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A late-summer, slow sojourn in southern Vermont – The Boston Globe

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A late-summer, slow sojourn in southern Vermont – The Boston Globe


“Slow down! You’re moving too fast,” said our backseat driver as we cruised the country roads in southern Vermont. We were driving at the speed limit, but he was right. The view of sloping hills, forests, and rolling farmlands, sliced with rippling streams and tinged with autumn hues, was going by too fast. We slowed down, weaving along backroads to Route 100, arguably the most scenic road in the Green Mountain State. There were cows grazing on hillsides, fieldstone walls bordering classic farmhouses and well-kept barns, farmstands filled with late summer and fall produce, and views of distant mountain peaks.

Despite our lackadaisical, slow-mo pace, we had a destination in mind: the oh-so-sweet village of Weston, a quintessentially Vermont hamlet, in the shadows of the Green Mountains. The former mill town, set along the West River, is surrounded by the Green Mountain National Forest, with stunning fall foliage views. It’s home to the oldest theater company in Vermont, and the classic — and sprawling — Vermont Country Store. Better yet: it has a new boutique hotel, and a recently opened French bistro.

The Mill Museum was built in 1785 as a sawmill. On display is a variety of equipment used in blacksmithing, farming, woodworking and more.Pamela Wright

Stay & Dine

We’d be happy to check into The Weston for a weekend and never leave the property. Formerly the Inn at Weston, the re-imagined property has been completely renovated. It has a nice feel — elegant and refined, without being fussy, staying true to the historic, rural setting. Housed in two Colonial-style buildings on Main Street — the historic Main House and adjacent two-story Carriage House — are nine rooms and suites, a bar, wine room, fitness room, spa, and the Left Bank restaurant. It’s filled with antiques and fine art, surrounded by gardens with a backyard bocce ball court, firepits, and dining patio.

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A fall beet salad, with produce from the Farm at Weston, was on the menu at The Left Bank restaurant in Weston.Pamela Wright

Rooms and suites are uniquely decorated with a mix of art and furnishings, modern baths, and luxe linens and toiletries; all but one have gas fireplaces.

After checking into the hotel, we joined The Left Bank’s executive chef Bretton Combs on a tour of The Farm at the Weston. The Farm includes a quarter-acre of cultivated land and a heated greenhouse. We walked between rows of heirloom tomatoes, onions and leeks, carrots and parsnips, cukes and beans, lettuces and potatoes, turnips and squashes, and more.

That evening at The Left Bank, we dined on farm-to-table dishes, including a purple dragon carrot and cucumber soup, brussels sprout chips, hand-cut frites, and beet salad, all showcasing produce from the farm. There was also a caviar selection, New England oysters, cheese platters, and entrees like Parisian steak frites, cod piccata, and bouillabaisse.

You can pick up Vermont clothing and souvenirs at the Weston Village Store.Pamela Wright

Shop & Play

You have to love a town with two historic general stores. The family-owned Vermont Country Store, founded in 1946, is a sprawling 12,000-square-foot space, chockful of stuff from around the world, including a huge selection of Vermont-made goods. There are shelves filled with old-fashioned penny candy, a toy section with classics like Tiddlywinks and potholder-making kits, specialty foods, sheets and blankets, and men’s and women’s clothing. You could easily spend a couple of hours browsing the merchandise, then treat yourself to a creemee from Mildred’s Dairy Bar, located next to the store.

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The Weston Village Store is one of two country stores in Weston, Vt., offering a variety of Vermont souvenirs and artisan food specialties.Pamela Wright

Across the street is the Weston Village Store, with a variety of Vermont T-shirts and souvenirs, homemade fudge, and a cooler filled with old-fashioned, handcrafted sodas. There’s also a small cheese tasting counter where you can sample artisan cheeses made in Vermont and elsewhere.

Wander down to the Village Green and to the Mill Museum and the Farrar-Mansur House. The Mill Museum was built in 1785 as a sawmill and used later a gristmill. On display is a variety of equipment used in blacksmithing, farming, woodworking, and more. The Farrar-Mansur House was built in 1795 and is a fine example of an early American Colonial home. Several rooms are furnished with period antiques, early-19th-century brass, copper and pewter items, quilts and samplers, china, glassware, and art.

You can sample and purchase homemade fudge at the Weston Village Store.Pamela Wright

The world-class Weston Theater Company operates out of two venues. The contemporary Walker Farm venue, which opened in 2017, is a flexible space used for live music, cabaret, and special events. The Playhouse is the original theater housed in a 306-seat Greek Revival building and used for large, top-quality productions. “The Woman in Black,” an adaptation of Susan Hill’s classic ghost story, is playing through Oct. 20.

Ready for some fresh air and a little exercise? Head down Route 100 about five miles to Lowell Lake State Park. The Lowell Lake Trail is a nice loop hike, about 3.5 miles, with views of the lake, and a Revolutionary War-era cemetery.

A refrigerator at the Weston Village Store is filled with old-fashioned sodas.Pamela Wright

Mosey on home

We’d suggest a meandering detour from Weston to the village of Chester, another sweet little town where three branches of the Williams River meet. The town has two historic districts. The Stone Village Historic District has 10 Greek Revival buildings, made of stone from local quarries. The Chester Village Historic District has a mix of Victorian and Federal-style buildings, now housing a handful of shops and galleries. There’s a self-guided brochure and walking map for each district, available at shops, restaurants, and inns in town, as well as the Town Hall and the Information Center on Main Street.

And of course, take your time getting home, following sinuous backroads through southern Vermont (look at maps 26 and 27 in the Vermont Atlas & Gazetteer), stopping at farm stands, cheese shops, and general stores along the way. You remembered to pack a cooler, right?

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Diane Bair and Pamela Wright can be reached at bairwright@gmail.com





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Vermont

Noah Kahan, Vermont consumers and venues voice support for ticket resale limits

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A movement to limit the resale price of concert and event tickets is growing in Vermont.Last Thursday, renowned Vermont singer Noah Kahan submitted a video to a state Senate committee voicing his support of H.512. The bill passed the House last month. “This bill is a critical step in eliminating predatory resale behaviors and offering promoters a great solution for exchanging and reselling tickets in a safe marketplace,” the Strafford native said to lawmakers.The bill would limit the resale of tickets to 110% of the value they were originally purchased at. Other Vermonter’s testified that day and said they found themselves purchasing tickets online, not from the event’s venue or artist. They said the price was way above the original rate. “Now I was not just mad at myself, but I was mad at this person who did it to me,” Marina Cole of Wheelock told lawmakers. In 2024, the National Association of Ticket Brokers told NBC 5 that they were against price caps, which this bill is currently pursuing.”We have really good businesspeople who are doing the right thing,” Executive Director Gary Adler said at the time. The bill, as passed by the House, would charge the Vermont Attorney General’s Office with enforcing the resale cap. The office would have the authority to conduct audits, issue penalties and revoke a reseller’s license. Resale licenses would be a new requirement under the current bill. “I suspect the enforcement won’t be easy,” executive director of the Champlain Valley Exposition Tim Shea said Monday. “But it’s something we’re looking to follow and advocate for the right ticket buyer.”Shea said the Expo has been approached by consumers who have faced high resale prices and even some cases of ticket fraud through online reselling. He believes the legislation would help avoid those issues and keep revenues for Vermont venues and artists within the state. “When tickets are marked up to the level, they are that money’s going out of Vermont. It’s not staying here. It’s not going to the promoter. It’s not going to the concessioners on the ground,” Shea said. The bill is currently being reviewed by the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs.

A movement to limit the resale price of concert and event tickets is growing in Vermont.

Last Thursday, renowned Vermont singer Noah Kahan submitted a video to a state Senate committee voicing his support of H.512. The bill passed the House last month.

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“This bill is a critical step in eliminating predatory resale behaviors and offering promoters a great solution for exchanging and reselling tickets in a safe marketplace,” the Strafford native said to lawmakers.

The bill would limit the resale of tickets to 110% of the value they were originally purchased at. Other Vermonter’s testified that day and said they found themselves purchasing tickets online, not from the event’s venue or artist. They said the price was way above the original rate.

“Now I was not just mad at myself, but I was mad at this person who did it to me,” Marina Cole of Wheelock told lawmakers.

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In 2024, the National Association of Ticket Brokers told NBC 5 that they were against price caps, which this bill is currently pursuing.

“We have really good businesspeople who are doing the right thing,” Executive Director Gary Adler said at the time.

The bill, as passed by the House, would charge the Vermont Attorney General’s Office with enforcing the resale cap.

The office would have the authority to conduct audits, issue penalties and revoke a reseller’s license. Resale licenses would be a new requirement under the current bill.

“I suspect the enforcement won’t be easy,” executive director of the Champlain Valley Exposition Tim Shea said Monday. “But it’s something we’re looking to follow and advocate for the right ticket buyer.”

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Shea said the Expo has been approached by consumers who have faced high resale prices and even some cases of ticket fraud through online reselling. He believes the legislation would help avoid those issues and keep revenues for Vermont venues and artists within the state.

“When tickets are marked up to the level, they are that money’s going out of Vermont. It’s not staying here. It’s not going to the promoter. It’s not going to the concessioners on the ground,” Shea said.

The bill is currently being reviewed by the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing, and General Affairs.



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Meet the 95-year-old Vermont herbarium volunteer who had a fern named for her

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Meet the 95-year-old Vermont herbarium volunteer who had a fern named for her


BURLINGTON, Vt. (InvestigateTV) — For 28 years, Hilda White has shown up at the University of Vermont’s Pringle Herbarium to do a job most people have never heard of: mounting plants.

Now 95 years old, White has carefully preserved more than 50,000 plant specimens — pressing and affixing them to archival paper so they can be studied and referenced for generations to come.

“If I mount the plants, the plants will be around for hundreds of years, barring any unforeseen accidents or anything,” White said.

Birthday gift unlike any other

For her 95th birthday, the herbarium gave her a gift unlike any other: a newly discovered fern, found in Colombia in 2023, was officially named for her.

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The plant — a Christmas fern — was discovered by Wes Testo, now the director of the Pringle Herbarium collection, during a research trip to South America.

“I was walking through the forest there, and I saw this just spectacular fern,” Testo said. “I knew immediately it was something I hadn’t seen before.”

After further research confirmed it was a species new to science, Testo and his colleagues decided to name it for White: Polystichum hildae.

“Oh, I was absolutely blown away,” White said when she learned of the honor.

“You can’t imagine, I cried all afternoon.”

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‘Library for plants’

White’s work at the herbarium is kind of a library for plants.

“I can’t draw, but this is my artistic outlet,” she said.

Testo said White’s contributions have been essential to the research conducted in the collection, which now houses 400,000 plant specimens in a single room.

“Hilda mounted a huge amount of the specimens you see here,” Testo said. “Her contributions are absolutely essential to the research we do here.”

The collection’s survival is not something White or Testo take for granted. In 2017, a fire broke out at Torrey Hall, where the collection was housed at the time. Testo was in South America doing research when he received word.

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“All I could see from an email in Colombia — the roof on fire. I thought my whole Ph.D. was going up in flames along with the whole collection here,” Testo said.

White was on her way into work when the fire broke out. Staff and volunteers, including White, worked to restore and remount the damaged plants. The collection has since been relocated to the Jeffords Building.

No plans to stop

White says she has no plans to stop.

“Oh no! I’ll be here as long as I can,” she said.

And when asked what she planned to give Testo for his birthday in return for the honor of having a plant named after her, White kept it simple.

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“He just got good wishes!”

Read the full story.



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Swanton honors WWI soldier with new historic marker

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Swanton honors WWI soldier with new historic marker


A new roadside historic marker was unveiled outside Riverside Cemetery, honoring Cpl. Leonard A. Lord, the first Vermonter killed in action during World War I.The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation dedicated the marker during a ceremony held at the site, recognizing Lord’s service and sacrifice more than a century after his death.Lord was killed in April 1918 in France during heavy artillery fire while serving with the 26th “Yankee” Division. He had enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 at Fort Ethan Allen.After his death overseas, Lord’s remains were later returned to Swanton in 1921 and reinterred at Riverside Cemetery, just yards from where the new marker now stands.Officials say the marker is part of Vermont’s long-running effort to preserve local history and highlight individuals who shaped the state’s past.U.S. Army SSgt. Stephen Prochniak reflected on the importance of remembrance.“History is alive in all of us,” Prochniak said. “It’s something that will probably be here longer than any of us are alive. And that’s important. It preserves it not just for us, but for our kids and their kids.”The marker now stands as the 335th installed through the state’s historic preservation program.

A new roadside historic marker was unveiled outside Riverside Cemetery, honoring Cpl. Leonard A. Lord, the first Vermonter killed in action during World War I.

The Vermont Division for Historic Preservation dedicated the marker during a ceremony held at the site, recognizing Lord’s service and sacrifice more than a century after his death.

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Lord was killed in April 1918 in France during heavy artillery fire while serving with the 26th “Yankee” Division. He had enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 at Fort Ethan Allen.

After his death overseas, Lord’s remains were later returned to Swanton in 1921 and reinterred at Riverside Cemetery, just yards from where the new marker now stands.

Officials say the marker is part of Vermont’s long-running effort to preserve local history and highlight individuals who shaped the state’s past.

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U.S. Army SSgt. Stephen Prochniak reflected on the importance of remembrance.

“History is alive in all of us,” Prochniak said. “It’s something that will probably be here longer than any of us are alive. And that’s important. It preserves it not just for us, but for our kids and their kids.”

The marker now stands as the 335th installed through the state’s historic preservation program.



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