by Roland D. Hallee I will start this column by saying I know we don’t have any of these around here, but on a recent vacation to the Outer Banks, of North Carolina, I saw several of them. A group of us rented a house on the beach in Nags Head, North Carolina, for a […]
by Roland D. Hallee The weather has warmed, the snow is melting and the streams are bustling with activity as the spring runoff is in full swing. On a recent trip to Vermont, my wife and I saw many streams along the route swelling their banks and looking primed for brook trout fishing. I have […]
by Roland D. Hallee A couple of weeks ago we took a stroll down the west side of Main St., in Waterville, and I fore warned you there maybe a few gaps along the way I didn’t remember. Well, thanks to some readers, who obviously have a better memory than I, gave me calls to […]
by Roland D. Hallee What is more inspiring than seeing that first robin of the spring? The American robin, Turdus migratorius, is a member of the thrush family. It is named after the European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the […]
by Roland D. Hallee A couple of weeks ago we traveled out of The Plains to take a walk down the east side of Main St. This week, we’ll take a stroll down the west side. On this side, because we are talking about more than 60 years ago, there are a few gaps that […]
by Roland D. Hallee Another sign of spring is upon us. While out checking and emptying my maple sap buckets last Monday, I saw a common house fly on the side of the bucket. The first one of the season. A sure sign of spring, but also the beginning of their irritation. The housefly is […]
by Roland D. Hallee Over the past weekend, I read a news release about materials collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of Covid-19 were identified showing raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab. The World Health Organization director general […]
by Roland D. Hallee Even though The Plains was a self-sustaining community of its own, there were times when we had to go downtown to get some necessities. Now, that brings up a question because people called it differently. Some people would say “I’m going downtown,” while others would say, “I’m going uptown.” I never […]
by Roland D. Hallee There it is! That familiar odor in the wind that reminds you of a warm, summer night. It is unmistakable, and sometimes can be a sort of positive sign of spring. That odor was definitely in the air at our house this past weekend. Essence of skunk. Striped skunks, Mephitis mephitis, […]
by Roland D. Hallee