It’s still winter, at least for one more day, but that didn’t stop Richmond Scott from launching his stand-up paddle board in the North Branch of the Winooski River and bobbing through downtown Montpelier, VT, on Saturday morning. Scott was clad in a dry-suit and life jacket and cruised down into the Winooski River, headed for Middlesex.
Paddling Out of Winter
Posted in Montpelier, rivers, Spring, winter
Tagged Montpelier VT, rivers, standup paddle boards, Winooski River
50-K & 30-K Planica Galleries Are Up
I have finally posted the galleries from the men’s 50-kilometer and women’s 30-kilometer races. For reasons known only to WordPress, to see them you have to click first on the photo or the headline and then click here to see them.
Posted in Slovenia
Tagged FIS world nordic ski championships 2023, Planica 2023, Slovenia
Phantom Valentines
The annual attack of the Valentine Phantom struck Montpelier again this week. This year’s onslaught of hearts included a cameo by Bernie Sanders and support for Ukraine. And the perpetrator or perpetrators once again disappeared, unseen. As is generally the case with phantoms. Click headline or photo for more.
Posted in Valentines Day
Tagged Montpelier VT, Valentine Phantom, Valentines Day
Climate Change March
Last Sunday (February 11) hundreds of people marched from Montpelier’s City Hall to the State House calling for action to address climate change. Organized by 350Vermont and 30 other groups, the demonstrators called for in-state action to provide more energy from renewable sources and protect low- and middle-income Vermonters from rising clean energy costs, among other steps. Click on headline or photo for more.
Winter Toss
Case Phinney, above (very), goes flying at the annual Montpelier, VT, celebration of winter known as Ice on Fire. The blanket toss, based on the Inuit method, was the most dramatic part of the event. Click on headline or photo for more. Em Hagman, below, was one of the few adults willing to go airborne. And Perry Bellow-Handelman of Middlesex and her daughter, Freida, were […]
Posted in blanket toss, Montpelier VT, Winter
Tagged blanket toss, Ice on Fire, Montpelier VT, winter
Pictures of the Year 2022
I’ve compiled some of what I consider my best photos from 2022, from the overturning of Roe v. Wade to the Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim and a lot more. Take a look! To see the full gallery and captions, you have to click on the headline above, or on the picture, and then click on this link after the blog page opens up.
The World Comes to Lake Placid
Beautiful winter day in the Adirondacks Sunday for the continuing World University Winter Games in Lake Placid (Jan 12-22). Competitors from around the world in just about every winter sport, from curling to skating, hockey, and alpine and cross country skiing. It’s like a mini-Olympics without the lines and the pricey tickets. (Click on photo or headline for more and gallery link.) Pick an event, […]
Posted in Adirdondacks, Lake Placid
Tagged Adirondacks, Lake Placid, winter sports, World University Games
Performing a Holiday Tradition
The Moving Light Dance company’s dancers perform in a dress rehearsal of The Nutcracker at the Barre, VT, Opera House in late December.
Posted in Dance, Nutcracker Suite
Tagged Barre Opera House, dance, Nutcracker
Picking Up the Pieces
They called it a historic bomb cyclone, and the storm that hit Vermont Friday, Dec. 23, lived up to its name. It tore down trees and branches all over the state, especially in central Vermont, where Washington Electric Cooperative has hundreds of miles of power lines that thread through wooded, ledgy hillsides. [Click on headline or photo for more.] Many of WEC’s several thousand customers […]
Posted in Downed power lines, e change, Winter Storm Elliott
Tagged climnate change, downed power, Winter Storm Elliott
Sun Dog Symphony
Morning sun and ice crystals floating in the air created this sight at Sugarbush, VT, Monday morning. I don’t know what this phenomenon is called: multiple sun dogs with a big rainbow is the best I can come up with. But I can tell you it was truly awesome. [Click headline or photo for more.] Somewhat like seeing a solar eclipse in that it made […]
Susquehanna Foliage Season
Turns out that places other than New England have fall foliage. Like the Susquehanna River valley in central Pennsylvania. I happened to be there at the absolute peak in late October. None of the reds of Vermont, but still spectacular viewed while cruising the river. [Click photo or headline for full post.] The bridge is the Rockville Bridge, considered the longest masonry stone-arch bridge in […]
Posted in Autumn, Pennsylvania, Susquehanna River
Tagged Autumn, Pennsylvania, Rockville Bridge, Susquehanna River
New Farms for New Americans
Belated Thanksgiving post: I had the pleasure last summer of photographing immigrants in the New Farms for New Americans program in Burlington for the Vermont Almanac. On a beautiful August evening new Vermonters from places like Bhutan, Somalia, Burma and the Congo harvested crops grown next to the Winooski River. [Click photo or headline for full post.] They have their own garden plots and although […]
Posted in immigrants to US, New Farms for New Americans, Vermont
Tagged agriculture, New Farms for New Americans, Vermont
The Joy of Pavement (Without Cars)
Unless you’ve been reading the local papers, you don’t know about the long and painful process over the past summer of paving the County Road, the main drag from Montpelier, VT, to the bucolic hills of Calais and East Montpelier. (Click headline or photo for full post.) It involved a temporarily torn-up road (all summer), rough pavement, flat tires, dust, and various delays, but, finally, […]
Posted in Montpelier VT
Tagged Montpelier VT, new pavement
Veterans and Kids on Vets’ Day
This year’s Veterans Day Parade in Montpelier included veterans, of course, but also kids from Union Elementary School wearing placards dedicated to a veteran close to them. They all marched through downtown to the war memorial at Montpelier High School for the placing a wreath and flowers. Click on photo or headline for the full post. Top photos, the prayer, and Tom McGibney, American Legion […]
Posted in Montpelier VT, Veterans Day
Tagged Montpelier VT, Veterans Day
Top of the State, State of the Top
Climbed very slowly up Mt. Mansfield last week, going from misty valley fog through bright sun on bright foliage to a smattering of ice and snow on top, at the highest point in Vermont, 4,395 feet in elevation. That was a peak, but also the end of peak foliage. Click on pic or head for more. Or there’s a bit more on Instagram and Facebook.
Posted in Autumn, fall foliage, Mt. Mansfield, Stowe
Tagged fall foliage, Mt. Mansfield, Stowe, Vermont
Heights of the Season
Leaves peaking, leaf peepers peeping, yesterday, White Rocks Mountain, VT; Hunger Mountain next door, Camels Hump, Mansfield, Waterbury Res in the distance. And the season’s first frost on the trees. Crystalline, cold and breezy on the summits. And today, the first woodstove fire of the season. Click thru for more.
Posted in fall foliage, Green Mountains, Vermont
Tagged fall foliage, Green Mountains, Vermont, White Rocks VT
Blessings
The local weekly, The Bridge, asked me to photograph the Blessing of the Animals at Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier. I thought this would be a short visit but the blessing came near the end of the service, so I had a while to wait. But that provided a few minutes to sit quietly, something I rarely do. (Click on headline or photo for full […]
Something to Luge
You have probably been asking yourself: “How DO lugers train during the summer when there’s no snow?” The answer was on display on a hot day in mid-July at Mt. Van Hovenberg athletic complex in Lake Placid. Teens in the development program were rolling on street luges, coached by former Olympic luger Jayson Terdiman. Click photo or headline for more.
Posted in Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, luge, Mt. Van Hovenberg, winter sports
Tagged Adirondacks, luge, Mt. Van Hovenberg
Tadoussac, Quebec, & the Whale Highway
Back from Quebec’s Saguenay Fjord and a whale-watching quest. The estuary where the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence rivers meet is one of the best places on earth to see a variety of whales. (From the blog page, click on the photo or headline for the full post and more photos.) The Saguenay, bringing its tea-colored waters from the boreal forest, flows into the mighty […]
Posted in Saguenay Fjord, whales
Tagged Quebec, Saguenay Fjord, whales
El Torneo de Futbol 2022
Last Saturday was the annual Torneo de Futbol de Justicia Migrante put on by Vermont’s Migrant Justice organization. (Click on the headline or photo for full post.) In the heart of northern New England virtually all the larger dairy farms run with the labor of migrant workers from Latin America. Many of them are invisible to Vermonters most of their working year, so the Torneo […]
Posted in farm workers, Migrant Justice
Tagged Migrant Justice, Migrant Justice Vermont
Montpelier’s July 3rd July 4th Parade
After a two-year COVID absence, Montpelier’s July Fourth parade (always held on July 3rd) was back, in most of its glory. There was a strong presence of marchers for abortion rights, and more politicians than ever. Plus a surprise appearance by the Chinese religion Falun Dafa. Why? I don’t know. As always, click on the headline or the photo for the full post. Click here […]
Posted in July 4, Montpelier VT, Vermont
Moving Light Dance
I photographed Moving Light Dance’s spring performance June 3–5 on a green hillside at Peck Orchard in East Montpelier, VT. (Click through on the headline or photo to see more photos, as with all these posts.) The performance started around 6:30 p.m., and on the last night the setting sun angled in over the apple trees bathing the stage in beautiful golden light.
Posted in Dance, Moving Light Dance
Tagged dance, Moving Light Dance
Vets with Pets
Army National Guard vet Chris Brock of Barre, VT, left, and vet tech Kim St. Germain console Brock’s dog Elinor, a basset hound/lab mix, as Elinor has her toe nails clipped at a recent free clinic held by Paws of War and the Mitzvah Fund at the Berlin, VT, Armory. More info on the organizations: Paws of War and Mitzvah Fund.
Posted in vets with pets
Tagged Mitzvah Fund, Paws of War, Vets with Pets
Plum Island, MA
Plum Island is a barrier beach in Newburyport, Massachusetts. If you go there during a warm spell in May, it’s like summer, except that the water temperature is about 45 degrees F. It’s also one of the best birding spots in North America.
Posted in Plum Island MA
Tagged beach, Massachusetts, Plum Island MA
All Species Day, Montpelier, VT
Montpelier welcomes spring in its own way, via All-Species Day, which starts in a local park and dances its way to the Vermont State House.
Posted in Montpelier VT
Tagged All Species Day, Montpelier VT, spring
Muddy Onion 2022
Catching up with the 2022 Muddy Onion, a local dirt-road ride that happened back on April 23rd. Up to about 40 miles through Montpelier, East Montpelier and Calais. The first big gravel-grinder event around here this season. More than 500 hundred riders. Click here for a high-resolution gallery.
Posted in Muddy Onion 2022, Onion River Outdoors
Tagged bicycling in Vermont, Muddy Onion 2022, Vermont gravel-grinders
Alexander Twilight at the State House
Vermont welcomed the first portrait of a person of color onto the Vermont State House’s walls on May 5. The portrait of Alexander Twilight (1795–1857), the first person of color to serve in a state legislature (Vermont’s, 1836) and the first person of color known to have graduated from a US college (Middlebury College, 1823), was painted by Katie Runde of Middlebury. It now hangs […]
Posted in Alexander Twilight, David Schutz, Katie Runde, Vermont State House
Tagged Alexander Twilight, David Schutz, Katie Runde, Vermont State House
Farewell, Tony Clark
Tony Clark, the founder of Blueberry Hill Ski Touring Center and one of the founders of the 1970s nordic ski boom in Vermont, has died, in Goshen, VT, where he made it happen. That’s Tony, above, in April of 1973. Not the best or sharpest photo ever made of him, but one that captures something of the times and a bit of Tony’s spirit. I […]
Posted in Blueberry Hill Inn VT, cross-country skiing, Goshen VT, Tony Clark, Vermont
Tagged Blueberry Hill Inn, Tony Clark
Return of the Mud
A Mud Season to remember. Or maybe to forget as soon as possible. Maybe it was three weeks of cold temperatures without much snow, which, as the saying goes, drove the frost deep into the ground so that when it thawed it came out in rolling waves of muck. What ever it was, we got it. It seems to be subsiding earthward at the moment, […]
Posted in Mud Season, Spring, Vermont
Tagged mud season, spring, Vermont
Vermonters Demonstrate for Ukraine
Two demonstrations at the Vermont State House in Montpelier last week expressed outrage over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On Sunday, the first, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT, featured Ukrainian-American Vermonters and others with ties to Ukraine. The second, Tuesday night, was a candlelight vigil that included the signing by Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, of a bill that will send about $640,000 […]
Snows of March
It snowed about a foot last week. It’s pretty much all turned to mud now, but it was beautiful while it fell and beautiful while it lasted.
Posted in falling snow, March, Snow
Tagged falling snow, March, Montpelier, Snow
Chilling at the Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim
The world may be falling apart, but the Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim went as scheduled last weekend in Newport, VT. Things started off on a sunny Saturday morning with temperatures in the single numbers and wrapped up Sunday. Swimmers also wrapped up immediately after their dips and were escorted to and from the water individually, and carefully watched in the water by volunteers with rescue […]
Posted in Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim, Newport VT
Tagged Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim, Newport VT
Harris Hill Ski Jump Celebrates Its 100th
The 100th anniversary of Brattleboro, VT’s, Harris Hill ski jump tournament was this past weekend, and the hill’s history was on full display. Through a squally snowstorm on Saturday and a beautiful day on Sunday, jumpers from middle school to masters flew. Junior groups were there from the East, Alaska, Colorado and the Midwest and there were a few Europeans in the senior class. Before […]
Posted in Brattleboro VT, ski jumping USA
Tagged Brattleboro, Harris Hill Ski Jump, ski jumping, Vermont Sports
Ryan Cochran-Siegle: Home from Beijing
Ryan Cochran-Siegle came home Saturday afternoon to a big parade in the tiny town of Richmond, and I have never been to a more pure Vermont event. Lifting the silver Olympic medal he won in the Super-G February 8 at the Beijing Olympics, Cochran motored down the middle of Bridge Street in a red VW Bug convertible, with his mother, 1972 Olympic medalist Barbara Ann […]
Pictures of the Year, Montpelier, VT
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 […]
Posted in Uncategorized
Ski Racing is Back in British Columbia
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 […]
Posted in cross country ski racing
Tagged cross country ski racing, Sovereign Lake BC, sports in Canada
The World of Yousuf Karsh
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, […]
Posted in Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Yousuf Karsh
Tagged Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Yousuf Karsh
NENSA Invitational Roller Ski Race
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 […]
Veterans Day, Barre, VT
Montpelier’s Veteran’s Day parade was canceled due to COVID, so Barre, VT, a few miles away, carried the flags.
Posted in Barre VT, Veterans Day
Tagged Barre VT, Veterans Day
MHS Boys Soccer in the Playoffs
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.
Posted in Montpelier VT, soccer
Tagged high school sports, Montpelier VT High School sports, soccer
Montreal Again
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).
Posted in Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Art
Tagged Montreal streets, street photography Montreal
Montpelier Halloween
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 […]
Posted in Halloween USA, Montpelier VT
Tagged Halloween, Montpelier VT
Tacoma to Tacoma
Back in June, my brother, Joe, and I drove a 2011 Toyota Tacoma pickup from Pennsylvania to Oregon to deliver it to my son, in Portland. So, it wasn’t quite a Tacoma to Tacoma trip because we didn’t actually get to Tacoma, Washington, but we were within a few miles on our swing up through Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. It was truck camping about as basically […]
Posted in cross-country travel, Toyota Tacoma
Tagged cross-country travel, Rightline Tents, Toyota Tacoma camper
Bird Banding at the North Branch Nature Center
Over the summer, staff at the North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier, VT, have been meeting just after dawn every week or so to band birds. The idea, says NBNC executive director Chip Darmstadt, is to monitor the local bird population in terms of survival and reproduction rates. That information is then combined with statistics from banding spots around the country to provide an overall […]
Posted in bird banding, birds, North Branch Nature Center
Tagged bird banding, North Branch Nature Center VT
Across the Winooski: the Cross Vermont Trail Bridge
Workers from CCS Constructors in Morrisville, VT, bridged the Winooski River Friday with the latest link in the Cross Vermont Trail. The steel bridge was fabricated in Minnesota, trucked in sections to the banks of the Winooski above the Levesque hydro dam in East Montpelier, assembled and then brought across the river, like a giant erector set in action. A crane on the hydro site […]
The Return of Amtrak
Amtrak is back. At least in Vermont. The first post-COVID (?) passenger train rolled through Montpelier Junction Monday morning, heading for Washington, DC, and was greeted by hundreds of rail enthusiasts. Passengers with reservations and $1 tickets for short hops in the state boarded and disembarked from earlier stops. And there was music, free creemees, and a dose of railroad history. Top: Tim Donovan and […]
Posted in Amtrak, COVID
Tagged Amtrak, COVID, Montpelier VT
Middle Saranac Lake, ADK
The Adirondacks are close to home, but we don’t get there as often as we should. Thanks to Dave Jones’s persistence and planning, I did get to spend a couple nights on Middle Saranac Lake, including a climb up Ampersand Mountain, a couple weeks ago. Big skies there, even if it’s nowhere near Montana. That’s Dave, kicking back in the last photo. Click here for […]
Posted in Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, Middle Saranac Lake
Tagged Adirondack Park, canoe camping, Middle Saranac Lake
At the Brewery
The scene at the Deschutes Brew Pub brewery in Portland, OR: The brewer, left, is my son, Jim. That’s my brother, Joe, at right. Joe and I drove a pickup truck out to Portland for Jim in early June. I’ll be posting photos from the trip eventually.
Posted in Portland OR
Purple at Night
I was relaxing next to a little lake near Cooperstown, NY, at dusk when these colors happened and this guy paddled by. It’s a lake that is relatively high in elevation and you feel as though the sky and water are very close to each other.
Bristol, RI
I happened to be in Bristol, RI, very briefly a couple weeks ago. Southeast of Providence, southwest of Fall River, Mass., it was a beautiful spot to see spring arrive on the shores of Narragansett Bay. The surrounding area and the peninsula that contain Bristol were a center of Native American settlement in pre-colonial days because it was the best agricultural land and the riches […]
Posted in Bristol RI, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
Tagged Bristol RI, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island
Middle School Track Meet
Last week, about 200 kids from 10 middle schools showed up for one of the first track and field meets to be held in Montpelier for a long time. From the looks of it, good times were had by all. For a giant gallery of running and jumping kids, click here.
Posted in Montpelier VT, track and field, youth sports
Tagged Montpelier VT, track and field, youth sports
Ashes to Ash (or Ash to Ashes)
Because of the impending visit of the emerald ash borer, we felt we had to take down a big, straight, beautiful ash that was close to the house. Down it came: cuts easily, splits beautifully, burns well. Still it was a shame to incinerate it when it could have become floors or cabinets. But it’s tough to find someone to haul a lone tree to […]
Earth Day, Ski Day.
Not so often that you can ski on new snow on Earth Day, April 22. But it happens. Up to a foot on Mount Mansfield, VT, last week, much of it deposited during howling winds and horizontal precipitation. The lifts are closed for the year, so it’s a matter of climbing up to ski down. Almost everyone on skis used alpine touring equipment and climbing […]
Posted in A.T. skiing, alpine touring, Mt. Mansfield
Tagged alpine ski touring, Mount Mansfield, Vermont skiing
They Fixed the Road …
And it looks like Mud Season’s over. The big waves and troughs are scraped and buried for another year. And it’s a bit early because of a surprisingly warm April, so far.
Posted in Mud Season
Tagged mud season, spring, Vermont
… And Signs of Spring
Part of the scene at the Burlington, VT, waterfront, on Lake Champlain, over the past weekend. Lots of people out after a long winter.
Posted in Lake Champlain, Spring
Tagged Burlington waterfront, Lake Champlain, spring, Vermont
Vermont Teachers Protest Pension Reductions
Vermont public school teachers gathered at the State House in Montpelier last week to protest proposed changes in pensions for teachers and other state employees. The state legislature, which had not funded the pension plans adequately in past years, creating an ever-increasing deficit in the retirement system, considered a proposal to reduce pensions and require larger pay-in amounts, among other changes. The changes would not […]
Posted in pensions, Vermont State House, Vermont teachers
Tagged pension protests, public employee pensions, Vermont, Vermont State House
We Got Mud Season
It wasn’t really a hard winter, but after early January, it consistently was moderately cold. So, apparently, the frost settled deeply into the dirt roads. The beauty of this mud bog is that it is just at the end of our driveway, so you don’t have to go far to watch the fun. And you can hear the sounds of scraping metal without even going […]
Posted in Mud Season, Spring
Tagged dirt roads, spring, Vermont
Winter Retrospective
It’s not really time for a winter retrospective (even though all the snow in the backyard is gone) because we know it’s going to snow in April. But here goes. Except for coaching, I photographed only three races in the winter of 2021, all local and all low-key, from the lollipop race of the Northwest Vermont Bill Koch League Festival at Sleepy Hollow to Vermont’s […]
In the Bridge
I’ve been helping out the local weekly, The Bridge, with photos a bit this winter. These are all from a story by Will Lindner about the businesses that have sprung up in the crossroads hamlet of Middlesex, VT. Above, Brian Lewis at the takeout window of his new restaurant, The Filling Station (a former gas station). Below, Randy George at Red Hen Baking; Karin Bellemare […]
Posted in Middlesex VT, small Vermont businesses, Vermont
Tagged Middlesex VT, Small Vermont businesses
Winter Arrives
After a slow start, it suddenly snowed and winter was here, full-time, for now. Top and below, the Montpelier, VT, middle school cross-country team heads across a field on an adventure ski. Everything else is within about two miles of home during the first big snowfall of 2021.
All Quiet on the State House Front
Despite concerns about demonstrations in the wake of last week’s attack on the US Capitol, Vermont’s State House was practically deserted Sunday except for media and law enforcement. Police, reporters and a few curious citizens chatted, and it just another quiet, gray and snowy Vermont day, but one with security unheard of on a winter Sunday afternoon. The only demonstrators were down at Montpelier’s city […]
Posted in 2020 elections, Vermont, Vermont State House
Tagged 2020 elections, Vermont, Vermont State House
Winter Happening
As crazy as the rest of 2020, winter at the end of the year was happening slowly, in cold starts followed by fits of warm weather. Above, the colors of winter rolled in over Camel’s Hump, north-central Vermont’s local mountain. Below, the wintry look of Dec. 23 followed by the unwintry look of Dec. 26, after a day of fifty-degree weather and rain. Snow due […]
Posted in Camels Hump, Vermont, Winter
Tagged Camels Hump, Vermont, winter
Stick Season
Stick Season: the interlude in Vermont between autumn and winter, when there are no leaves and no snow. But there are long, long shadows, peace, and a sense of anticipation for the next seasonal act. Above: East Montpelier. Below: North Branch of the Winooski River and elsewhere in Montpelier. Click here for a gallery of Stick Season shadows and people.
Posted in December, November, Stick Season, Vermont
Tagged December, November, Stick Season, Vermont
Vermont Votes
Despite an early-season snowfall that iced up the backroads, despite COVID, and despite (or because of) Donald Trump, central Vermonters in Calais, East Montpelier and Montpelier pulled on their snow boots and made it to the polls yesterday. The bluest of the blue states set a record for voter turnout and remained blue, but also kind of blue about how much of the rest of […]
Posted in 2020 elections, Vermont elections
Tagged 2020 election, elections, Vermont elections
Lost Nation Roll
Clear and cool today for the first cross country ski race in the season of COVID, the New England Nordic Ski Association’s Lost Nation Roll at Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center. There was Lysol to disinfect the roller skis, which were shared; interval starts; masks everywhere; no spectators; smooth skiing on the new asphalt track; and no crashes in the race. Roller skis are the training […]
Posted in Craftsbury Outdoor Center, roller skiing
Tagged Craftsbury Outdoor Center, roller skiing
Sudden Peak
Maybe because of the drought, peak fall foliage in Vermont has come early this year. It’s spectacular, but the dry, brittle leaves are coming down fast. These are from Albany and Craftsbury, in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
Posted in Autumn, fall foliage, Vermont
Tagged Autumn, fall foliage, Vermont
Not too Late to Paddle
We’ve had some frosty nights, followed by summer-like weather, so the water temperature in Lake Champlain has plummeted into the low 60s, but it’s still paddling season.
Posted in kayaking, Lake Champlain, Vermont
Tagged kayaking, Lake Champlain, Vermont
Apple Time
Apple time at Burtt’s pick-your-own orchard, Cabot VT. Burtt’s plants the trees in intensive rows, supported by cables, more like a vineyard than a traditional orchard, so the trees are closer together, the apples easier to harvest. Definitely doesn’t look like an old-time orchard with trees, pruned to be low and to gather the sun, dotting a hillside.
NEOWISE Come, NEOWISE Go
About two miles up the road, there’s a big hayfield that offers one of the best views in central Vermont. It was saved from development by the farm family that owned it, working in conjunction with local conservationists. It looks out on a big sky and the ridges of the main Green Mountains and the Worcester Range. Last week, it was the best place around […]
Posted in comets, NEOWISE
Tagged comets, NEOWISE, Vermont skies
Down But Not Out
All was going well in the summer of COVID, but then I fell off a bridge on my mountain bike back on June 23, dislocating the heck out of my foot and breaking my ankle. It’s all back together again, but this is the view I’ve been limited to for the past three weeks. Getting more mobile now, but I’m going to be on crutches […]
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged lazenbyphoto
Light on the Lake
Lake Champlain never disappoints, whatever its mood. These are from Burlington’s waterfront a few days before I broke my ankle.
Posted in Lake Champlain, summer, sunsets, Vermont
Tagged Burlington, Lake Champlain, summer, Vermont
Black Lives Matter, VT
Thousands attended a demonstration Sunday at the Vermont State House in Montpelier to protest the killings of people of color by police around the country. Click here for a full gallery.
Posted in Black Lives Matter
Tagged Black Lives Matter, demonstrations, protests, Vermont
Eagle Eye
Remember when the only place you ever saw an eagle was on a quarter? Now they are not uncommon visitors to central Vermont. This one was leaping into the air from the downstream side of the Wrightsville Reservoir dam, near Montpelier. Those talons are sharp!
Posted in birds of prey, eagles
Tagged birds of prey, eagles, Vermont
No Leaf Unturned
It seemed as though real spring would never arrive, but overnight, the leaves popped and it was here. Most of these are in the town of East Montpelier, VT.
Posted in East Montpelier, Spring, Vermont
Tagged East Montpelier, spring, Spring colors, Vermont
Spring & Snow
A funny spring so far: warm and then cold with snow sweeping across the highlands. Now we have the leaves ready to pop and the mountaintops are white. Makes for a nice contrast of green and white, but warm temperatures are coming and in about a week it will really look like spring. These are all in the stately rolling town of East Montpelier, VT.
Posted in East Montpelier, Spring, Vermont
Tagged East Montpelier, spring, Vermont
Spring Starts
I have been posting mostly on Instagram these days, so I have fallen behind on posts here. Now I’m catching up. Even the COVID-19 stay-at-home order can’t stop spring’s slow arrival in northern Vermont. Right now it’s just at the muted brown and gray stage, but every day the greens of May are a little nearer. These are all along the North Branch of the […]
Posted in North Branch Winooski River
Tagged Montpelier, North Branch Winooski River, spring
COVID Days, Quiet Streets
Vermont’s stay-at-home order has brought eerie quiet to the streets of Montpelier, the capital. The most activity seems to be at the hardware store, still open because it’s considered essential, and the post office. It’s funny though: The less there is to look at, the more there is to see. Has to do with slowing down, I think.
Posted in Montpelier
Tagged COVID-19, Montpelier
Trapps’ in Snow
It’s been an off-and-on winter, but snow returned on March 1, and people turned out at the Trapp Family Lodge trails in Stowe, VT, to enjoy it.
Posted in Stowe, Trapp Family Lodge
Tagged cross-country skiing, Stowe, Trapp Family Lodge, Vermont
New Hampshire Campaigners
I got to cover Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang, the two Democratic presidential candidates who were closest to my location in Vermont, in Claremont, NH, on the last weekend before the New Hampshire Primary. Sanders had the bigger crowd at Stevens High School, Yang had the better jokes at the Claremont Opera House. By the time the voting in New Hampshire was over, Yang had […]
Posted in Andrew Yang, New Hampshire Primary
Tagged Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, New Hampshire Primary
Jamming at the Whammy
The Whammy Bar is a tiny venue in the back of the Maple Corner Store in Maple Corner, Calais, VT, USA. There’s a small L-shaped bar, a few tables and chairs, guitars on the wall, some sound equipment, all reached by making your way past the groceries and the to-go food offerings and turning right. Twenty-five people is about max for the audience. They can […]
Posted in Maple Corner Store
Tagged Calais, Maple Corner Store, VT, Whammy Bar
Doubled Down
I rarely enter photography contests, but late in 2019 I did enter two. I got honorable mentions in both, which is better than nothing, but it’s also not as good as an actual prize. I suppose honorable mentions are how photography contests encourage people to keep sending in entry fees. On the other hand, I can honestly say that all the other images that were […]
A Bit of Biathlon
It was a cold few days in mid-December for the International Biathlon Union trials at Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center. Biathlon combines cross country ski racing and rifle marksmanship, and, in this case, frost and icicles. Skiers were vying for slots on US teams competing internationally. Top, Montanan Luke Brown steams and exhales mist as he removes his rifle after entering the firing range to shoot. […]
Posted in 2020 International Biathlon Union trials, biathlon
Tagged 2020 US IBU trials, biathlon, Deedra Irwin, Luke Brown
Top of the Rock, etc.
Just the usual pre-Christmas goings-on at Rockefeller Center.
Posted in black & white, New York City, Rockefeller Center, silhouette
Tagged Manhattan, NYC silhouettes, Rockefeller Center
January in November
November turned to winter in a hurry: snow, skiing and temperatures one night near zero. Both photos, early season skiers at Craftsbury Outdoor Center, VT, USA.
Climate Change Strike
Scenes from September 20, when students from Montpelier and around Vermont walked out of school to join the global climate change strike. They marched from Montpelier High School to City Hall and protested lack of action on climate change with a die-in and speeches. Below, three generations of protest. Click here for a gallery.
Prince Edward Island: Sea, Sky and Field
Prince Edward Island, a chunk of red rock and sand cradled in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, is one of Canada’s Maritime provinces, but, besides the sea, it also lives on tourism and agriculture. We were up there again in the late fall, nominally to help Dirk close up his cabin for the winter, but he did all the […]
Posted in Canada, Canada's Maritimes, Prince Edward Island
Tagged Canada, Canada's Maritimes, Prince Edwrad Island
Anais Mitchell Homecoming
Anais Mitchell grew up in Vermont, where she conceived and composed the musical Hadestown and performed it in bits and pieces at small Vermont venues. Hadestown is now a hit show on Broadway and last week Mitchell was back in Vermont, filling the First Unitarian Church in Burlington. She and guitarist Austin Nevins electrified the crowd. Click here for more on Hadestown.
Posted in Anais Mitchell, Hadestown, Vermont Music
Tagged Anais Mitchell, Hadestown, Vermont music
Vermont Cyclo-Crossing
Onion River Outdoors in Montpelier, VT, put on the annual Dam Wrightsville Cyclo-Cross races at Wrightsville Dam on Sunday: Run your bike, run with your bike, jump over obstacles, wind through the woods on a beautiful fall day. Click here for full gallery.
Posted in Cyclo-Cross, ont cyclo-cross, Vermont outdoors
Tagged Cyclo-Cross, Vermont cyclo-cross
Bringing in the Hemp
It used to be illegal to grow hemp in Vermont because it is, scientifically, the same plant as marijuana. But hemp doesn’t have nearly as much of the psychoactive substance THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) that marijuana does. (Hemp plants can contain no more than 0.3 percent (by dry weight); marijuana typically contains 5 to 20 percent THC.) With the boom in the use of CBD (cannabidiol) oils […]
Posted in hemp, hemp farming, hemp harvest, Vermont
Tagged agriculture, hemp, hemp harvesting, marijuana, Vermont
Farewell to Robert Frank
Robert Frank — one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, has died. But you can still experience his impact by looking up his book The Americans, a collection of piercing photographs taken in the 1950s around the USA and just as powerful now as it was then (click here). Click here for the New York Times story. Click here for a look […]
Arborist
Two big dead poplars next to the driveway. Two handsome ashes big and close to the house and (possibly) threatened by the emerald ash borer. Solution: arborist Joseph Ferris, figuring out the angles, setting ropes with a giant slingshot, and putting the trees down exactly where he wanted them to go.
Posted in arborist, logging, Northern Woodlands, Vermont
Tagged arborists, logging, Northern Woodlands, tree cutting, Vermont forests
Ben & Hannah
I don’t generally photograph weddings but every now and then I end up at a great one and I can’t resist. In this case, my friends’ wonderful daughter, Hannah, and the equally wonderful Ben tied the knot. They live in London, but they came to the wilds of Calais, Vermont, Hannah’s hometown, on a spectacular late summer day, to the Old West Church for the […]
Posted in Vermont, weddings
Tagged Vermont, Vermont barn dance, weddings
Summer Night, Baseball
The New England Collegiate Baseball League, the Vermont Mountaineers versus the Newport, RI, Gulls. Played on the Montpelier Recreation Field on a warm evening. The college players live with local families over the summer. The batboys are lucky local kids. A good night for the Mountaineers, who won 13—2.
Montpelier’s July 3 Parade
Red, white, blue and a peach with orange fuzz at the Montpelier, VT, July 3 parade. A wave from the Morse Farm’s Burr Morse, above, and another from Montpelier’s mayor, Anne Watson, below, along with a Trump protestor and a runner in the annual Montpelier Mile. Bottom, crew members from the USS Montpelier nuclear-powered submarine, who always march in the parade. Lots more when you […]
Posted in Independence Day, July 4, Montpelier, Vermont
Tagged Independence Day, July 4, Montpelier, parades, Vermont
Last Days of a Long Season
It started snowing in early November in Vermont and kept snowing, with a few rainstorms in between, well into April. At its deepest, the snow on top of Mt. Mansfield, the highest point in the state, reached 10 feet. And the manmade snow on the ski resort slopes hung on well into May. These pictures were taken May 5 and people skied for weeks after […]
Posted in Skiing, Spring, spring skiing, Vermont
Tagged spring skiing, Vermont
Farewell, Winter 2018-19
In northern New England, the winter of 2018-19 really started in early November, and it kept going and going. In fact, it seemed as though spring did not arrive until the past few days, when temperatures reached the 60s and the peepers started peeping. There was a lot of winter. Toward the end of the season, snow at the snow stake on top of Mount […]
Posted in barns, Craftsbury, Vermont, Winter
Tagged Craftsbury, Vermont winter
Seefeld 2019: Gallery
Two weeks at the world nordic ski championships in Austria meant a lot of people met, a lot of stories seen and heard, and a lot of photos taken, from the ski jumper, above, flying toward the Alps, to the Seekirchl (church by the lake) in Seefeld by moonlight, below, to all the faces of nordic ski sport. Click here for the gigantic gallery, if […]
So Long, Seefeld
The 2019 FIS world nordic championships are history. More than 100,000 tickets were sold during the two-week competition in Seefeld, Austria—about 12,000 on the busiest days, according to the organizers. Norwegians, like the fan above, were definitely smiling: They won 25 medals, more by far than any other nation. The Austrian organizers should have been happy with the way the events ran, but undoubtedly they […]
Warm: Seefeld #4, Women’s Relay
It was this hot during the women’s 4 x 5-K relay at the world nordic ski championships in Seefeld, Austria, yesterday: So hot — temperatures well into the 50s and skiers fighting through slushy, slow snow — that Therese Johaug, top, Norway’s number one skier, collapsed into an instant on-snow cooldown at the finish line. She (and Norway) finished second. Jessie Diggins, the top US […]
On the Jump Hill, Seefeld
Three from the ski jump in Seefeld, Austria. I know very little about ski jumping and very little about how to photograph it, but it is really interesting to be on the jump, hearing the jumpers hurtle down the inrun, whistle through space and land, watching them as they ride the air. Plus there’s a great view from up there.
Seefeld World Nordic Championships #3
Catching up with a few days of racing at Seefeld. Above, Norway’s Therese Johaug exults after winning the women’s 15-k skiathlon. She had been suspended (in a baffling move by ski authorities) from competition for 18 months for using a lip cream that contained a steroid, and, in her first world championship since, she was ready to strike back. Below, Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist embracing teammate […]
Seefeld World Nordic Ski Championships #2
Still cannot enable my galleries but here are a few from the big sprint championship day yesterday. Both men’s and women’s races were won by Norwegians (no surprise!). American men and women had some good results, including Simi Hamilton’s 9th place, but no podium finishes. Details and more photos at Fasterskier.com and on Instagram @lazenbyphoto. Above, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, en route to the men’s 1.6-kilometer […]
Seefeld Nordic World Championships #1
Quick note from Seefeld, Austria: Here at the FIS Nordic World Championships in a high mountain valley near Innsbruck, feet-deep in snow, but with temperatures in the 40s. Racing starts Thursday, but the competition center is filled with coaches and athletes trying wax and skis and checking out the courses. Above, Alaska Pacific University coach Erik Flora with APU and US Ski Team member Sadie […]
The Seven Sisters
The Seven Sisters, a series of chalky bluffs along the Sussex coast, is known as one of the best seaside strolls in England. Just about a 90-minute train ride from London’s Victoria station, it’s also among the most popular. Plenty of company from fellow walkers, but worth it for the big expanse of sky, ocean, breeze and downs. In the middle of the walk, a […]
Posted in England, Seven Sisters Hike, South Downs Way
Tagged England, Hiking in England, Seven Sisters Hike, South Downs Way
London: Look Both ways
You have to look both ways in London for two reasons: One, if you don’t look left and right when you cross a street, you are liable to be flattened by the inexorable hurtling bulk of a big red double-decker bus, a cab, a cruising motorscooter or even a bicyclist, all coming from exactly the direction you do not expect them to. And, two, you […]
Posted in England, London, Look Both Ways, Travel
Tagged England, London, Look Both Ways, Travel
2019 US Paralympics
The 2019 U.S. Paralympics Nordic Nationals brought paralympic athletes from around the country to the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center in January. It is always great to see the strength of mind, body and spirit these athletes — who compete despite impairments that range from partial paralysis to diminished sight — put into the competition. Top, Dan Cnossen, an Annapolis graduate and Navy SEAL who lost […]
Keeping It Clean at the Imperial War Museum
Even, or perhaps especially, the Imperial War Museum in London has to deal with dust and smudges. Below, a group of middle school students deal with a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain in World War II, with a Nazi V-1 (or is it a V-2) rocket to the right. And below that the funeral ad.
Posted in England, Imperial War Museum, London
Tagged Imperial War Museum, London, UK
Ask Us About Our …
Something about the photo or the approach to this subject doesn’t seem quite right. Is it the smiles? Or does the fact that they are blissfully piloting a scooter in London traffic suggest impending doom? Maybe you have to be British to get it. Brixton, London, UK.
Posted in Bad ad campaigns, England, London
Tagged bad ad campaigns, England, London
Normandy & Britanny
The variety of landscape and people in France is staggering, and every part has its own beauty. For Americans Normandy is always a place of pilgrimage, to imagine what it was like on June 6, 1944, but it is also a beautiful rural landscape of winding roads, cideries, ancient villages, hedgerows, orchards and fields away from the D-Day memorials, museums and shops. I was there […]
Nighttime at the Oasis
Night and snow settling on LBJ’s Grocery, Worcester, VT. You can get garam masala and basmati rice here in addition to Bud Light and Hershey bars. It’s been a busy winter, and I haven’t posted much, but I have been posting more regularly on Instagram (@lazenbyphoto), so if you have Instagram, follow! Meanwhile, I’ll be catching up here.
Posted in gas stations, Snow, Vermont, Winter
Tagged gas stations, Snow, Vermont, winter
Eastern Cup #1, Craftsbury
The New England Nordic Ski Association started its Eastern Cup racing season out Saturday and Sunday at the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center. There were top racers from the East, eastern Canada and elsewhere as well as masters racers and everything in between, including kids in the Bill Koch League races at the end of the day. Click here for a big gallery.
Posted in Uncategorized
Recent Publications: Faster Skier, Northern Woodlands
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, Ebba Andersson, Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag faced the cameras after winning the silver medal in the relay at the 2017 Nordic World Championships. I really appreciate the recent article the Faster Skier web site did on some of my work covering the nordic ski racing scene. Above, one of the photos from the article, taken in Lahti, Finland, in 2017. You […]
Winter Jumps
After a long cloudy day, the sun came out and the kids started jumping off the mini-mountain of manmade snow at the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center last weekend. The guy on the bottom started out facing the other direction and in this series is en route to a 360.
Posted in Craftsbury Outdoor Center, cross-country skiing, Vermont, Winter
Tagged Craftsbury Outdoor Center, cross-country skiing, Vermont, winter
Post Bat Mitzvah Post
After the bat mitzvah comes the post bat mitzvah party!
Posted in bat mitzvah party
Tagged bat mitzvah party
Pheasant Shoot
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to photograph a pheasant shoot in the countryside about an hour west of London. Pheasant shooting in England is both sport and social activity. The pheasants, a species introduced to England long ago, are bred, raised and released in the millions annually and then nurtured with feed and forage. Expenses are shared among a group of hunters. This […]
Posted in England, hunting, pheasant shoot
Tagged England, hunting, pheasant shoot
Grand Canyon Rafting
O.A.R.S. boatwoman Joelle Stanion pilots her passengers through Lava Falls, Colorado River, the Grand Canyon, in the second week of October. We were able to fill some cancellation spots on a raft trip down the 138-mile section of the river from Phantom Ranch to Diamond Creek. We walked down the Bright Angel Trail from the South Rim, met the rafts at the river and headed […]
Posted in Arizona, O.A.R.S., river rafting
Tagged Arizona, Grand Canyon Rafting, O.A.R.S.
Goodbye Lake Champlain Summer
To mark the start of fall: the last few hours of a last summer day on Lake Champlain. Early September, Oakledge Park, Burlington, VT.
Posted in Lake Champlain, summer, Vermont
Tagged Lake Champlain, summer, Vermont
2018 World Disc Golf Championships
The Professional Disc Golf Association’s men’s and women’s World Championships were held last weekend on the beautiful Brewster Ridge and Fox Run Meadows courses at Smugglers Notch Resort in Jeffersonville, VT. Think golf with plastic discs instead of a club and a ball, a basket instead of a hole, and you have it. Different discs for different jobs: drivers, putters and more. Just as much […]
Frost on the Dock
Lake Iroquois, Williston, VT, this morning. Temperature about 36 degrees F. Frost on the dock, but worth it to see the light. Five days ago it was 94 degrees and humid.
Posted in fishing, kayaking, Lake Iroquois, Vermont
Tagged fishing, kayaking, Lake Iroquois, Vermont
Northfield Sky & Barn
About as Vermont Lifey as I get. But I couldn’t resist. Of course, the state has seen fit to kill off the withering Vermont Life. RIP.
Posted in Uncategorized
Top of the Mountain
Well, not quite the top of Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, but almost. Above some of the clouds, anyway!
Posted in black & white, mountains, Mt. Mansfield
Tagged Mt. Mansfield
Devil Is In
The devil is in the details, as always, but in this case, also the garage.
Lake Champlain Open Water Swim
If you have some time on your hands, you might want to consider swimming across Lake Champlain. About fifty people did it on Sunday in the annual Lake Champlain Open Water Swim. They rode the ferry from Charlotte, VT, to Essex, NY, and then swam back to the Charlotte town beach, a distance of about 3.7 miles. The start, above. Below, into the swim. It’s […]
Posted in Lake Champlain, open water swimming, Vermont
Tagged Lake Champlain, open water swimming
Scenes from a Wedding
Some people know how to celebrate a wedding, in this case, two weddings: one traditional Indian, the other American. Or call it one Indian-American wedding. That’s the groom, Akaash, arriving on a white horse, above, with a young relative; below, his bride, Susanna. And the rest is all celebration and the melding of two families. Carnation Farms, Carnation, Washington. Click here for a gallery.
Posted in Carnation Farms weddings, Washington State, weddings
Tagged Carnation Farms weddings
Joy Amid Joy
Flower girl Krisha couldn’t wait to give Susanna a hug as the bride was escorted in to begin the wedding ceremony — one moment of joy in the joyful wedding of Susanna and Akaash at Carnation Farms in Carnation, Washington, in late June. I’ve been working on these wedding photos since then, but I’m not done yet, so I decided I’d just get started and […]
Posted in Carnation Farms weddings, Washington State, weddings
Tagged Carnation Farms weddings
Chaloux Brothers Firewood
I’m just about finished with a multi-month project photographing the Chaloux Brothers Firewood operation in Williamstown, VT. Meet Roger and Hector Chaloux, among the nicest and most hard-working guys around. And meet lots of firewood, 700 or more cords a year, to add up to something more than 30,000 cords over their 39 years in business. They run log-length wood through their processor, which cuts […]
Posted in alternative energy, firewood, renewable resources, sustainable, Vermont
Tagged firewood, renewable resources, sustainable, Vermont, Vermonters
Lake Crescent, WA
Lake Crescent curves along the edge of Olympic National Park, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, a few miles inland of the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. It basically runs east-west and I happened to be there as the sun was starting to set last week. Spectacular landscapes in every direction in Washington. This was part of a trip west for a multi-cultural […]
Craftsbury Half Marathon
The Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center held its first half marathon Saturday on a beautiful and challenging course that traversed 13.1 miles of dirt roads, ski trails, and single-track through the woods to the Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro. 2,000 feet of elevation gain with beer and lunch at the end. Adam Martin, a nordic skier with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (above, center) won in […]
Posted in cross-country skiing, dirt roads, marathon, running, Vermont
Tagged dirt roads, running, Vermont
Dave Rowell’s Barn Dance
It was all big: the barn dance in Dave Rowell’s big yellow barn in East Craftsbury, VT, last night; the crowd (hundreds); Dave himself (at the mike with the Starline Rythmn Boys); the fried chicken sandwiches served up by the Craftsbury General Store; the rebound in the barn’s wooden floor when the band played Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On. The biggest Northeast Kingdom social event of […]
Posted in barn dance, Northeast Kingdom, Spring, Vermont
Tagged Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, Vermont barn dance
NOLA #2: Wedding, Second Line
New Orleans is an old city with a lot of traditions, one of which is the Second Line parade. In this case it was for a wedding. The parade usually goes from the ceremony to the reception, through the nearby streets. The First Line is a brass band and the happy couple, each of whom are swinging parasols. The second line is the rest of […]
Posted in New Orleans, Second Line, weddings
Tagged New Orleans, Second Line wedding
New Orleans, #1
Sunday morning, New Orleans. I have no idea why this guy was carrying a briefcase early on a sunny Sunday morning, but he was heading for the riverfront (that’s a shipping crane in the distance on the other side of the river). When he got there he sat on a bench in the sun and watched the Mississippi and the strollers and joggers roll by. […]
Posted in Louisiana, shadows, silhouette
Tagged New Orleans, riverwalk, shadows
Daughter, Mother
Ran into these two in Harrisonburg, Virginia, having breakfast at The Little Grill Collective. I’ve heard it said that a window is the same thing as a big softbox (a piece of photography equipment that diffuses light for a softer look). Definitely true in this case. You can see the reflection of the window in the eyes. And there’s something familiar about these two …
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged mother & daughter, window as softbox
Parking Thicket
Well-dressed parking meter in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Tim Cowan gets the credit for the headline.
Posted in urban design
Tagged Alabama, Birmingham, funny parking meters, urban design
Gulf of California and Baja California Sur
Cold, rainy, and snowy in Vermont, but not at Isla Espirtu Santo in the Gulf of California, near La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Water temperature 68-plus; daytime air temperature 75-plus; fish tacos for supper. The land is essentially a desert, but the gulf is one of the most diverse aquatic habitats on earth and we had knowledgable guides to explain the geology and marine […]
Posted in Baja California, Gulf of California, kayaking, Mexico, sea kayaking
Tagged Baja Mexico, Mexico, sea kayaking, sea kayaking in Mexico
Agriculture on the Move
It was the end of Agriculture, at least temporarily. Ceres, the god of Agriculture, came down from the dome of the Vermont State House in Montpelier yesterday. Carved from pine by State House Sergeant-at-Arms Dwight Dwinnell and associates in the 1930s to replace the 1859 version made by sculptor Larkin Mead, she was rotting away. A new one will be made, based on Mead’s original. […]
Posted in architecture, Montpelier, Vermont, Vermont State House
Tagged Ceres, Vermont State House
Super Tour Finals at Craftsbury
The 2018 Super Tour finals brought nordic skiers from across the country to the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center for five days of racing last week. Panning (moving the camera with the action while it is set at a slow shutter speed) is often a matter of luck, and I lucked out on the above photo of the lead pack in the men’s 50-k freestyle race […]
Ski Orienteering World Cup
If cross country ski racing is a niche sport, then ski orienteering is a niche within a niche. It involves racing on cross-country skis and finding your way to a series of checkpoints scattered around the woods on trails you have never seen before, using a map you only receive 15 seconds before the race starts. It means getting around the route as fast as […]
It’s Still Winter in Quebec
No matter what it’s doing where you are, it’s still winter at Mont Sainte Anne in Quebec, just down the Fleuve St. Laurent from Quebec City. Four feet of snow on the ground in the last week of February. Velo d’hiver riders (below) and skiers taking advantage of the situation while they can. Hydro Quebec electric lines humming loudly in the falling snow. For more, […]
Posted in cross-country skiing, Quebec, Snow, Winter
Gun Violence Protest
Images from a demonstration at the Vermont State House today to call for action to halt gun violence.
Posted in demonstrations, gun violence demonstration, Montpelier, Vermont
Latino Night at Bagitos
The end of January marked the second anniversary of the Latino group that meets every Tuesday at Bagitos in Montpelier to speak Spanish, celebrate Latino culture and get together with friends. A typical night might bring together locals who are from or have ties to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Bolivia, El Salvador, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Posted in black & white, Latino, Montpelier, Spanish speakers
Home Share Now at the National Building Museum
Cindy McCloud, left, and Monika Gadre outside Cindy’s home in Montpelier, VT, which the two shared back in 2011 under the auspices of Home Share Now, the Barre-based group that brings people with home space to share together with people seeking the same. The photo is one of two of mine now at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, as part of the exhibit […]
Posted in Home Share Now, Montpelier
Black and White on the Oregon Coast
When it’s November on the Oregon coast and gales are ripping in from the southwest, almost everything turns black and white. These are from Cape Lookout State Park, near Tillamook
Posted in black & white, Oregon, Pacific Coast, Pacific Northwest
Tagged Cape Lookout State Park
Cross Country Skier Cover
. US cross country ski team member Jessie Diggins (Afton, Minnesota) leads up the hill above the stadium in Lahti, Finland, in a photo I took at last year’s World Nordic Ski Championships. It’s the cover of the newest issue of Cross Country Skier magazine. Diggins won her first World Cup race of […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Winter
Tagged FIS cross country skiing World Cup, Jessie Diggins, women in ski sport
Craftsbury SuperTour
Kaitlynn Miller (Elmore, VT) and Kelsey Phinney (Sun Valley, Idaho) hug after Miller won the SuperTour sprint race in Craftsbury, VT, Friday. Earlier in the week, Miller was named to the US Olympic team along with six other cross-country or biathlon skiers from the Craftsbury Green Racing Project. Below, the sartorial splendor of Jack Schrupp of the Williams College Purple Cows; Forrest Mahlen (Alaska Pacific […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Vermont, Winter
Tagged Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Kaitlynn Miller, Kelsey Phinney, US Olympic Ski Team
Good Day in the Mountains
Beautiful winter day in the mountains yesterday: sun and cold, new snow. That’s Camel’s Hump with Mt. Mansfield sticking up behind it in the top photo, as seen from Sugarbush North. Others are both from Sugarbush North. Because of the angle, Camel’s Hump and Mansfield aren’t showing their usual distinctive profiles.
Posted in Uncategorized
Greetings from the Season
Holiday greetings from the frozen north. For the first time in a few years we’ll have an authentic northern New England white Christmas. It did rain on top of the whiteness most of today but we have nearly two feet of snow, so it’s still here. It’s going to get cold and snow some more, and that means an old-fashioned Vermont Christmas. Happy Holidays! All […]
Posted in Uncategorized
First Snow
It snowed. And we have more color in living black and white.
When Color Is Black and White
Wall, Lan Su Chinese Garden, Portland, OR. A color image, but the colors are black, white and gray. Or shades thereof.
Posted in black & white, color in black and white, Lan Su Chinese Garden, OR
Ski Race Photos at Craftsbury Outdoor Center
If you happen to get to the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center any time this winter, take a look at the photos in the touring center (open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, all winter). I have an exhibit of 22 16-x-24-inch color prints from some of the racing coverage I did in 2016 and 2017. The photos range from local racers in New England […]
Back on the Airline
Back on northeastern Maine’s Route 9 from Bangor to Calais again last fall for something like the fourth time in 2017. Every time I go, there’s more to see.
Posted in American flag, highways, Maine Route 9
Susquehanna, October
Susquehanna River, central Pennsylvania, early October: Fall takes its time arriving, the leaves take their time turning and the river keeps flowing.
Posted in Autumn, Pennsylvania, Susquehanna River, water, Watersheds
Building Hudson Yards
On the job at Hudson Yards, the mammoth West Side development in New York City. You can walk right up to the construction site on the Highline, a few blocks east of the Hudson River. As the developer’s web site says: “Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States and the largest development in New York City […]
Posted in Hudson Yards, New York, New York City
Lisa & Simon
A joyous Danish/Jewish/Vermont wedding held last summer in a hayfield in Marshfield. What’s with the cutting of the socks in the bottom picture? Ask a Dane!
Hockey in the Field
Never been to a field hockey game until last week, when I watched the University of New Hampshire versus the University of Vermont in Burlington. Intense game. Hard played. Soccer with sticks and a small ball. UVM won 1-0 in double overtime (shot above after the winning goal). Nikon D600, 70-300 zoom.
Posted in field hockey, University of Vermont
Tagged University of Vermont Field Hockey
Session Americana/ZenBarn
The Boston band Session Americana at the ZenBarn in Waterbury last week. Jim Fitting on harmonica, Billy Beard on drums, Dinty Child on beer, etc. What I’d like to know is where did the Deschutes Brewery hat come from?
Posted in black & white, music performance, Session Americana
Catching Up on Oregon
It’s dramatic wherever you go in Oregon. Above, grass seed growers near Salem burn off the fields after harvesting seed and straw. Below, Silver Falls State Park and Tumalo Falls in the Deschutes National Forest near Bend. Click here for a gallery.
Posted in Uncategorized
Painted Hills #2
Even without the spectacle of a total solar eclipse, the Painted Hills of Oregon’s John Day Fossil Beds National Monument are a striking piece of high desert. Scroll down for photos of the total solar eclipse. Click here for a total Painted Hills/eclipse gallery.
Posted in high desert, Oregon, Pacific Northwest, solar eclipse, Solar eclipse 2017
Painted Hills: Eclipse 2017
Finally getting back to the eclipse, August 21: On the Path of Totality, total solar eclipse, Painted Hills, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon. The top two photos are when the eclipse was total, but there was a lot more to see: the sudden gathering over a few days (and especially the night before) of an instant village of a few thousand people camped […]
Posted in high desert, Oregon, Pacific Northwest, solar eclipse, Solar eclipse 2017
Bad Day at Crater Lake
Ash from forest fires was falling on Bend, OR, a few weeks ago and smoke from more fires shrouded Crater Lake National Park, an hour and half’s drive south. The usual view of Crater Lake is of its clear, blue water, sparkling in the giant hole left when a volcano collapsed on itself about 6000 BC. We went to the park anyway, which proved again […]
Posted in Crater Lake National Park, forest fires, Oregon, Pacific Northwest
Tagged Crater Lake National Park
NYC-NJ
New York City’s busy Hudson River Park promenade on a late August day. Across the river, New Jersey: Hoboken, and the growing high-rises of Jersey City.
Posted in New Jersey, New York City
Tagged Hudson River, running
US National Biathlon Roller Ski Championships
That’s a mouthful, but biathlon is cross country ski racing and stopping periodically to shoot at targets with a very sophisticated rifle. If you do it in the summer, it’s roller ski biathlon. Skiers from across the US and Canada came to the National Guard firing range and roller ski track in Underhill, VT, over the weekend to compete. Click here for a gallery. Use […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Vermont
Tagged biathlon, US National Biathlon Association
Stretching Shadows in Helsinki
The morning commute for bird and man, Helsinki Railway Square, April.
Airline #2
Back to Maine’s Route 9, The Airline, a northern highway straight across northeastern Maine.
Posted in highways, Maine, Maine Route 9
Nouveau Brunswick, Nova Scotia
Canada’s Maritime Provinces: so close and so different. These are from a recent expedition to parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. When the tide is low in the Bay of Fundy, it is low. Click here for a gallery. As always, use the right arrows to speed up the views, if you’d like.Â
Posted in Canada, Canada's Maritimes, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
Airline Travel
Eats on The Airline, the section of Maine Route 9 between Bangor and Calais, a traditional route from northern New England to Canada’s maritime provinces. Accounts differ on why it’s called The Airline, but apparently it’s because Route 9 is a shortcut across northeastern Maine. And there is something about it, cruising along rolling, glaciated hills in the north woods past blueberry fields and old […]
Posted in highways, Maine, Maine Route 9, roadside eats, snackbars
Champlain Summer
Summer has arrived on Lake Champlain (Shelburne, VT).
Posted in Lake Champlain, lakes, Vermont
Meanwhile, in Lapland
Well, actually it was back in early March, after the Lahti World Nordic Ski Championships. We ski toured in Lapland, northern Finland, in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park. Basically inn-to-inn skiing, complete with northern lights and daily saunas. The park is laced with hundreds of kilometers of trails groomed for classic and skate skiing, weaving through the low, rounded Lapland mountains called tunturi. We went on […]
Posted in Aurora, cross-country skiing, Finland, Snow
Green Man Walking
Here’s to spring: about time!
Posted in Coast to Coast, England, green, Spring, walking
Sanders Headlines Vermont’s March Against Climate Change
The topic was climate change, but the big event was the arrival of Bernie Sanders as the last speaker of the day at the March Against Climate Change at the statehouse in Montpelier yesterday. Spring and Bernie seemed to arrive at about the same time. Spring, or possibly Mother Earth, at left, below, as Sanders made his way through the crowd after speaking.
Chagall in Montreal
Chagall: Color and Music — the Russian-French artist’s swirling paintings, costumes, puppets, stained glass and ceramics, complete with a dash of klezmer music — at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art until June 11. Above, a giant tapestry with scenes and symbols from France, the circus and Chagall’s upbringing in the Jewish residence zone of czarist Russia. Below, the painting King David (Le Roi David) […]
Posted in art, Chagall, Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Art
Last Gig at Charlie O’s
Last Saturday, The Suspects (Phil Hyjek, Chris Stone, Sam Burke, Lee Gardner, Al Roy) played their last gig together at Charlie O’s, perhaps Montpelier, VT’s, most famous institution except for, and with due respect to, the State House. Portrait at bottom is Chris Stone, the band’s harmonica player. Fuji XE1 at ISO 3200 to 26500.
Posted in black & white, blues, Montpelier
Two Banjo Dans with a Will
The Vermont Bluegrass Pioneers: Banjo Dan Lindner, left (on guitar), Will Lindner on mandolin, Danny Coane (of the Starline Rhythm Boys) on banjo. At the Whammy Bar, Maple Corner, Calais, VT. Last night. Easter Eve. Happy Mud Season. (For those interested in the machinery: Fuji XE1, top at 6400 ISO, bottom at 3200 ISO.)
Posted in Bluegrass, Vermont, Whammy Bar
John Jorgenson Quintet & U32
A violinist last night as the John Jorgenson Quintet performed with the U32 High School string ensemble at the Barre, VT, Opera House. You think you don’t know Jorgenson, the virtuoso guitarist who leads the group, but you have probably heard him playing with musicians as diverse as Pavarotti, Earl Scruggs and Bonnie Raitt, among many others. The program was part of the Community Engagement Lab’s […]
Lahti #12
A few more Lahti favorites, all from the men’s 50-k, the last event in the competition. Below, Canada’s Alex Harvey, en route to winning the race, and after.
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships
Lahti #11
Favorites from Friday’s men’s 4-by-10-kilometer relay and today’s women’s 30-k at the World Nordic Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. Long story short, as the two fans above indicate, the Norwegians won them both. They are the people in red and blue. Click here for stories, more photos.
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships, Finland
Lahti #10: Favorites
Favorites from today in Lahti: East Montpelier, VT’s, Liz Stephen, above, charging up the big hills as part of the US women’s 4-by 5-k relay team. Liz hammered the hills to help bring the team to within about 30Â seconds of a bronze medal. Other favorites, below: Norway’s Marit Bjorgen waving the flag (again) after Norway won the relay; the Swedish relay team, on camera for […]
Lahti #9: Iivo!
Iivo! Iivo! Iivo! screamed thousands of Finns as Iivo Niskanen (that’s Eee-voh) sprinted the last hundred meters of the 15-K interval-start world championship race yesterday here in Lahti, Finland. Denied gold in the team sprint on Sunday when he collided with Norway’s Emil Iversen, Niskanen would not be denied again. And he instantly became the most shouted-about man in Finland. The U.S.’s Erik Bjornsen, below, skied […]
Lahti #8
I don’t know what it’s like to fly, but ski jumpers do. One of the nordic combined jumpers flies after taking off from the 130-meter ski jump at the world championships in Lahti yesterday.
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships
Lahti #7a
One from yesterday: Norway’s Marit Bjorgen, en route to her 16th World Championship medal, first place in the 10-K interval start at Lahti. For details and more photos click here.
Lahti #7
One of a group of Finns dressed as part of a Suomi ski team from the 1950s at the World Nordic Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland.
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships, Uncategorized
Lahti #6
More high drama at the Lahti World Ski Championships in Finland yesterday: Americans Jessie Diggins and Sadie Bjornsen, wearing the US women’s team’s trademark striped socks, took third in the Team Sprint, above: Diggins collapsed after outsprinting Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (photo below). Norway’s  Emil Iversen lost first place for himself and his teammate Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo after breaking a pole in a collision with 200 […]
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships
Lahti #5
Men’s and women’s skiathlon yesterday: Racers ski the first section of the race on classic skis and the second on skate skis: 15 kilometers for the women, 30 kilometers for the men on a grueling, hilly course. Also local color, above, and Norway’s Marit Bjorgen, below, with her son after winning the women’s race. The lone skier with the big TV screen in the background […]
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships
Lahti #4
A few from today’s Nordic Combined (ski jumping and cross-country ski racing): top, Germany’s Johannes Rydzek celebrates the win; below, American Bryan Fletcher leads a pack near the start of the race. Skiers start based on the their performance in ski jumping, which results in groups starting at nearly the same time. Fletcher eventually finished 14th. Bottom, Austria’s Bernhard Gruber leads another group.
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships
Lahti #3
Jessie Diggins (left, Afton, MN) and Kikkan Randall (right, Anchorage, AK) with Maiken Caspersen Falla after Falla won the women’s freestyle sprint at the Lahti World Championships and Diggins and Randall finished second and third. Sophie Caldwell (Stratton, VT) was a third American woman to make it into the sprint finals, finishing sixth. For a short gallery, click here. For a full account of the race, […]
Posted in 2017 Lahti World Championships
Lahti #2
Today the women’s 5-k and men’s 10-k qualifiers were held, races designed so skiers without World Cup points can compete. Racers from such unlikely ski countries as Iran, Lebanon, Ireland, Brazil, Venezuela and Armenia skied, along with others from countries like Australia, Iceland and Denmark. The top 10 in each race will get to race against World Cup skiers later in the competition. By the […]
Lahti World Championships #1
Today was the day before official competition begins at the 2017 World Nordic Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland.  It’s cold, sunny and the snow is granular and icy. Teams from around the skiing world were checking wax, practice-jumping the 100-meter “normal” hill,  and generally preparing for the biggest event of the year. Click here for a gallery from the day before the games start. Use the […]
State House Refugee Vigil
Several hundred gathered at the Vermont State House tonight for a candlelight vigil to express solidarity with refugees whose immigration to the U.S. has been halted. Big cheers for, among other things, Gov. Phil Scott’s refusal to enforce the federal immigration crackdown, and for Bernie Sanders. Click here for a gallery. Below, a tribute to those killed in a mosque in Quebec City last week. Bottom, other […]
Posted in immigration demonstration, Trump, Vermont
Tagged immigration demonstration, Trump
Four Reasons
Four reasons to be optimistic about the future: Katie, Alice, Ruthie, and Beth. High school friends the day after Christmas, all out of college and working or going to grad school, all more than up to the challenges ahead. All of them were in the crowd Saturday at the Women’s March on Washington or in the NYC version of the same.
Eastern Cup #1
The New England Nordic Ski Association held its first Eastern Cup of the 2016-17 season at Craftsbury Outdoor Center Saturday and Sunday. Hundreds of skiers from New England and eastern Canada raced, in heavy snow on Saturday, rain and freezing rain on Sunday. If you want to see more, click here for a gallery. (If the gallery slideshow is too slow for you, click on the […]
Posted in Craftsbury Outdoor Center, cross country ski racing, Snow, Vermont, Winter
Rutland Welcomes #2
As part of plans to welcome 30 families of Syrian refugees to Rutland, VT, the local group Rutland Welcomes sponsors a weekly class in basic Arabic at the Unitarian Church. This is last week’s session with teacher Morgan Denehy (in blue shirt). No families have yet arrived, but the first are expected soon or in early 2017.
Posted in Rutland, Rutland Welcomes, Syrian refugees, Vermont
World Cup at Killington
Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates her slalom win Sunday. When bringing a weekend of women’s World Cup alpine ski racing from Europe to Killington, VT, was proposed, Eastern skiers all but guaranteed that they’d show up to cheer, and Killington guaranteed snow to race on. After all it would be the first women’s World Cup race in Vermont for 38 years. They all delivered Saturday and Sunday, when […]
Rutland Welcomes
Volunteer Marsha Cassel surveys donated furniture in the former Rutland Herald press room wearing a T-shirt selected for the occasion. Rutland, Vermont, has had its share of difficulties in the past few decades, but community members have volunteered to welcome 30 Syrian refugee families that will be resettled in Vermont through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program. The local group preparing for the refugees is Rutland Welcomes. Its members have […]
Posted in refugees, Rutland, Syrian refugees, Vermont
Tagged refugees, Rutland, Syrian refugees
First Snow
I know it was 70 last week, but the first snow has arrived on Vermont’s Mount Mansfield, and skiers and boarders have been walking up to ride down. Right on schedule. These are from yesterday. Rocky and grassy in places, but skiable. Â
Posted in climate, fall foliage, Skiing, Snow, Winter
Prince Edward Island, Canada
Windswept October days on PEI. And a little bit of New Brunswick. Â Click here for a gallery. (You can click on the right arrow on the photos to speed up the slideshow).
Posted in Canada, October, Prince Edward Island
Susquehanna Dusk
Another of the nightly summer spectacles on the mighty Susquehanna River, Speeceville, PA. It’s been a busy summer, and I’m just catching up. More to come.
Posted in Pennsylvania, reflections, rivers, Susquehanna River, Watersheds
Wind River, Yukon Territory
The Wind River is a crystal-clear, aquamarine stream that flows fast and cold out of the Wernecke Mountains into the Peel River in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Some friends and I paddled more than 100 miles of it — plus a section of the Peel — in early July. It is remote, untouched, stunning and at the heart of a struggle over whether these wild lands will remain wild or be […]
Posted in Canada, canoeing, Peel River Watershed, Wind River, Yukon Territory
Farewell, Ralph Stanley
Ralph Stanley in concert, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, circa 1984. Virginian Ralph Stanley, who earned his unofficial doctorate in the Bluegrass Arts many times over in his 89 years, died June 23. His race is run. And won. Now in the Angel Band. Click here for: The Angel Band. NYT. Rolling Stone (with video). A note on the picture above: acoustic music, Tri-x film, long […]
Yale Class
Happened to be at Class Day at Yale University last week. It’s a convocation of all the graduating classes, undergraduate and graduate, the day before commencement. A big, colorful event. We could make some jokes about the fact that Yale calls it Class Day, but in some ways it was one of the most diverse events I have been to: many colors of graduates, many languages. […]
Posted in college graduation, Connecticut, Spring, Yale University
Almost Spring in the Northeast Kingdom
Spring is on the move in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, in this case in Albany and on the ski/bike trails at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. You be the judge about the wind turbines.
Posted in mountain biking, Northeast Kingdom, Spring, Vermont
April in VT
The April you want is not always the April you get. Especially in this state. From my favorite viewpoint on the North Branch of the Winooski River, Montpelier, VT.
New Haven Ledges Race
It was warm and sunny for the annual whitewater race on the New Haven River in Bristol, VT, yesterday. Because it was such a low-snow winter, the river was lower and rockier than usual but the turnout was higher for the event, which is run by the Vermont Paddlers Club. Click here for a gallery/slideshow.
Posted in kayaking, rivers, Vermont, whitewater
Evelyn Glennie Makes Music
Dame Evelyn Glennie, renowned Scottish percussionist, performed at an open rehearsal at the Barre, VT, Opera House Friday night. Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of 12, is perhaps best known for her performance in the opening ceremonies at the 2012 London Olympics and her TED Talk How to Truly Listen (click here). The intimate, informal open rehearsal format allowed for questions from the audience, particularly from the children. Glennie performs […]
Posted in Uncategorized
Making Skiing by Making Snow
It’s a sad commentary on the weather, but the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center had to continue making skiing out of nothing last week when it held the Super Tour Finals and national distance championship cross-country ski races, virtually all of it without natural (real) snow. They did it with a three-story pile of manmade snow, an excavator, 500 dump-truck loads, big ski groomers and the skilled workers […]
Ski Tour Canada, Finale
Skiers in a sprint heat on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. The color, energy and speed of Ski Tour Canada 2016 East, four days of World Cup cross-country ski racing in Quebec, is over, and the racers, coaches, wax techs and journalists are heading back to their home countries around the ski world.  Click here for a gallery from the Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec […]
Posted in Canada, Coupe du Monde nordique, cross country ski racing, Quebec, World Cup
Quebec, Quebec
Walker, Quebec City. St. Lawrence River in the background below, not completely frozen and with a channel full of bobbing ice and swirling steam. Apparently it’s very unusual for the river to be more or less open in March, another example of how weird this winter has been. Below, the window I had to wedge my shoulders into to get the picture.
Ski Tour Canada #1
A ski skater glides on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec while a freighter passes below on the icy St. Lawrence River. The best nordic skiers in the world are in Canada for Ski Tour Canada, a week of World Cup cross country ski racing. Two Americans made history on day one when Simi Hamilton (Colorado) and Jessie Diggins (Minnesota), celebrating below, both finished third […]
Posted in Canada, cross country ski racing, Winter
UVM Winter Carnival, Eastern Cup, Super Tour 2016
There’s still almost no snow in northern New England but the combined University of Vermont Winter Carnival collegiate, Eastern Cup and Super Tour races went off at Craftsbury Outdoor Center over the weekend, where they were moved after the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe lost its snow in last week’s rain. Competition was held on one of the few remaining snowy spots in northern Vermont, most […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Vermont, Winter
Reflections on Water
Parkersburg, WVA, June, 2014 We tend to take clean water for granted, but — in case you missed it — read the NYT story at the link here. It takes place in and around Parkersburg. Below, reflections in the North Branch of the Winooski River, Montpelier, VT, this past December, a month that broke records in Vermont for warm temperatures and lack of snow. Looks […]
Posted in reflections, Vermont, water, West Virginia
US Paralympics #2 & Gallery
Andy Soule prepares for a race at the US Paralympics Nordic Skiing Festival at the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center. Saturday was the fourth and final day of the competition. Soule, who joined the Army after Sept. 11, 2001, lost his legs to an IED while serving in Afghanistan. He was a medalist in the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver. Below: Derek Zaplotinsky of Alberta, Canada, takes a downhill on a […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Paralympics, Vermont
US Nordic Paralympics
I photographed day one of the four-day US Paralympics Nordic Skiing Festival at Craftsbury (VT) Â Outdoor Center today. It was a beautiful sunny day with inspiring athletes racing on snow in the sit-ski and standing categories. Some will be heading to Europe later this winter for World Cup competition. I will post a gallery from the event later, but here are a few from today. […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Paralympics, Vermont
Eastern Cup @ Craftsbury
Despite a crazy warm December, it snowed last weekend, and Craftsbury Nordic Center pulled off a big race: the first New England Nordic Ski Association Eastern Cup of the season, on a little more than a kilometer loop of manmade snow with more than 400 racers from around New England, Quebec and Ontario. It turned out to be great skiing and great spectating because all the […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, Vermont, Winter
Nocember
It’s turning into a bit of a wait for winter here in Vermont: Mid-December and temperatures commonly into the 40s and 50s. No snow, except the kind that comes out of snow guns, greens surviving in the garden, open water, unfrozen ground, people in lightweight jackets buying Christmas trees. Pleasant enough, but weird.  Â
Posted in black & white, climate, Vermont
Mt. Mansfield November
The world is going to hell, no doubt. Meanwhile, manmade snow on Mt. Mansfield (VT), above, and the British are still insisting on quirky signs. (Scroll down to see what I mean.)
Posted in Uncategorized
British Signs
Is it just me, or is there something funny about British signs? Â Â Â Â
Posted in Coast to Coast, England, signs
Sticks on the Water
Warm weather, sun low in the sky: a final (?) Stick Season paddle, Waterbury Reservoir, VT.
Posted in Autumn, kayaking, Stick Season
Late Colors, Early Snow
A twofer: First snow and the dreaded fall foliage shot, all in one, Stowe, VT. The fall colors came weeks late this year, to mix with some early snow over this past weekend. Above, snow squall blows in over the valley. Below, Smugglers Notch and Trapp Hill Road.  Â
Posted in fall foliage, mountains, Snow, Vermont
The Most Depressing Landscape in Europe? (C2C #2)
More from England’s Coast to Coast path. And two other things: • One of the most common questions we got was: Why did you come all the way over here to hike if you have the Appalachian Trail at your doorstep? We tried to explain about the Green Tunnel effect of hiking in the eastern US compared to the long views of the Lake District, […]
Posted in Coast to Coast, England, hiking, Lake District
C2C #1
England’s Coast to Coast path stretches from St. Bees on the Irish Sea in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Sea in North Yorkshire, a distance of about 190 miles. Conceived and first walked by Alfred Wainwright in the 1970s, it has become one of the most popular walking routes in a nation of walkers, despite the fact that it is not designated as an […]
Black and Blue
Mountains above the North Santiam River, late afternoon light, Cascades, western Oregon.
Posted in mountains, Oregon, silhouette
Wet But Dry
The mountains of the Pacific Northwest can usually depend on snow melt and summer rains to keep things wet, but this year lack of snow and summer drought have driven water levels down. Above, Detroit Lake, in the mountains east of Salem, OR, is a dam-controlled reservoir that is drained in the winter, but it’s supposed to fill during the summer. This year it’s far below […]
Posted in climate, Oregon, Pacific Northwest
Tagged climate
Smoke Sight
How smokey is it in the Pacific Northwest? Very, depending on the day and the place, as windblown smoke from nearly 40 wildfires sweeps across the region. This was last week in the Columbia River Gorge of Washington and Oregon between Hood River and the Bonneville Dam. Video and info from a Portland TV station are here.  Â
Posted in Columbia River Gorge, forest fires, Oregon
Tagged Columbia River Gorge
Skyline Blue
In May friends biked the 650 miles of the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, from Front Royal, VA, to Cherokee, NC, and I got to go along. It’s an amazing stretch of road, ranging in elevation from about 560 feet at the northern end of the Skyline Drive in Virginia to 6,053 feet near Richland Balsam, NC. Little traffic before Memorial Day. Virtually no potholes. […]
Posted in Bicycling, Blue Ridge Parkway, Skyline Drive
Florida Keys
In the Florida Keys, especially for someone coming from the frozen north, the color is blue: warm blue ocean water running to emerald blue-green, setting off white beaches and a big unobstructed sky that highlights the clouds and the expanse of sea on the Atlantic and Gulf shores. It’s a unique and beautiful place, but to an outsider on a short visit, it seems a […]
Posted in Florida Keys, ocean, water
iPhone Moon
Full moon, Main Street, Montpelier, VT. iPhone 4s.
Posted in Montpelier, Night, small towns
Thailand in Vermont
So it’s April in Vermont and there’s still snow. Business as usual, except if you come from Ubon, Thailand, in which case it’s cause for curiosity and celebration. Perhaps followed by a large cremee, maple or otherwise. Part of a cultural tour of the Northeast arranged by Montpelier’s Linda Wheatley.  Â
Canada’s National Gallery
If you find yourself in Ottawa, go to the National Gallery of Canada. It’s downtown, in between the By Ward Market district,  the Parliament and the Chateau Laurier, not to far from the Rideau Canal and the Ottawa River. Not only is the art collection stunning, but so is the building. Southern light streams into it, changing constantly, and putting you in the mood to appreciate […]
SuperTour x 2
The USSA SuperTour and the Dartmouth Winter Carnival brought high-level cross-country ski racing back to Craftsbury Outdoor Center over the weekend. Top, Johnson’s Jennie Bender leads a freestyle (skate) sprint heat Friday. Below, the women’s 10-k started in falling snow on Sunday; Hans Halvorsen of Williams College in the freestyle (skate) sprint Friday; volunteer Carol Van Dyke trying to stay warm; Rebecca Rorabaugh of Alaska Pacific […]
Posted in Craftsbury Outdoor Center, cross country ski racing, Vermont
SuperTour @ Craftsbury
Top nordic skiers from around the country raced in the USSA SuperTour on Friday and Sunday at the Craftsbury, VT, Outdoor Center, which has become one of the nation’s top nordic sites over the past few years. Conditions were superb, grooming world class and the competition serious. Top, New Hampshire’s Kris Freeman leads the pack in falling snow in the 30-k classic race Friday. Freeman wears […]
Posted in cross country ski racing, cross-country skiing, Vermont
Winterscape, Winterskate
The blizzard missed central Vermont, but we still have lots of winter going on. Above, wet snow landed in the higher elevations, coating everything, and then a cold snap pasted it in place (Elmore, VT). Below, skating, Curtis Pond, Calais, VT.
Bend, OR
People in Bend, Oregon, are pretty insistent about Bend being sunny, as in more than 300 days a year that are either sunny or mostly sunny. I was there last week and there was only one sunny day out of seven (above, at Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort). The rest of the time was taken up with rain, snow, sleet and freezing rain in varying amounts, coating […]
Wintry Notch
Hard to beat Smugglers Notch in Stowe for drama in early winter. It’s not Buffalo, but it is winter. This was Friday, temperatures in the low 20s and a gusty wind. Frigid, with lots of blue light. Of course, today it’s in the 40s and rainy, and heading for the 60s tomorrow.
Free Verse
Union Square, NYC. When inspiration strikes, hunt and peck, but it does make you wonder: Do you need an official poetic license to write free poems in New York?
Slightly Snowier
Ok, it’s a little early in the season to be obsessed with snow, but it’s still interesting that the valleys remain their tawny, gray and purple November colors while much of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak, had enough snow to ski on yesterday. Some of it was shot out of snow guns, but most of it was real. By the way, snow guns are loud and […]
Concert Crawl
Just your typical zoom-lens shot, but maybe it looks a little like Django Reinhardt sounds. The guitarist is Greg Evans, who performed gypsy jazz with clarinetist Dan Liptak  at the Montpelier Concert Crawl last winter.
Snow # 1, 2014-15 Season
Mt. Mansfield’s Toll Road today, somewhere above 3,000 feet. It didn’t snow much, but it’s still the first Vermont snow of the season as far as I’m concerned. More to come.
Millersburg, PA
Millersburg, PA, in September. One of those great Susquehanna River towns and home of the last known all-wooden double stern-wheel ferry in America, or so the sign says. Twenty-five miles upriver from Harrisburg.
Posted in Pennsylvania, small towns, Susquehanna River
Cool Oregon
It was hot and dry when I was in Portland in August, but it’s still extremely cool in Oregon. The Pacific currents that sweep down from Alaska make the water along the coast freezing — in the low 50s — although that doesn’t seem to hamper anybody’s enjoyment of the beach. Above, Cape Lookout State Park. Although the air temperature in Portland is 10 or more degrees […]
Posted in Oregon, Pacific Coast, Portland
The North Branch Most People Don’t See
Vermont Route 12 from Montpelier to Morrisville is a beautiful road, especially in its upper reaches, where it cuts through a near-wilderness of forested hills and along the North Branch of the Winooski River. It’s a road used daily by commuters, tourists, and local trucks. It’s also a major cycling route and you’ll almost always see somebody pedaling up its easy (for Vermont) grades or […]
Posted in rivers, Vermont, Watersheds
In the City, Greenpoint
Family strolling on a Thursday night, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NYC.
Posted in Brooklyn, New York City, Night
Parkersburg, WVA
Recently attended an excellent wedding in Parkersburg, WVA, where the brown Ohio River rolls under bridges marked so the tow boats can be sure their loads won’t scrape. Parkersburg was deserted over the weekend, but there was lots to see if you roamed the streets.Â
Posted in weddings, West Virginia
Wearing Green
Montpelier, VT, above; below, Green Point, Brooklyn, NY; all the rest, East Montpelier, VT. All taken with a Fuji X-E1, except the whitewater photos. The X-E1 is small retro-looking camera with an electronic viewfinder and a relatively large sensor (APS-C), that is now on sale all over the place because the X-E2 is out. Doesn’t quite fit in your pocket, but smaller than a DSLR and […]
Olympic Concerns
They don’t look worried, but Vermont Olympic nordic skiers (l to r) Ida Sargent and Liz Stephen (both cross-country), and Hannah Dreissigacker and Susan Dunklee (both biathlon) held a press conference today to express their concerns about how global climate change is affecting the world and their sport. Just back from six months of competition in Europe, including the Sochi Olympics, they told of lack of […]
Posted in cross-country skiing, Olympics, Vermont
Austria & the World Masters
In late January I was in the Austrian Alps for the World Masters Cross-Country Ski Championships in the Pillerseetal region, near Kitzbuhel. The landscape is spectacular and so were a lot of the masters skiers. A masters skier is anyone over 30, and the five-year age brackets continued right up to and including the 85-90 age group. In total more than 1,000 skiers from 30 […]
Posted in Austria, cross-country skiing, Europe
Portraits at Work
Vermont Student Assistance Corp., Winooski Over the past year or so I had the opportunity to produce portraits for several Vermont organizations. The coverage ranged from photographing Vermonters affected by Tropical Storm Irene for the Vermont Community Foundation to annual report photos for the Vermont Student Assistance Corp., the organization that helps Vermont students pull together the finances for higher education, and Vermont Information Technology […]
Sky Sail
Over Long Beach, NY, a beach town on a barrier island just off the south shore of Long Island, not too far from JFK airport. Part one of the year-end image clearance. Like it on the social media bar below, if you like. And you can do the same for any of the earlier posts. Thanks!
Posted in Kite, New York, Sky, Uncategorized
Penn Station, iPhone
NYC’s Penn Station, iPhone 4s. It’s no secret that newer iPhones take decent pictures. The best part is that a smart phone is a camera you have with you most of the time. It’s a trick to keep the lens clean and clear though. A case helps avoid scratches and a piece of plastic electrical tape can keep the pocket lint off the lens, as […]
Posted in iPhone, New York City, Travel
Susquehanna Summer: Up
A more complete gallery of black and white images from my trip down the Susquehanna River is finally up on the site: Link to it here. All of these are from my roughly 440-mile trek down the Susquehanna on foot and by canoe from its origin in Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, NY, a couple of blocks from the Baseball Hall of Fame, to its end in […]
Posted in black & white, Pennsylvania, Susquehanna River
Two Things About Montreal
(Aside from the fact that with more 1.5 million people it is considered the second-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris): 1. There are about 300 miles of bicycle trails in Montreal, meaning you can go almost anywhere on a bike. Above, riding along the La Chine Canal. Bottom, crossing the Jacques Cartier Bridge. 2. There are surfers in Montreal, surfing the standing waves […]
NJ Pass Under
What you can see out the window of an Amtrak train between Manhattan and Newark, NJ.
Posted in New Jersey, New York City, Travel
Champlain Light
Yesterday afternoon a rainstorm blew across Lake Champlain from the Adirondacks and proceeded east over the Green Mountains. What followed was a stunning, constantly changing mix of cloud, color and light. These were all taken at Sandbar State Park in Milton, where Route 2 crosses over to South Hero.
Posted in kayaking, Lake Champlin, Vermont
Keystone State
Always lots to see in Pennsylvania. Top, Susquehanna River, Dauphin, sunset. Below, deal, Perry County.
Posted in canoeing, Pennsylvania, rivers, Susquehanna River
Northern River, Maine’s St. John
The St. John River is just about as far north as you can go in Maine, paralleling the Quebec border where the river begins in the ponds, streams and bogs of the North Woods. It runs 418 miles from the middle of nowhere, north and then east and south to the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. The St. John is surrounded by land owned […]
Green Again
Spring always creeps slowly into the winter-brown Vermont hills and then explodes. This, the other foliage season, a riot of green, seems to arrive in the space of three days. And in the space of two weeks we go from skiing (bottom photo, Mt. Mansfield on April 22nd), to plowing (top, East Montpelier), to bicycling, paddling and mowing the lawn. Summer’s so short it’s a […]
Natchez Trace Parkway
The Natchez Trace Parkway covers a slice of the South rich in history and beauty, especially in the spring. You get a pretty good look at things if you ride your bike most of the 450-mile distance from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, as we did from late March into the first week of April. You pedal the gamut, from the stark images and prose […]
Posted in Alabama, Bicycling, Mississippi, South, Tennessee
Snowy Sony RX 100
The picture above and all the snow pictures below were taken with a Sony RX100 in falling snow. Scroll down to see the others. I don’t do equipment reviews, and this certainly isn’t one. But I borrowed a Sony RX100 a while back. It’s an interesting little camera. David Pogue of The New York Times calls it, in his inimitable fashion, Â “… the best pocket […]
Snow, Wind, Etc.
Just another February day in East Montpelier, although it changed from a sunny, windy one whipping the snow off the barn below to the quiet, overcast scene above in about 30 minutes. Next up: Using a Sony RX100 in a snowstorm.
Posted in agriculture, black & white, farming, Snow, Travel, Vermont, Weather, Winter
Plainfield Flower Farm
It was 20 below zero here this morning so, to warm you up, here’s a look at the Plainfield, VT, Flower Farm last spring. Bram Towbin and Erica Da Costa have an acre of peonies and about 50 acres of lilacs and snowball viburnum, grown for the cut-flower market. From their hillside in Plainfield their budding flowers travel to urban flower markets around the Northeast. […]
Posted in agriculture, Colors, farming, Vermont
La Coupe du Monde, Quebec
Nordic skiing World Cup races are rarely held outside of Europe’s skiing nations, where almost every winter weekend they are watched by the kind crowds North America can only manage to turn out for events like professional football. But last weekend the World Cup sprints came to an 800-meter hairpin-turn course of manmade snow in front of the provincial parliament building in Quebec City. Americans […]
Stick Season, High & Low
When the fall leaves hit the ground, it’s Stick Season. The reason for the name is obvious but the attractions of this sixth Vermont season aren’t. It can mean raw, gray days with rain and sleet. But it can also be beautiful, as it has been for the past two days, with temperatures in the 60s. At its best, the lowering sun streams through the leafless woods […]
Biking Croatia’s Dalmatian Islands
Two generations and a Croatian flag in the town of Stari Grad on the island of Hvar in Croatia’s Dalmatian islands. I had the good fortune last week to be traveling there with a Vermont Bicycle Tours group. Tourism in Croatia, on the rise in the 1980s, evaporated with war in the 1990s, but it is booming now. It’s no wonder: the clear, blue water […]
Wildwater on the Deerfield
On a beautiful late summer afternoon, the United States of America Canoe and Kayak 2012 Wildwater Team Trials began today on the Deerfield River in northern Massachusetts. Fastest kayaks down the 2-mile course in men’s and women’s classes win. Two sprint races will be held over the next two days to determine team members for the 2013 world championships in Solkan, Slovenia. These photos were taken […]
RAGBRAI 2
More from the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, in all its glory: Above, a mountain bike stunt rider at the bike expo, Sioux Center. Below, they got the color scheme just right at Mid-State Milling in Clemons; sustenance on Day One near Sioux Center — all egg sales to benefit the Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra; and knocked out in Webster City, despite (or […]
Posted in agriculture, alternative energy, Bicycling, farming, Food, Iowa, People, RAGBRAI, roads, Travel
RAGBRAI!
Every July for 40 years the Des Moines Register and a legion of volunteers have put together a little event called the Register‘s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, better known as RAGBRAI, a week-long bicycle ride across the roughly 500-mile-wide state. It started with two Register employees and a few hangers-on and has grown into an Iowa tradition and a bicycling legend that this year drew […]
Cyrus, Elahna & Irene
When Elahna Sobel-Faryniarz saw the damage Tropical Storm Irene did to farmers’ fields in Vermont last August, she decided to help. She set up a lemonade stand along Route 14 near her East Calais home and started selling, eventually taking in $40.50, which she sent to the Vermont Farm Disaster Relief Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation in Middlebury. Her gift was part of the […]
Posted in agriculture, farming, Food, Hurricane Irene, People
Making Fresh Tracks
Christina Castegren and Kris Tootle have done what Vermont farmers of 50 years ago would have considered unthinkable: On the remains of an old hill farm in the central Vermont town of Berlin they have created a vineyard, complete with acres of cold-tolerant grape vines and a solar-powered and geothermally heated winery and tasting room. It’s called Fresh Tracks Farm. I photographed them and Fresh […]
Posted in agriculture, alternative energy, farming, Food, People, Spring, Vermont
Hanging with Friends
A certain proportion of the graduates of the University of Vermont Class of 2012 are planning to hang around in Burlington, at least for the summer. After the graduation ceremonies on May 20, one person was already getting into the swing of things on the college green. Below, the statue of university founder Ira Allen is always hanging around and dresses for graduation. Good […]
Posted in silhouette, urban, Vermont
But Not Yet
Spring arrives low in Vermont and then slowly climbs the mountains, so if you get even halfway up, it’s still like March, as it was yesterday at about 1,600 feet in the middle of Middlesex, above, where the Hunger Mountain and White Rocks section of the Worcester Range is still waiting to catch up with southern and lower parts of the state. Over the weekend, […]
Spring Turns a Corner
In the Vermont hills, we’re finally moving from the gray browns of March into the soft green pyrotechnics of Spring: East Montpelier and Calais roads, and one beautiful but unfortunate ruffed grouse, on the road, Calais.
Hay Barn
From the archives: Hay barn, Adamant, VT, 1982.
Posted in agriculture, black & white, farming, Vermont
Home Share Gallery
Chandra and her cat were part of the series of portraits I made for Home Share Now, the Barre, VT, organization that matches home seekers with people who have space in their homes to share. When I started the project, I promised a gallery — so click here for the link.  Information on Home Share Now is here.
Posted in black & white, People, Vermont
Farm Aid
David Cram and his partner, Anna Coloutti, run the Stone Village Farmers’ Market just north of Chester on Route 103 in southern Vermont. They lost 18 acres of produce when the Williams River flooded from the rains of Tropical Storm Irene last August. Cram is one of 177 farmers who have received aid through the Vermont Community Foundation’s Farm Disaster Relief Fund. VCF has so far […]
Posted in black & white, disasters, Hurricane Irene, People, Vermont, water, Weather
Night Snow
Snow-covered road at night, Albany, VT.
Posted in black & white, Night, roads, silhouette, Snow, Vermont, Weather, Winter
Same-Day Wash
Same-day wash, Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
Posted in Brooklyn, Bushwick, New York, New York City, urban
9/11 Memorial
The National September 11 Memorial opened to the public on 9/12/11, although it’s not finished. Above, One World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower, rises toward its planned height of 105 stories (1776 feet), to be completed in 2013. Below, detail of one of the two pools/waterfalls that mark the sites of the original Twin Towers. By January more than a million people had […]
Posted in architecture, New York, New York City
The Flatiron
The Flatiron Building at 175 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan attracts photographers because of its unusual wedge shape (like an old flatiron from the days when irons were chunks of iron that had to be heated up before they were used to press clothing), because of the iconic 1904 Steichen photo, below, left, next to mine from a similar angle, and because of many other artists’ attempts […]
Posted in architecture, New York, New York City
Renaissance Portraits
I was back in New York last week, so I’ll have a bunch of urban posts over the next few days — from Fifth Avenue in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, above, to Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, the 9/11 Memorial and some stops in between.
Posted in New York, New York City, silhouette, Uncategorized
The Notch, Natch
It’s been one of those Decembers in north-central Vermont: virtually no snow. But there was a little bit over the weekend, packed down on the Smugglers Notch road in Stowe, now closed to traffic for the winter but open for skiers, ice climbers, dog walkers, strollers, sledders and anyone else who wants to venture past the gates that block each end. It’s almost the only […]
Posted in exercise, People, Skiing, Snow, Vermont, Weather, Winter
Tagged cross-country skiing, Smugglers Notch, Vermont
Santacon, NYC
I hate to overdo Santas, but I happened to be in New York during the annual flash mob known as Santacon, also known as the Santa Pub Crawl. Thousands of Santa wannabes followed Tweets around the city, from South Street Seaport to City Hall Park, Grand Central, the public library, Times Square and bars in between, depending on the Santa, since not all Santas are […]
Posted in Christmas, Colors, New York City, People
You Definitely Better Not Shout
Nearly 1,200 Santas champ at their beards before the start of the first Ri Ra’s Santa 5-k Run and Walk on Church Street in Burlington, VT, Sunday. Let’s see: Beard: check! Hat: check! Santa jacket: check! Santa Belt: check! Baggy Santa pants: check! And off they went, to benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Below, those beards can be a problem. Maybe some starch?
Back to Grass
So maybe we jumped the gun a little on the skiing thing. East Montpelier, VT, today.
XC TG
Skiing arrived early enough this year for a Thanksgiving run at the Morse Farm Ski Touring Center, East Montpelier, VT. Fine form for early in the season too.
Posted in Uncategorized
Home Shared
Continuing to work on the Home Share Now project. Above, Cliff, center, and Shirley and Don have worked out a successful home share in Waterbury, VT. A gallery of Home Share Now people is here.
Posted in People, Vermont
Tagged Home Share Now
Early Snow
We didn’t get all the snow that places a bit farther south did last night, but we got enough to get everyone’s attention and bring us all a half-step closer to winter, ready or not. Montpelier and East Montpelier, VT.
Posted in Uncategorized
Picking Up the Pieces
When Tropical Storm Irene swept into Vermont in late August, Kara Fitzgerald and Ryan Wood Beauchamp prepared for the effects of high winds on their five-acre field of vegetables. They picked tomatoes and otherwise battened down their small produce farm tucked into a bend of the Mill River on Route 103 in Cuttingsville, VT. But they weren’t prepared for what the normally placid river had […]
Fall Roliage
Rolling through a Vermont autumn on a dirt road in Albany, above, and at dawn, below, on Route 100 in Granville.
Posted in Autumn, Colors, mountain biking, Vermont
Tagged dirt roads
Katahdin
On top of Maine’s Mount Katahdin Sunday, Appalachian Trail hikers R.J. Kielian, left, and Jay Knoll celebrate the completion of their five-month 2,000-mile journey from Georgia to Maine. R.J.’s father brought him the suit, all the way from Florida. Jay, who is from Tennessee, bought his for $5 in a thrift shop in a nearby Maine town. They started hiking at Springer Mountain, Georgia, in […]
Posted in Maine, People, Travel
Tagged Appalachian Trail, hiking, Maine, Mount Kathdin
Another Kind of Water
I wasn’t in Vermont when Hurricane Irene hit. While Vermonters were fleeing water, some friends and I were seeking it in Algonquin Park in Ontario. We left several days before Irene arrived in town and got back after she had rained her way out over the Maritimes. A mini-storm, unrelated to Irene, got my camera so wet that I had to take the lens off […]
Flat Out
After nearly a week of working to clean up flood damage in Waterbury, VT, a workman took a short break Saturday afternoon. In the flooded areas of Vermont, everybody else probably felt about the same, but the work went on and will be continuing for weeks and months to rebuild homes and damaged infrastructure around the state. It was a Labor Day weekend full of labor.
Got Mud?
Yes, Waterbury, VT, has mud, more than it can use, all of it deposited  by the flooding Winooski River courtesy of Hurricane Irene. But residents, their neighbors and volunteers came out Thursday to help get rid of it. Above, volunteer Leslie Ferrer of Waterbury shovels mud and water out of Dave Rogers’s basement on Main Street. Click here for a gallery (mouse-over the […]
Posted in disasters, Hurricane Irene, Vermont
Tagged disasters, Hurricane Irene, mud, volunteers, Waterbury
Irene Aftermath
The flooding from Hurricane Irene isolated towns across Vermont from the rest of the state. One of them was Rochester on the White River in Windsor County in central Vermont. Combined town, state and utility work crews worked Tuesday to reach Rochester and other towns. Above, crew members gaze into the huge gap cut by floodwaters in Camp Brook Road, which goes over Rochester […]
Posted in disasters, Hurricane Irene, Vermont
Tagged disasters, flooding, Hurricane Irene, rain
Coastamaine
Tourist time on the coast of Maine, Pemaquid Point..
Posted in Maine
Tagged lobster, Maine coast, Native American, Pemaquid, summer
PEI
North shore, Prince Edward Island.
Posted in Canada, Colors, Prince Edward Island
Tagged Canada, colors, ocean, Prince Edward Island, sunset, weather
Cow Share
Home Share Now matches home seekers with people who have room to share in their homes. But what happens if the home seeker has some beef cattle that also need a home? After a thorough search of central Vermont, Home Share Now found Janis a spot in a farmhouse with nearby fields to share, so she brought along her cows. Above, she offers them some […]
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged agriculture, cows, farming, farming animals, Home Share Now, pastures, Vermont
July Fourth March for Sudan
When the car Taylor Stevens McLaughlin, 20, was driving collided head-on with another vehicle near Burlington, Vermont, on January 10, 2010, two lives were lost: Taylor’s and that of the driver of the other car. To try to make something positive happen out of the devastation, Taylor’s family decided to build upon Taylor’s friendship with a group of Sudanese immigrants living in Burlington. The family […]
Posted in Vermont
Tagged Fourth of July, Montpelier, Sudan, Vermont
Nice!
The site has been down and on and off for nearly a month with assorted technical problems, including being hacked into, but things seem to be resolved now. So, here is Nice, France, and those blues are why they call it the Cote d’Azur.  More pictures from the incredibly varied landscape of the Fifth Republic are here. If you mouse-over the individual thumbnails in the galleries, […]
Posted in Colors, France, Travel
Tagged benches, City of Nice, colors, Cote d'Azur, France, Mediterranean, ocean, pets, relaxation, views
Home Share Now
I’m working on a photo project for Home Share Now, a Barre, VT, organization that matches people with room to spare in their houses with people seeking a spot to live. The arrangements can be very successful and they seem to generate their own kind of interpersonal chemistry. Meet Monika and Cindy, above, who share Cindy’s home. The project will be done over the next […]
Posted in People, Vermont
Tagged Home Share Now, Montpelier, portraits, Vermont
The Reward
The reward for struggling through all the snow and mud came today. This is the same hill that was in the “April in Vermont” post below, just a little more than month ago. Today it was bursting with the arrival of spring.
Posted in Colors, mountain biking, Spring, Vermont
Tagged East Montpelier, spring bike riding
Big Apple Apple
Spring rush, outside the Apple store on Broadway, Upper West Side. More NYC photos are here.
Posted in New York, New York City, Spring
Tagged Apple, megalopolis, New York City, people, streets
NCAAs at Stowe
Slightly late putting this post up, but the NCAA nordic ski championships were held at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe in March.  The weather for the skate race on the first day was beautiful. The second day, for the classic race, it poured. More pictures are here.
April in Vermont
Well, it may be spring where you are, but it’s not quite spring here. These were all taken the past two days. Above, there’s mud under the snow in East Montpelier. Below and bottom, the Slayton Pasture trail at the Trapp Family Lodge, Stowe.
Posted in Snow, Vermont, Winter
Tagged country roads, cross-country skiing, dirt roads, mud season, spring, Stowe, Trapp Family Lodge, Vermont, winter
Remember T.M.I.?
The near-disaster at Three-Mile Island in the middle of the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, PA, began on March 28, 1979. I took this photo at the May 6, 1979, anti-nuclear demonstration in Washington. T.M.I. is back in the news. If you haven’t had t.m.i. about nuclear power already this week, you can refresh your memory about T.M.I. Â here or here. You can see the cooling […]
Posted in alternative energy
Tagged news, nuclear power, Pennsylvania, photojournalism, Three-Mile Island, Washington
Snow & Sky
That’s it: the snow and the sky. We have a lot of both right now.
Où est la poutine?
Imagine the calories required to keep a dinosaur kicking in Quebec … It’s all part of the show at the Manoir Bigfoot and the Madrid Restaurant in Saint-Leonard d’Aston, Quebec, just off Autoroute 20. Given the number of dinosaurs visible from the highway, you can’t miss it.
Ottawa River story
The Ottawa River and Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario. Come up with your own story to go with the picture. For more from the series, look here.
Wind on the Horizon
Wind Farm, Route 11, upstate New York.
Posted in Alternate energy, Colors, New York, Travel
Tagged alternate energy, colors, New York State, wind farm
Maine BBQ
OK, you don’t usually associate Maine with barbecue, but there it is, in the orange trailer poking out of the snowbank where U.S. Route 2 sweeps eastward from Bethel toward Rumford. I didn’t have any, but it smelled good. It’s in the parking lot next to the Good Food Store and run by the same people who run the store. It’s called Smokin’ Good BBQ.
Why They Call It a Notch
A snowplow sands its way up into Dixville Notch, a cleft sliced into the rugged northern range of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. More frozen white winter photos are here.
Posted in Uncategorized
Snowstorm, Interstate 89
Through the windshield during the north-central Vermont segment of this week’s Nor’easter. Nope, I wasn’t driving! For more on this winter, go here.
Posted in Colors, Snow, Uncategorized, Vermont, Winter
Tagged Budweiser truck, driving in snow, highway safety, ice, Nor'Easter, Snow, snowstorm, Subaru, Vermont, winter, winter driving
Tuck & Roll
Cross-Country ski racers tuck as they glide downhill during the New England Nordic Ski Association Eastern Cup sprints at Craftsbury Nordic Center in Craftsbury, VT, December 18. A gallery of photos from the race is in the pull-down menu under Projects.
Ski Race Snowstorm
High winds, wet snow and the first race of the season, Bolton Valley Nordic Center, VT.
Posted in Uncategorized
First Snow
First wholesale nfl jerseys snow, cheap mlb jerseys dusk, cheap mlb jerseys Horn Game: of to the wholesale mlb jerseys Moon, series! East wholesale jerseys Montpelier, November VT.
Posted in Snow, Uncategorized, Vermont, Winter
Tagged black and white, dirt roads, first snow, Horn of the Moon, Subaru, Vermont, winter
Last Ride, November
November wholesale jerseys light, wholesale mlb jerseys East wholesale mlb jerseys Montpelier, wholesale nba jerseys VT.
Posted in exercise, mountain biking, Vermont
Tagged Autumn, dirt roads, East Montpelier, mountain biking, November, Vermont, VT
Sky to Sea
Prince GLOBALIZATION Edward wholesale NFL jerseys Island, cheap jerseys late wholesale MLB jerseys October.
Colors of Burano
On wholesale jerseys the island of Burano in the Venice cheap mlb jerseys lagoon, pastel-painted walls rule. cheap jerseys This is how I Tips found the bike, leaning Susswater against the wall on world! a hot summer Any day du — no art director involved.
Posted in Colors, Italy, Travel
Tagged bicycle, Burano, colors, flowers, Italy, Mediterranean, pastel colors, Travel, Venice, Venice lagoon