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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 […]

Left in Andover: Keeping up with Anne Mausolff

Left in Andover: Keeping up with Anne Mausolff

By Susan Leader 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC While visiting Middletown Cemetery in Andover this summer, I met a man paying his respects to his dad and son, whose ashes he had scattered guerrilla-style between two boulders where were no gravestones. Both had loved roaming nearby Markham Mountain to hunt, though neither had ever lived in […]

Chester Chatter: Grandpa's toys create sunshine

Chester Chatter: Grandpa’s toys create sunshine

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC A rainy gloomy day, like today, gets me recalling times of long ago. In my grandparents’ home, there was a large attic. My grandpa hung two swings in it for my sister and me. When we were bored with summer school vacation, my sister Marie and I often […]

Henry Homeyer: Juice your fruit and store it too

Henry Homeyer: Juice your fruit and store it too

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC For me, this has been a banner year for grapes. I have just a couple of plants, but they are large and vigorous. They are the Concord type with big seeds. I know one is a ‘Purple Valiant’, but the other name is long forgotten. They are quite […]

Derry, Wallingford artists team up to paint Rutland mural

Derry, Wallingford artists team up to paint Rutland mural

Garrison Buxton of Londonderry has teamed up with Wallingford artist Stacy Harshman of the Sparkle Barn to create an indoor mural at the Vermont Farmers Food Center, home of the Rutland Winter Farmers Market, 251 West St., in Rutland. The mural, which took 10 days to finish, is painted with a combination of acrylic and […]

Left in Andover: Warp, weft and spinning a life

Left in Andover: Warp, weft and spinning a life

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In the late 1960s and 1970s, when I viewed “dropping out” as a viable career option, I wrestled with what version of the Age of Aquarius would be right for me. I toyed with creating my own clothes, the goal being to make myself independent of the exploitation […]

Chester Chatter: A farm wife prepares for winter

Chester Chatter: A farm wife prepares for winter

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC On the farm, there was always something to be done. Come fall, it was time to button up for the winter ahead. Inside the farmhouse, the kitchen smelled of pickles and other canning of late vegetables, which was going on with the big pressure cooker making its noise. […]

Joyous, tragic, exuberance of WPTC's 'Indecent'

Joyous, tragic, exuberance of WPTC’s ‘Indecent’

By David Lampe-Wilson 2019 © Telegraph Publishing LLC Weston Playhouse finishes its season with Paula Vogel’s Indecent and it is safe to say that they have saved the best for last. Indecent is a gem of a play that encompasses a host of ideas as it challenges its audience to keep up with diverse themes. […]

Henry Homeyer: Don't fall behind on fall lawn care

Henry Homeyer: Don’t fall behind on fall lawn care

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I have to admit that I don’t pay much attention to my lawn. I mow it as needed, but don’t fuss about dandelions, which I consider cheerful. But I realize many gardeners do care about their lawns, so I will share with you a few tips for the […]

Left in Andover: An oasis in our food deserts

Left in Andover: An oasis in our food deserts

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC My father Herbert Leader (1917-1988), self-described “Bennington boy,”  recollected driving out to the surrounding countryside as a small child with his father: “Pappa used to take the horse and wagon around the countryside, a rabbi from Slonim looking out for his flock. Sometimes he’d take me along and […]

Chester Chatter: In a stew over two tom turkeys

Chester Chatter: In a stew over two tom turkeys

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC A chicken coop extended from the garage out back of our house. One year, Uncle Kenny decided to raise two tom turkeys. He named them Thanksgiving and Christmas. I liked to sneak into the shed to watch them. I felt sorry for Thanksgiving because he was getting larger […]

Henry Homeyer: 6 trees ready to find roots in your garden

Henry Homeyer: 6 trees ready to find roots in your garden

By Henry Homeyer ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC I recently spent an afternoon walking around the UMass Amherst campus with Mike Dirr, my favorite tree authority and author. I already had several of his books, which I depend on before buying a tree. I purchased his terrific new book entitled, The Tree Book: Superior Selections for […]

Grafton Cheese features mural by Chester artist

Grafton Cheese features mural by Chester artist

© 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC Chester artist Amy Mosher has completed a bucolic mural for the Grafton Village Cheese Co.’s viewing room at its facility at 533 Townshend Road in Grafton. The 340-square-foot mural portrays Vermont’s rural landscape complete with the cows and sheep that provide milk to make Grafton’s cave aged cheeses. Mosher had […]

Bulb sale at Chester Fall Fest; Grafton Fall Fest seeks crafters; Springfield Band looking for musicians

Bulb sale at Chester Fall Fest; Grafton Fall Fest seeks crafters; Springfield Band looking for musicians

Chester Townscape selling bulbs at Fall Festival Chester Townscape volunteers will be in front of the Fullerton Inn on Main Street in Chester selling spring-flowering bulbs during Chester’s Fall Festival from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Sept. 21 and 22. All bulbs are top quality, hardy, easy care, deer resistant, and expected […]

Left in Andover: Apple picking plants seeds for lifetime of growth

Left in Andover: Apple picking plants seeds for lifetime of growth

By Susan Leader ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC In 1978 my mother, Miriam Leader, wrote, “I search the reddened cheeks of a Northern Spy, my daughter’s cheeks rosy as she picked it … I am becoming greedy of those times.” I have no desire to reprise my time as a professional, seasonal orchard worker throughout my […]

Chester Chatter: That clear beautiful tragic day

Chester Chatter: That clear beautiful tragic day

By Ruthie Douglas ©2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC It was a beautiful clear day. Fall was on its way. The sky was blue dotted with fluffy white clouds. I was angry that I was sick and called into work that I would not be coming in. I wrapped up in a blanket, turned on the TV […]