Photos by Nanci Blog

Curious about this crazy good fruit? Check out: National Avocado Day online.  It gives a brief history of how this ancient fruit is cherished by some even today. ( I for one, try to eat one a day when they are in season.) Some people avoid them because they are high in fat  but it's primarily the healthy type of monounsaturated fat known to lower cholesterol. Even though avocados are a little high in calories, those calories come packaged together with a good dose of nutrients. A third of the fruit has 250 milligrams of potassium, which is about half as much as a large banana. Potassium can help lower your blood pressure and keeps your muscles and nerves working. Avocados are a good source of many of your daily vitamins. You'll get about 4 percent of the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C, 6 percent of your daily niacin and 10 percent of the daily folate from a third of an avocado. The same portion is also a good source of vitamin K and contains vitam...

Weathersfield select board and town news : By now you’ve heard, town manager Ed Morris has been offered a job across the river in Claremont. The Claremont City Council voted unanimously to hire Morris to be the new city manager in Claremont at the end of its regular meeting last Wednesday evening. The City Council’s employment offer is conditioned upon a background search and contract negotiations, officials said. The Weathersfield select board has scheduled a meeting tomorrow, July 30 at 5 p.m.. The online agenda states that the board will enter into executive session to discuss personnel. The board’s next regular meeting will be on Monday, August 5. Hopefully, the select board will explain what their plans will be to replace Morris. More information about the select board and thetown office at 802-674-2626. Get Out and About Events Artful Fle a in Springfield. The VAULT is hosting their annual Flea Market on Saturday, Aug. 10 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. as part of Springfield’s Side...

People are being warned about a poisonous plant popping up around the roadsides.  It's called wild parsnip .  (Around our area the plants are turning burn now) It’s a poisonous weed that causes a painful rash and eats away at your skin. It looks very similar to a dill plant or Queen Anne's lace and grows about 4 feet tall. It’s common in the ditches and the road edges. The oil on the plants contains chemicals  in that react with sunlight and cause severe burns. So what happens if you become a victim? (there are many photos online of skin injuries caused by exposure-I will not post them here-they are pretty gruesome .) "The sap of the wild parsnip has a chemical in it that is phytophototoxic, so that means it's a chemical from a plant and the chemical becomes toxic in the presence of sunlight. If you get that chemical from the sap on your skin, the chemical could cause burns if you are exposed to sunlight," Vt. Toxicologist Sarah Vose said. Anyone who ...

Weathersfield select board and town news : At press time, the minutes from the July 15 minutes were not posted on the website. Again, the select board is in violation of the Vermont State Open Meeting which states-Public bodies are required to take minutes. Minutes must at least include the names of all members of the public body present at the meeting, and other active participants, and all motions, proposals, and resolutions made, and their dispositions, and the results of any votes taken. 1 V.S.A § 312 (b)(1). Minutes are public records, which must be available for public inspection and copying after five days from the date of the meeting. Minutes also must be posted no later than five days from the date of the meeting to a website, if one exists, that the public body maintains or has designated as the official website of the body . 1 V.S.A § 312 (b)(2). Minutes are the permanent record of the formal actions of the public body and play an important role in recording the histor...

Sunday night, on a perfect summer evening, the Hartland Recreation Department hosted their first concert of their summer concert series. Local favorites,    Moxley Union   played two hours of mostly original music peppered with a few select covers. When the band asked if they should play covers or Moxley Union tunes the crowd of about 75 people yelled "Moxley." Moxley Union: Tristan Bellerive, Nathaniel Titorenko-Geary, Kyle Chivers, Rio Mueller  The concert stage is the town gazebo behind the Rec Center on Route 12 just passed Damon Hall. Kyle Chivers, Rio Mueller  Tristan Bellerive The concerts are from 5-7 p.m. at the town gazebo. Still Hill will perform July 21  Trifolium on July 28 Jim Yeager and the Majic Box Band on August 4 and Carlos Ocasio closes the series on August 11 More info about Hartland Rec:  https://www.facebook.com/hartland.department/ More info about Moxley Union:  https://www.faceboo...

Perkinsville Village tax rate was incorrectly presented at the July 9 select board meeting. Revoted on July 10. The select board met on July 9, 2019 to set the town tax rate and approve the quarterly payment dates. The select board was presented the following figures from town manager, Ed Morris and town finance director Darlene Kelly: Town of Weathersfield municipal tax rate of .6252 ( General Fund-0.3380, Highway-0.2872) Village of Perkinsville tax rate of 0.0391 in their pre-meeting packet. Edited-At press time the minutes from the July 9 were still not posted on the town website nor were they included in the select board packet for this evening's meeting, a violation of the Vermont State Open Meeting Law. ( WHAT ARE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR MINUTES OF A PUBLIC BODY? Public bodies are required to take  minutes. Minutes must at least include the names of all members of the public body present at the meeting, and  other active participants, and all motions, proposals, a...

Lula Wiles :  Ellie Buckland, Isa Burke, Mali Obomsawin, performed last night on the Dartmouth/Hanover Green before a large audience on a beautiful summer evening. No strangers   to the Upper Valley (they have performed twice recently at LOH on Location and the Front Porch Concert Series in Lebanon) they kicked-off their   summer "festival" tour   in Hanover before heading to Virginia for the Red Wing Roots Music Festival in Mount Solon, VA. Their new CD is out, " What Will We Do" on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and getting some great buzz in the music industry. More photos and a few video clips:  https://photosbynanci.smugmug.com/Lula-Wiles/Free-For-All-Hanover-Green-/ Next Free for All is July 17 and "Ranky Tanky" will be performing.  “Ranky tanky” translates loosely as “get funky” in the Gullah dialect of the southeastern Sea Island region, and that’s exactly what this Charleston, SC-based quintet aims to do. They add a jazz back...

Angel is recovering at Lost My Way Animal Shelter in Claremont, NH Angel has been surrendered to Lost My Way animal shelter in Claremont, NH and is under veterinarian care. She is believed to be a Border Collie/Great Pyrenees mix and had recently had a litter of puppies. On Monday  morning, July 8 at 7:48 a.m. a Jeep Liberty, possibly light green or gold, abandoned  this dog at the Cumberland Farms in Windsor Vt. Windsor Police are looking for any assistance in identifying the dog's owner (s) and/or the operator of the vehicle to determine why the dog was left in the convenience store parking lot. Please contact Windsor Police at 802-674-9042. Donations to help care for Angel and the other animals at Lost My Way animal shelter may be made by visiting their Facebook Page

I sent is my last column to the Vermont Standard last Friday for tomorrow's publication. I will continue to write for my blog and for the Daily UV , now: Adventures and Assignments West Windsor hosted their 4th of July Parade last Thursday. It was a warm one but everyone really enjoyed themselves. More photos: CLICK HERE Sunday night we drove to Gilford, NH to the Bank of NH Pavilion, formerly Meadowbrook, to see Peter Frampton FINALE-The Farewell Tour 2019, his last tour. After 50+ years of touring Peter Frampton has announced that this tour will be his last. The Farewell Tour features support from Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening for the majority of the run. JBLZE opened on Sunday. Frampton holds up the guitar he used on the Frampton Comes Alive Tour I first saw Frampton back in 1977 and really enjoying his guitar work so I wanted to see him in this last tour. More photos: CLICK HERE News you Can Use Weathersfield select board and t...

Featuring Michael Franti and Spearhead and Local Fav. Noah Kahan It's been two years since I've seen Michael Franti and Spearhead (last time was at LOH June 22, 2017 at a fundraiser for The Rusty Berring Skatepark in Lebanon NH) My girlfriends and I really enjoyed the show, so when the DO GOOD FEST announced that Franti would headline this years festival, it didn't take ANY arm twisting to get these sis-tahs on board for a road-trip. The festival is sponsored by National Life Group as a fundraiser for Branches Of Hope , a  cancer patient fund providing financial relief to individuals and their families dealing with cancer by helping with both routine and unexpected expenses related to housing, transportation, food, medical services and much more to allow the patient and their family to focus on treatment.  Michael Franti is bringing his entire touring show to the Do Good Fest lawn this year, part of his Stay Human tour. Other bands include:  Noah Kahan , a...

Happy 4th of July Everyone!  In Congress, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Don’t know about you but I get chills every time I read these statements. Enjoy your holiday people.  ...