All Entries in the "Community and Arts Life" Category
Left in Andover: Pottery as a spiritual pursuit
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I divide my 51 years as a potter into several different stages. What started out as a spiritual experience for me at age 17 morphed into a much more mundane, “of this earth-ly world” career. This is Part I of a two-part story. Next week, Part II: On […]
Chester Chatter: Recuperating into the New Year
By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC My column will be returning in just a short time as my recuperation continues on course! I look forward to writing for you once again, and thank you for all the good wishes.
Henry Homeyer: Looking back at 2019
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC This past year was, overall, a good one in the garden. It started off cold and wet in early summer, but then turned hot and dry. Most vegetables and perennial flowers did fine for me. I finally splurged and got an Itoh hybrid peony, one called ‘Garden Treasure’ […]
Cookie Tour presents $800 to Family Center
The 2019 Chester Holiday Cookie Tour presented a check for $800 on Friday, Dec. 21, to the Chester-Andover Family Center to help them in their mission of aiding local individuals and families in need. Present for the occasion was organizer Cynthia Prairie, Family Center past President Nena Nanfeldt and several of the nine families who […]
Chester Elementary collects gifts, food for area families
The students and staff of Chester-Andover Elementary School collected gifts and bags of food for Chester and Andover families for the holiday season. Every year, the school sets up a Mitten Tree, where students can pick a mitten with a gift idea for a specific child. This year, children from 25 families will receive those […]
Left in Andover: The canopy over his head
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The box containing Dad’s cremated remains sat under the eaves at Popplewood for two whole years before we figured out what to do with them His instructions to “dump me on the compost pile” seemed crude if not illegal. But Dad’s opposition to the funeral industry left few […]
Chester Chatter: Happy, restful holidays
By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I’ll be taking some time off to take care of a health issue. I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah and holiday season with lots of love and good will.
Henry Homeyer: Reflections on a gardener’s life
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC During the holidays I try to take time from the humdrum of festivities to sit quietly and reflect on how happy and grateful I am for my life here in rural New England. Much of what I appreciate is linked to a life that allows me to spend […]
Left in Andover: Steering toward the good life
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I treasure Simple Food for the Good Life, the 1982 non-cookbook by Helen Nearing (1904-1995), not for its recipes, but as a reminder of how fortunate I am to live in an era when women have the freedom to choose how much of their lives to invest in […]
Chester Chatter: The first opening day at Magic
By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC It was a step back in time as I entered the cafeteria at Magic Mountain. Closing my eyes, it was 1960, and opening day at the Base Lodge. I was the first ever food manager. I saw a young Bruce Meyer greeting folks and selling lift tickets. I […]
Henry Homeyer: It’s time to plant acorns
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC You may think that the planting season is over. Not for me. I recently planted 8 giant red oaks. Or, I should say, potentially giant oaks. I planted eight acorns. I’m hoping that at least one will begin growing next spring, and that it will eventually provide shade, […]
Left in Andover: A whipping to end whippings
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Compiling her “Vermont Historical Gazetteer,” Abby Maria Hemenway (1828-1890) enlisted the elders of each Vermont town and city to provide historical material, which she then edited and published from 1861 until her death. The section titled “The Local History of ANDOVER, VT.” (1886) includes a primary source contribution […]
Chester Chatter: J.J. & the milk-run Christmas
By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC We are in the Christmas season and I have been recalling Christmas from a time past. One of my favorite memories is from when I worked at the diner, and got to know all the regulars who came by every day. One truck driver we all liked was […]
Henry Homeyer: Are living Christmas trees a good idea?
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I know people who say we shouldn’t be cutting down trees just to brighten our homes for the holidays. Trees are, after all, sequestering carbon and making our environment cleaner, greener, and all that. I disagree and will cut a fresh tree from my neighborhood tree farmer. I […]
Stone Village on display in Holiday Cookie Tour
© 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Ringing in the festive holiday season, from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, visitors will have the chance to tour eight decorated homes and the Stone Church in Chester’s historic Stone Village, enjoying homemade cookies and good company. Now in its third year, the Chester Holiday Cookie Tour invites […]
Left in Andover: A long Thanksgiving walk
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Sunday before Thanksgiving, 1975, my dad and I set out for an adventure hitchhiking from Andover to Bennington, then onwards to Albany, N.Y., to visit Cousin Frances who had invited us to stay at her house overnight. The weather was mild for that time of year, and […]
Chester Chatter: A day at the beach
By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC The phone call came. Jerry’s hearing aids were ready and we needed to go to the V.A. in Manchester, N.H., to pick them up. Sitting in the car at the V.A. Hospital, as Jerry went inside to pick up his package, I spotted a sign that read “Hampton […]
Henry Homeyer: Holiday gifts for the gardener
By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Bad news: I hear you can’t depend on Santa to deliver presents to your favorite gardener this year as he is vastly overworked – and pretty cranky. Last I heard, he is planning on give coal to almost everyone over the age of 8. But here are some […]
Christmas trees arrive for Chester Fire Dept. sale
By Shawn Cunningham © 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Just before 8 a.m. on Black Friday, the scanner crackled to life with a loud piercing tone. “Chester Fire, Administrative tone. The truck with the trees has arrived. All available personnel to the field to unload.” And with that, a Chester holiday season tradition and a major […]
Left in Andover: Martha’s life of faith and family
By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Eight-year-old Martha Hennessy learned of the assassination of JFK standing in line at Perkinsville Elementary School. Fifty-seven years later, the Vermont native and grandmother of eight recalls: “That same year, 1963, we were still having duck-and-cover air raid drills because of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the perceived […]
