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A Community Celebration at West River Park

by betsg | Recreation & Sports

On Saturday May 18th from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM the Brattleboro Recreation and Parks Board and the West River Park Committee will be hosting the Grand Opening Celebration for West River Park on Route 30 West, 1.3 miles past the entrance to The Brattleboro Retreat. The rain date is Sunday May 19th. Please join the community for food and fun during this exciting opening day. Raffle tickets for a chance to win eight tickets to the Red Sox are currently being sold with the drawing at the park on the 18th. Any donations to the park will be gratefully accepted!

Spectator?

by RCastine | Nature

This unexpected “visitor” appeared at Bellows Falls Country Club.

Is it here to play golf or just to watch? 

“Gaining Health, Losing Weight” Program in Putney

by MFTP | Health

Interested in cultivating an educated & positive relationship to your body and food?

Want to empower yourself to work with your metabolism, lifestyle choices, and food to increase your health & vitality? 

This 4-week program (May 30th-June27th) is a support group for people wanting lose weight in a sustainable, healthy, and educated way. Gain greater health and lose weight through nutrition, herbs, lifestyle modification, and yoga. 

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Announces Delivery of First-Rate Cancer Rehab Services to Survivors – Earns STAR Program® Certification

by BMH | Health

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) announced today that it has earned its STAR Program® Certification from the Massachusetts-based Oncology Rehab Partners, leading experts in the field of survivorship care. BMH is leading the way in offering excellent cancer rehabilitation services to its patients by becoming the first STAR Program Certified in Vermont.

The STAR program, which stands for Survivorship Training And Rehabilitation, is a national certification program that provides hospitals with the tools and training needed to minimize the debilitating side effects of cancer treatment. The clinicians that have completed the STAR certification course coordinate care to provide treatment tailored to the specific needs of cancer patients who may be experiencing musculoskeletal pain, limb swelling, general weakness, balance issues, fatigue, difficulty swallowing or other debilitating side effects caused by cancer treatments.

BMH Hosts Talk on Caring for Family Members with Dementia, May 20

by BMH | Health

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will offer a free public talk entitled, “When A Loved One Has Dementia…” in the Brew Barry Conference Room on Monday, May 20 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

Led by Michelle Rowland, RN, LISCW, the talk will cover expected stages of dementia and available support and treatments for patients in the community. The talk will also address how families, friends and caregivers can find support and relief.

BMH Offers Chair Exercise Workshop for People with Limited Mobility, May 13

by BMH | Health

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will offer a free class entitled, “Safe and Simple Chair Exercises for Those with Chronic Illnesses and/or Limited Mobility and their Caregivers” on Monday, May 13 from 3:30 – 5:00 pm in the Brew Barry Conference Room.

Led by Connie Baxter, a certified yoga instructor and bereavement care coordinator at Brattleboro Area Hospice, the class teaches a sequence of easy-to-learn exercises that can be done from the safety of a chair to increase circulation and range of motion. Participants will be given a diagram of the movements along with clear instructions so they can practices these chair exercises, based on yoga postures, with their caregivers at home.

CRVBL Weekend Roundup

by CRVBL | Recreation & Sports

By Kevin McElhinney, CRVBL

NEWPORT, CLAREMONT, PUTNEY, CHESTER/SAXTONS AND SUNAPEE ALL TAKE GAMES DURING CRVBL WEEK 3

The Newport Polar Bears and defending league Champion Claremont Cardinals are the only two undefeated teams remaining in the Connecticut River Valley Baseball league following a weekend featuring five league games. The Putney Fossils also picked up their first win of the season while the Chester/Saxtons River Crush and the Sunapee Old Lakers split a doubleheader.

Home Energy Challenge Tour Features Local Brattleboro Homes

by Not Signed In | Home & Garden

Homeowners and landlords interested in saving money on their heating bills are invited to a group tour of four Brattleboro homes on Saturday, May 11, from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Diverse in size, style and age, the homes have all been retrofitted to save energy. The contractors and homeowners will be on hand to talk about the energy-saving features of each home.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for folks to see a wide variety of energy-efficient homes in their community, and to learn from contractors and homeowners about how to cut energy bills”, said Paul Cameron, Director of Brattleboro Climate Protection, one of the organizers of the tour. “The typical Vermonter can reduce their energy bills by 20-30% through a home efficiency project, an average annual savings of $1,000.”

Earth, Roots, Petals, & Paths Garden Tour, June 15 & 16

by Not Signed In | Home & Garden

Earth, Roots, Petals, & Paths, a tour of perennial and vegetable gardens in Putney, Vermont and “The Garden on Rice Mountain” in Walpole, New Hampshire. This first annual garden tour will be held the weekend of June 15th & June 16th. The tour will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday.

Earth, Roots, Petals & Paths includes private perennial and vegetable gardens in Putney, The Putney School gardens & farm, the Putney Central School garden & orchard and the renowned four-acre garden created by Theodora and Peter Berg on Rice Mountain in Walpole, NH with the assistance of Gordon Hayward, garden designer, and Dan Snow, dry stone craftsman.

CRVBL Weekend Roundup

by CRVBL | Recreation & Sports

CHESTER/SAXTONS, CLAREMONT, NEWPORT AND SUNAPEE WINNERS IN CRVBL WEEK 2

There’s now a three-way tie atop the Connecticut River Valley Baseball League after the Chester/Saxtons River Crush, the Claremont Cardinals, Newport Polar Bears and Sunapee Old Lakers were winners in the season’s second week of town team action.

Chester/Saxtons River started off the weekend with a 5 – 1 victory over the Walpole Wild Blue at the baseball complex in Walpole. Nick Wirkkala of the Crush went six innings on the mound, giving up just three hits and striking out seven. He was also 1 for three at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing a base. Scott Renfro went 3 for 4 with an RBI double, Toby Miller also went 3 for 4 scoring two runs and Jamie Spence had two hits and drove in a pair of runs.

First Tuesday

by ChrisPratt | Activism

I know I said I would provide updates for those who are interested called First Tuesday. They were supposed to take place on the First Tuesday ofevery month. Sorry… I really have no excuse, but rest assured I have not been idle. I have updated the deceptions website so everything is now is in one place (movie, magazine, You Tube Channel and PegMeda write up for “Pants on Fire.” Additionally I am now setup to do an ongoing blog from this site.

We’re All Downstream

by spinoza | Nature

This past weekend, I went up to the White River Indie Film Festival, to see the screening of Chasing Ice. Missed it when it was here.

For those who don’t know, this film is a record of the retreat and melting of the glaciers. Twenty something cameras were set up to automatically take a picture an hour, for three years. A composite video was made to show the change to ice forms and landscapes.

The film is breathtaking, sobering, depressing…actually beyond description. The vanishing glaciers, and unprecedented melt astounded the expectations of all participants.

Beginners Tai Chi Series in Putney

by MFTP | Health

Interested in learning Tai Chi? Medicine for the People is offering a new Beginners Tai Chi Series starting May 17th in Putney. This 14 week series covers the basic building blocks of Tai Chi movement — increase stregnth, flexibilyt and vitality. Tai Chi Chuan is often described as a moving meditation; after practice, one feels invigorated, clear-minded, and peaceful.

BMH Center for Cardiovascular Health Welcomes Daniel Walsh, M.D.

by BMH | Health

The BMH Center for Cardiovascular Health announced cardiovascular surgeon Daniel Walsh, MD, will begin seeing patients in its offices starting Monday, May 6.

Dr. Walsh has been a member of the medical staff at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire since 1987. He will be at BMH every other Monday between the hours of 1:00 and 5:00 PM to consult on a variety of arterial and venous diseases, including aortic aneurysm, carotid disease, peripheral arterial disease, venous disease, renal artery disease, hypertension, stenosis and mesenteric ischemia.

“Having Dr. Walsh here to evaluate and treat vascular disease adds another element of care we can provide for our community,” says the Center’s Medical Director, Mark Burke, MD, adding that Dr. Walsh will also be available as a consultative resource for the BMH Center for Wound Healing.

BMH Breast Care Program Receives Komen Grant to Improve Accessibility

by BMH | Health

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital announced its Comprehensive Breast Care Program was awarded a grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Foundation in April.

According to Kelly McCue, RN, MSN, nurse navigator and administrator for the BMH Comprehensive Breast Care program, the grant will be used to support accommodation of patients with disabilities and improve accessibility to mammograms and other breast imaging services.

What Shrub Would Fit Here?

by paulgardner | Home & Garden

Does anybody have a shrub recommendation for us?

Here’s what we need:

a shrub/bush that will be about 6′-8′ and dense (a good natural screen) and tough and/or resilient to having snow sliding off a roof onto it.

We’ve considered and rejected privet, beauty bush and forsythia.

Any ideas?

Thanks!