Simple. Pride VT 2018
On Saturday, Sept. 8, the annual Pride Vermont Parade and Festival was held in downtown Burlington. The skies were clear, the air was crisp, and the sun was lush.
Charlotte Selectboard meeting
The Thompson Point’s Wastewater ordinance is going to go under the microscope again at the end of the month after board members decided during the Sept. 10 meeting that additional work was needed on the enforcement and penalties section.
Town Link Trail underpass opens for business
About 70 people turned out to enjoy live music, great food, neighborhood camaraderie and the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new underpass under Route 7 on the Charlotte Town Link Trail. Charlotters of all ages arrived by foot and by bike to participate in the grand opening. Laurie Thompson, co-chair of the Trails Committee, Lane Morrison, chair of the Selectboard, and Clark Hinsdale, who initiated the idea of the underpass with the State of Vermont many years ago, all spoke at the ceremony before the ribbon cutting. Several local farms and businesses donated food for the event.
Falling back
So here we go again … right around the first of September, the Big Guy Upstairs hits the thermostat, and Presto! The nights get colder, and in the daytime we go from too hot to just about right, and in the back of our minds lingers the memory of what lies just beyond autumn.
Crop tree release
My woodlot in Bolton was logged in the 1980s. Through a practice known as “diameter-limit cutting,” all trees above a certain diameter (probably 11 inches or 14 inches) were cut. My land is a good site for growing red and white oak, white and red pine, red spruce and hemlock, but this harvest removed most trees of these species, creating a forest of mostly unhealthy beech and red maple.
Old and In the Way
I’ve been driving by the old dairy barn on Mount Philo Road for 22 years—you know the one, a couple of miles north of Charlotte Central School. When I lived east of Route 7, I sometimes drove by it in upwards of six times a day. I was always fascinated by it—such a beautiful curiosity, imposing, impressive, a relic of Charlotte’s strong agricultural past.
Calendar of Events – Sept 22 through Oct 6
Vermont Symphony Orchestra Masterworks featuring Peter Serkin at 7:30 p.m., Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. The VSO’s 84th season opens with VSO Music Director Jaime Laredo leading the VSO in an intensely beautiful work by George Walker, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Sports Report – Sep 19
Redhawk cross country looking for 10 state titles in a row – While the Free Press seems often to focus on athletes other than cross-country runners, it might do well to take a glance at Coach Scott Bliss’s minions as they travel around Vermont, New England and upstate New York.
Kelly Brush ride set for Sept. 8
The 13th Annual Kelly Brush Ride, powered by VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations, is set to roll on Sept. 8 in Middlebury, bringing hundreds of riders through Charlotte as they ride the 100-mile “century” and the 85-mile routes. A total of about 500 riders are expected to complete one or the other loop.
Local fire and police crews work together to rescue dog
On the late morning of Aug. 22 police and rescue crews were dispatched to Cheesefactory Road in Shelburne for a dog that was stuck between two rocks.
There is much to offer in the late summer display
The first indication I had that there was a “hussie” in the garden was the intoxicating scent of perfume as I was drifting off to sleep. How sweet it was. Could it have been the Stargazer lily or perhaps Casa Blanca? Maybe clethra rosea, aka “summersweet”?
One final year at CCS
It’s back to school season once again! And this week I’ve been thinking about the past 10 years I’ve spent at Charlotte Central School. All the way back in 2008 I walked down the hallways of the CCS basement to begin my school career. I remember being so nervous as a little three-year-old starting preschool for the first time, but all the memories I have from that time in my life are good ones.
Two faces of Vermont
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who gave me a vote in the recent primary election. I do not take your support for granted, and I appreciate the confidence you place in me to do a good job representing you in Montpelier.
Sports Report
Four women who covered the distance in just more than an hour and a half led the fourth annual swim across 3.7 miles of Lake Champlain from the dock at Essex, New York, to the Charlotte town beach. Charlotte’s John Braun was not far behind in an hour and 46 minutes, finishing second among men. The event raised money for the Lake Champlain Committee.
Are you a skillful eater?
Do you take the time to make meals and ensure that you are making healthy food choices the majority of the time? Do you accept your love of food and enjoy eating? Do you eat in a mindful manner and pay attention to when you are satiated? If you answered yes, then you are a skillful eater.
Fall and winter are the perfect seasons to focus on buying and selling a home
Fall and winter have been given a bad name as time for buying and selling real estate. This is something that simply doesn’t make sense to me. Fall has so many great qualities about it that are perfect for home selling.
Science, magic and an English grandfather – Part 1 & 2
My Grandfather Hooker loomed like a giant at 6 feet 6 inches tall with size 15 black shoes that laced to the ankles. Even his walrus mustache and beard seemed unusual, accompanied by his commanding manner. He was born in Brenchley, Kent, England, in 1864 and hoped to become a professional magician. A frayed poster announced his performance at age 16 in a local establishment called the Lime Tree Coffee House.
Remembering Mark Bolles
There are times in life when it’s not until someone dies that we come to understand how their life impacted ours, even when we didn’t know them while they were here, even if it was and is peripherally. Such is the story of Mark Bolles, the former pastor of the Charlotte Congregational Church, who was born on August 21, 1951, and died on August 12, 2018.
Are they no longer headed for the Badlands?
This has been a summer, as have the past few, when driving up to Eden we often feel like we’re part of a motorcycle rally on Rte. 100. Headed north and south alike, the flocks of cyclists on the road take me back to my youth when my hometown in southern Minnesota was on the main line to Sturgis, South Dakota, rallying point of cyclists since 1938.
Good, and maybe not-so-good, end-of-summer reading
A few years ago, I went on a trip with extended family and a couple of intrepid friends to the Galapagos. The trip involved two nights in Quito, Equador, and a week of travel by boat to the various islands, where khaki-clad naturalists walked us around carefully circumscribed paths, pointing out interesting phenomena: giant tortoises, blue-footed boobies, sharks, sea turtles, flamingoes and all kinds of other fauna and flora and so on.