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Chester pub's scarefest raises funds for 2 charities

Chester pub’s scarefest raises funds for 2 charities

© 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The annual Haunted House scarefest held by MacLaomainn’s Scottish Pub in Chester hit its fundraising goal last weekend for the two charities it supports. According to pub owner Deb Brown, the elaborate event, which takes more than a month to put together and more than 20 volunteers to operate, brought […]

Left in Andover: The push to learn in Japan

Left in Andover: The push to learn in Japan

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The downside of securing an apprenticeship at the Ogami Pottery was that I could no longer freely visit the other workshops in Tachikui village without feeling like a traitor. Wherever I wandered, workers quizzed me as to how the Ogamis did things: What tools and techniques did they […]

Chester Chatter: From trash to treasures

Chester Chatter: From trash to treasures

By Ruthie Douglas 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The best thing about Gerald Ford as president was when he allowed for hot lunch workers’ unemployment when school did not open for the summer. It was a great time for my daughter and I to have fun. It was a time when many had taken up the […]

Henry Homeyer: tips for forcing bulbs for indoor blooms

Henry Homeyer: tips for forcing bulbs for indoor blooms

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC It might be nice to take a week in February or March and travel to the Caribbean. By then most of us are tired of snow and cold. But if that is not in your budget, perhaps you need to plant some bulbs in pots for spring forcing. […]

Left in Andover: Transformation in Japan

Left in Andover: Transformation in Japan

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1979 I resettled permanently on our family land in Andover with my life partner-to-be, fiddle player John Specker, my long held dream of establishing a family run pottery upmost in mind. John had recently come to southern Vermont from Ithaca, N.Y., where his bowing, singing and rhythmic […]

Chester Chatter: Remembering holiday windows

Chester Chatter: Remembering holiday windows

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Store keepers in Springfield began to decorate their store fronts around this time for the Christmas season ahead. Remember Main Street allowed for strollers. Folks could stop by the window displays and get ideas for their gift lists. Up front, close to the store front windows were Christmas […]

Derry to hold energy efficiency workshop

Derry to hold energy efficiency workshop

The Londonderry Energy Committee will host a workshop at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5 on how to create an energy-efficient home in time for winter. The event will be held at the Depot, 34 W. River St. in South Londonderry. The workshop will answer these questions: What does weatherization look like in your home? What […]

Henry Homeyer: 15 October floral blooms

Henry Homeyer: 15 October floral blooms

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Despite frost and short days, my garden produced plenty of flowers in October. I look for plants that will perform in the shoulder seasons – March, April, October and even November. Here are some I love that are blooming still, or that bloomed earlier in October. My ‘Knockout’ […]

Left in Andover:  Discovering pottery in Japan

Left in Andover: Discovering pottery in Japan

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC When I started college at Antioch in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in the summer of 1969, it was an era when all the rules were being broken. I was desperate to create my own young adult identity. But it was disorienting to go from a very structured high school […]

Chester Chatter: Stacking up to wood stacking

Chester Chatter: Stacking up to wood stacking

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC At our farm house, we were warm and cozy with our oil-fired furnace. However, we had a fireplace in the kitchen as well as in the family room. We had a 15-acre wood lot up the hill. And every year, we cut about six cords of wood. Cutting […]

Henry Homeyer: Time to plant your garlic

Henry Homeyer: Time to plant your garlic

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The easiest crop I grow every year is garlic. I plant it in October, mulch it well, and harvest it in early August. That’s it. If it’s well mulched, I don’t even have weed the bed more than once or twice. Not only that, I use this year’s […]

Spooktacular fun at MacLaomainn's

Spooktacular fun at MacLaomainn’s Haunted house spans two weekends this year

By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC Around this time every year,  52 Main St. is the spookiest place in Chester as MacLaomainn’s Scottish Pub hosts its annual Haunted House in the Great Hall. This year though, there’s twice the spooky fun as the event will be held on two weekends rather than one.  […]

Left in Andover: Finding the Promised Land

Left in Andover: Finding the Promised Land

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1942, at the age of 21, my mother was determined to escape her urban New York life. “The superficial, merry-go-round life of the city is hateful to me,” she wrote. “I want to get away from it and remain close to the soil. You are holding a […]

Chester Chatter: A step back in time

Chester Chatter: A step back in time

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Not too many years ago, cousin Donald died. My daughters and I headed out for his funeral in the Northeast Kingdom. Almost there, we still needed some driving directions.  Stopping at a small general store for some help, those inside fell silent, as they gave us the once-over. […]

Henry Homeyer: Time to plant bulbs for spring blossoms

Henry Homeyer: Time to plant bulbs for spring blossoms

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC This is the season for planting bulbs – from mid-October until the snow flies. Actually, I’ve shoveled snow off a bed to plant bulbs in November, and they did fine. Bulbs have everything inside them needed to succeed their first year. If you want them to keep on […]

Engaged: Franklin Caval-Holme and Cassie Wang

Engaged: Franklin Caval-Holme and Cassie Wang

John and Diane Holme of Springfield, formerly of Chester, have announced the engagement of their grandson, Franklin Caval-Holme of Shrewsbury and El Cerrito, Calif., to Cassie Wang of Baotou, China, and El Cerrito. Ms. Wang, whose Chinese name is Wang Zhaoheng, is the daughter of the late Wang Bin, who died in 2018, and his […]

Left in Andover: Following the golden thread

Left in Andover: Following the golden thread

By Susan Leader © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC A sermon by the distinguished guest preacher the Rev. Roland T. Heacock, presented at Simonsville Church in the summer of 1966, was instructive as to how to live a righteous life. The imagery was striking in his “Golden Thread” sermon: “I am giving you a thread, a […]

Chester Chatter: Welcome to a glorious fall

Chester Chatter: Welcome to a glorious fall

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The hills are alive with color. It is the season that Vermont is the place to be. Down here in the valley, all we have to do is look up. How my sisters could be happy living in Dallas and Miami, I could only wonder. They did admit […]

Henry Homeyer: Putting the garden to bed

Henry Homeyer: Putting the garden to bed

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Pardon me for saying so, but it’s time to get ready for winter. That’s right. A few days ago (or was it weeks?) we were swimming in the ocean and lounging in the sun. But we’ve had frost, and I’ve seen serious snow as early as October 15. […]

Andover resident celebrates 100th; Londonderry Rescue Squad gives kids a taste of EMS work

Andover resident celebrates 100th; Londonderry Rescue Squad gives kids a taste of EMS work

© 2019 Telegraph Publishing, LLC Andover resident Barbara Brady celebrated her 100th birthday on Saturday, Oct. 5 with 45 friends and family at the former Baba a Louis Bakery in Chester. Brady and her late husband Joe, who died in 2015, were both New Jersey natives and had built a home in Andover to indulge […]