All Entries in the "Community and Arts Life" Category
19th century comes to Taylor Farm; early registration open for Chester LEGO contest
Chester LEGO Contest seeks early entrants The 2020 LEGO Contest will take place on Saturday, March 14, with organizers urging early registration by Friday March 6 to qualify for the discount entry fee of $15. The entry fee afterward is $20. Click here to download the registration form. Printed forms are available at the […]
2020 Chester Winter Carnival schedule of events
©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC The 2020 Chester Winter Carnival will take place on Saturday, Feb. 15 and Sunday, Feb. 16 in various locations throughout Chester. Below is the schedule of events, courtesy of the Chester Recreation Dept. Saturday, Feb. 15 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.: Children’s snowmobile demo rides sponsored by the Chester Snowmobile Club. […]
Left in Andover: Tragic end to search for home
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Dad loved reciting his story about hawking apples in Springfield in 1950. After personally picking them each morning, he knocked door to door at Southview Housing District, reasoning that housewives stuck at home with young kids and no transportation would be likely buyers. Sales, even at his very […]
Chester Chatter: Becoming a puppet master
By Ruthie Douglas © 2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Our fourth grade teacher kept us busy with fun projects. One morning she announced we kids would be making puppets. My heart sank. I was not good at art or any kind of handicrafts. We would start making puppets the next day and, she added, “wear old […]
Henry Homeyer: Flower shows to get into spring swing
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In Lewis Carroll’s poem, The Jabberwocky, the hero exalts, after killing the ferocious mythical beast, “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” That’s the way I feel when I think about the upcoming spring flowers shows. Thinking about the shows I am known to exclaim, “Oh Boy!” at random moments, […]
Left in Andover: A search for an ideal home
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC I lusted after the mug, coveting it for my very own. Henry Little, our hired man in 1956 and ‘57, brought it back to Andover for us from one of his many sojourns south of the border.Each side was more brilliantly glazed than the other. A wave of […]
Chester Chatter: Skating down the Black River
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC As a young couple, my grandparents left Three Rivers, Canada to start a new life in Springfield. They bought a newly built apartment building on Union Street, which grandmother turned into a boarding house. They soon got jobs and met new people. A group those new friends would […]
Henry Homeyer: getting rid of invasives
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC My mother used to say, “The road to hades is paved with good intentions.” That is particularly true for gardeners and plant collectors. Most of those nasty invasive plants we struggle to eliminate from our landscape were brought here from abroad by people who didn’t know better. They […]
Left in Andover: Keys to the past, and the future
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Last summer, relatives who were about to purchase Popplewood requested I play the role of “inspector” during the final walk-through of the premises before the sale was finalized. Never having bought or sold a house myself, I had to ask for clarification as to the nature of my […]
Chester Chatter: Fill the garden, fill the pantry
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC As the seed catalogs arrive, my mother-in-law and I would start to plan the vegetable garden. The kitchen table would be filled with our open catalogs. Selecting our seeds was a three-day project. Our vegetable garden was large and awarded us just about everything we would need to […]
Henry Homeyer: A gardener’s cookbook
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I can’t wait till spring. Don’t get me wrong: I love winter. But I look forward to trying a recipe I just found for pea, leek and sorrel soup while reading Deborah Madison’s fabulous cookbook: Vegetable Literacy (10-Speed Press, 2013, $40). And sorrel, a leafy perennial, is one of […]
Derry rescue squad seeks one-day volunteers
The Londonderry Volunteer Rescue Squad needs volunteers to help label and stuff 6,000 letters for the rescue squad’s annual benefit and fundraiser. Come for an hour or two, or plan to stay for lunch. Lunch, snacks and good company will be provided. Volunteers of all ages are welcome. The envelope stuffing will take place from […]
Left in Andover: Building a utopia from ‘abandoned’ Vermont lands
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1941, Alfred and Norma Jacob, Quaker Relief Service volunteers during the Spanish Civil War, purchased the last standing farmhouse on West Hill in Jamaica, Vt. During the post-American Civil War era, a mere 70 years earlier, an astounding 28 farms had thrived on that very same hill. […]
Chester Chatter: Joys of being a farmer’s wife
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Lately, I look out my big window above the hospital parking lot. It has looked more like spring than the dead of winter. The birds are chirping and hopping about. Looking back in time, now is the time we spread our seed catalogs out on the kitchen table, […]
Henry Homeyer: tips for making winter arrangements
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Finding things to place in vases, now, in winter, is not easy. It takes some imagination, but there really are some nice stems available. Before the snow flew I went outside and picked stems of pachysandra, a green vine that is mostly used in shade, though also grows […]
Chester Rescue Squad holds holiday party for local kids
Chester Volunteer Rescue Squad, the local Dollar General and generous shoppers teamed up to help area families with gifts for the holidays. Leading up to the holidays, the Dollar General gathered the names of families in need. Then shoppers would buy gifts at the Dollar General and donate them in a box at the store. […]
Left in Andover: A potter turns toward reality
By Susan Leader ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC This is Part II of a two-part story on my journeys with pottery. Last week: Pottery as a spiritual pursuit My original plan to take the Hippie Trail home across India through Afghanistan to the Middle East and thence back to the USA lost its appeal after my […]
Chester Chatter: A time for new beginnings
By Ruthie Douglas ©2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC Here we are in the new year, 2020, and a time for new beginnings. I’ve decided I am going to be more grateful and a little bit nicer in the year ahead. Last year was a real test for me. I battled for my life. I also lost […]
Henry Homeyer: Time to nestle in with a good book
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC It’s cold outside, and nothing is happening in my garden. Well, I guess deep beneath the soil surface there are microbes and worms and moles alive and doing whatever they do in winter. But I am doing nothing in the garden, so this is a time to read […]
Whiting Library to unveil new trove of children’s books
The Whiting Library, 117 Main St. in Chester, is inviting the public to attend the unveiling of a new collection of 95 children’s books at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 8. The collection is made possible by a grant from the Children’s Book Project, awarded by the Pilcrow Foundation, which supports rural public libraries and […]
