. And that was because of the smells. On our desks sat […]
Henry Homeyer: Daffy the corgi’s most fitting flowers
By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Daphne mezereum was the registered name of my corgi, Daffy, who passed away on Aug. 25 of this year. Born in 2006, Daffy was my constant companion who was always ready for an adventure or, especially, a meal or snack. When her back legs gave out, she figured […]
Left in Andover: Drawing strength from the roots
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC When we moved into a cabin on my family’s land in Andover in 1979, one of the first things my partner John Specker did was plant trees. Following in the footsteps of his great grandfather at his farm in the Catskills, John dug up evergreen seedlings in early […]
Chester Chatter: Tater Hill was work, but also a party
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1974, Tater Hill Country Club was up and ready for tennis and golf. It was decided to hold a grand opening complete with fireworks. I think that Windham had never had a traffic jam before then nor since. It turns out that the fellow who said he […]
Henry Homeyer: Beauty of a glorious hydrangea
By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I was a boy, I always took note of cemeteries as we drove by. I’d lost a beloved grandfather, the original Henry Homeyer, and my mother’s mom. I was taken with a shrub or small tree in cemeteries that I called either “the snowball bush” or the […]
Tri-Mountain Lions sewing masks for school, individuals
The Londonderry Tri-Mountain Lions are sewing and donating face masks to the local schools and people in the Tri-Mountain communities of Windham, Jamaica, Wardsboro, Winhall, Londonderry, Weston and Peru. On Wednesday morning Lions Gail Wyman, Kathy Scott, Deb Wade, Lions President Randee Keith and District Governor Pam Nichols gathered together safely at Neighborhood Connections to […]
Left in Andover: A wider world, a wider vision
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I sent my tender firstborn off to kindergarten in Chester in 1989 I fretted she would eat white sugar, discover Twinkies and Barbies, celebrate Christmas, take the DARE program literally and go steady by third grade. Although my daughter did most of the above, I discovered it […]
Chester Chatter: The beginnings of Tater Hill GC
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1974, Don Warner hired me to work for him on his new project. He had designed a golf course and air strip high on a hill in Windham. The clubhouse was the old farmhouse and the attached barn became the lounge. It meant hours of work but […]
Henry Homeyer: Re-wilding your lawn
By Henry Homeyer ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Tired of mowing your lawn, but afraid to stop? What would it look like, and what would the neighbors say? I was on a panel discussing “re-wilding” the lawn on New Hampshire Public Radio recently. Here are a few of the points we discussed. First, a lawn is […]
Left in Andover: Treasures in the stones
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC According to The Local History of Andover, Vt, written by H.H. Gutterson and published in 1886, the earliest settlers of this area “could have had any part of the Connecticut valley they came through, at the same price they paid for their farms here; but the early settlers […]
