Because I was taking photos last year for the local newspaper, the Montpelier Bridge, I was able to chronicle some of the good, the bad and the crazy that 2021 brought us. Here are a handful of my favorite local photos. Click here for a bigger pictures-of-the-year gallery.
2021 started with the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and the craziness reached all the way to Montpelier (above), where state police patrolled the State House grounds January 17th in case of violent protests from Trump loyalists. No demonstrations materialized, although counter-demonstrators met a few blocks away at City Hall.
On September 11, Friends of the Winooski volunteers scoured the North Branch of the Winooski River for trash and found quite a bit.
State employees and teachers rallied at the State House to protest proposed changes in their pension plans, March 30.
The Red Trouser Show, David Graham and Tobin Renwick, turned State Street into a stage during the Taste of Montpelier, September 11.
Crowds await the arrival of the Amtrak train in Montpelier on Monday morning, July 19. It was the first since COVID restrictions were imposed. Tim Donovan, in blue shirt at front of crowd, was taking his granddaughter Neala on the Amtrak excursion. You could ride anywhere on the line in Vermont for $1. § Click here for a bigger pictures-of-the-year gallery.
Last season, there was basically no high-level cross-country ski racing in Canada due to COVID restrictions, so when Western Canada Cup #1 was held this past December 4–5 in Sovereign Lake, British Columbia, it was a celebration as well as a competition. Somewhat accidentally, I happened to be there. Day one featured steady snow for the sprints. Day two brought sun on new snow for the distance race. It was real winter weather, something that has yet to reach the northeastern USA. 
The difference between looking at fine black-and-white photo prints in person—not online, not in a book, but on the wall in front of you— is something like the difference between hearing live music and listening to a CD. A good example is The World of Yousuf Karsh exhibit now at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Karsh’s portraits of the famous, and a few not-so-famous, are completely traditional in lighting, poses and composition, literally from another century. But they also remain as powerful and eloquent as the day they first swam to the surface of his darkroom developing tray. The eloquence comes from the artistry Karsh used to control the lighting and the composition, but also from the connection he clearly made with the people he was photographing, from Albert Einstein to Winston Churchill, Fidel Castro, Paul Robeson, Nelson Mandela, Brigitte Bardot, Helen Keller, Marian Anderson, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Almost equally eloquent are the statements he made about each image, reproduced as captions next to the photos. Karsh, born Armenian in the Ottoman empire in 1908, spent most of his life in Canada. He died in Boston in 2002. 
The New England Nordic Ski Association held its last roller ski race of the season on November 13: 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), mainly uphill to the Trapp Family Lodge touring center in Stowe. The next NENSA races will be on snow, and several of those who raced on wheels at Trapps’ competed this weekend on cold, squeaky snow in northern Finland with the US Ski Team. You’ll note below that number 149, Adam Martin from the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, has no skis. A wheel fell off one of his and he ran up the last hill instead of rolling. 
Montpelier’s Veteran’s Day parade was canceled due to COVID, so Barre, VT, a few miles away, ca
rried the flags.
I photographed a couple Montpelier High School soccer games during the end-of-the-season playoffs. They made it to the finals, but lost to Milton High School.
Montreal is always interesting, and especially when you haven’t been able to go for more than a year. It took us three COVID tests to get there back in mid-October (one before arriving at the border, one after crossing into Canada, and one when we got back).
You have to admit, for a tiny town, Montpelier, VT, (pop. just over 7,000) knows how to do Halloween. From the the Vermont Dance Alliance zombie takeover of State Street to neighborhood trick-or-treating, the one-mile Trick or Trot Run, the school superintendent on the dunk machine, and other frolics on the State House lawn, it’s a heck of a party. Even if it rains the whole time. 
