This time of year, it seems that just about everything in Vermont is hopeful. The sky is blue, the birds are singing, and the flowers are blooming robustly. The furnace has quit running non-stop. » read more
Kayak: by Hubert Schriebl I felt like Captain Hazelwood. Except I was quite sober. But I was still polluting the environment with the fumes and noise of a two-stroke engine. And rather than reefs, my main concern was avoiding Lake St. Catherine's forests of Eurasian milfoil, tendrils of which threatened to wrap around the propeller. Weaving out of the bay, I suddenly saw a duck off the bow. "Right!" said my friend Kim, pointing toward the bird. "No! Left! ... Wait, right! Stop!" Ahhhhhh! My palm began to sweat on the throttle. The duck wisely took to the skies. » read more
Norcross-West Quarry: by Andrus BowenBy Susanne Washburn
Photography courtesy of Andrus L. Bownen
At the turn of the 20th century, the name Dorset was synonymous with marble throughout the country The quintessential Vermont hydro-experience is a swim in the Dorset Quarry. Surrounded by what remains of rock once mined there for assorted uses, private and public, the swimmer revels in the freshet of ground water that has emerged from the area's high water table to fill the huge excavation to great depths. A dip on Memorial Day weekend is a brush with the Arctic. On a hot August afternoon, it's enough to cool you down for the rest of the day. Even when the water temperature has become comfortable, the swimmer is surprised to wander into a cold draft served up by a strong underground spring. The water itself and the dives and leaps from high marble perches have made the quarry a favorite local swimming hole for most of the past century. » read more
Cereus: by Hubert SchrieblBy Louise Jones
Photography by Hurbert Schriebl
It blooms just once by the light of the moon. » read more
