Gardeners wanted for Library Gardens

The Kellogg-Hubbard Library has beautiful gardens thanks to the Central Vermont Master Gardeners.They are looking for a few people who love to play in the dirt to help make the gardens extra special this year. Actually, they are beautiful every year.

On Saturday (or Sunday, if it rains on Saturday), we'll officially begin the Kellogg-Hubbard gardening season with a Spring Clean-Up and Get Acquainted. If you can work, please bring gloves, tools (trowels, weeders, shears, edgers, buckets (to carry debris to the trash/compost)), water and a hat (it can get hot!). If you don't have time to work, please stop by and say hello and get acquainted with the other volunteers and the garden itself.

We'll loosen up the soil, transplant as needed, apply mulch, do some pruning and generally tidy up. We'll try to have some photos from last year so we can begin to label the plants and also see what we might want to add (or subtract). I'll also have a summer sign-up sheet; as many of you know, we ask one or two people to sign up for one - or more - weeks during the season during which they will take care of the necessary chores: weeding, watering, dead-heading, staking, pest control, etc. That generally works better than trying to schedule work days. Work done or needing to be done is recorded in a notebook by the circulation desk, so the next week's workers know where to start.


The K-H garden continues to be a commitment of the Central Vermont Master Gardeners, but we welcome and appreciate other volunteers from the community. If you know someone else who would be interested, bring, or send, them along. The K-H garden is a wonderful meeting place and gives great pleasure to patrons, staff and the many who just pass by, enjoy the color, play with their children, or even have their wedding photos taken.

Georgia Valentine and Jane Lendway

Photography Exhibit by Jamie Cope

We have been fortunate to convince noted local photographer (and dedicated library volunteer) Jamie Cope, to display her stunning black and white portraits of people in our community. Accompanied by statements from those who were photographed, both the portraits and the statements form a moving portrait of people whom we might see every day in cafes, on the street, or in the library. I took time away from my desk today to give the exhibit the time it deserves, and came away hugely impressed. Have a look in the main reading room and in the Frances Holmes Room on the first floor, next time you're in the library. We are lucky to have so much talent in our community!

Irish Poetry Reading by John F. Deane

We are currently in the middle of a program series called, The Irish. Although, the event listed below is not a Kellogg-Hubbard Library program it certainly may be of interest to those who love all things Irish!

A poetry reading by the award-winning Irish poet John F. Deane
will be held on Friday, May 2, 2008 at 6:30pm at the St Johnsbury Athenaeum,1171 Main Street, St Johnsbury, Vermont 802-748-8291

Deane will be introduced by Vermont poet Galway Kinnell.

The Irish Times says of him: “This is a major European writer of conscience. . . No other contemporary Irish poet, and few Irish writers, have mastered the art of eloquent, impassioned expression as artistic statement so beautifully. . . In common with Yeats and Kinsella, Deane possesses an instinctive feel for beauty.

John F. Deane is editor of The Poetry Ireland Review, and winner of the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry. He is a member of Aosdána, established by the Arts Council to honor artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland. In 2007 the French Govern¬ment honored him by making him “Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres”. Mr. Deane lives in Dublin and this spring he is poet-in-residence at Boston College.
His books include: The Instruments of Art, Manhandling the Diety, In Dogged Loyalty, The Heather Fields and Other Stories, and A Little Book of Hours to be released in 2008.

Celebrating Poetry

We've had a great time reading the poems that people have posted on Hilari's National Poetry Month post on April 7th. We are up the 12 poems. It's nice to see the Vermont Poets receive attention here. The Bridge is celebrating National Poetry Month, too, with a look at what's happening around Montpelier in terms of slams and poetry reading. Nat Frothingham, The Bridge's editor and Scottish poet, Len Irving, are presenting An Evening of Poetry at the library on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, next Wednesday at 7pm. Nat and Len will take turns at the mic sharing their favorite poems with us. Len, a published poet, will also read a few of his favorites by Robert Burns and William Shakespeare. On Friday, April 25, we're hosting a Mud Slide Poetry Slam with slam master, Geof Hewitt at 7pm. Since the library will be closed, please use the School Street entrance to the Hayes Room.

Send us a favorite poem!

April is National Poetry Month. Perhaps, with recent sightings of crocuses blooming in select locations in town, this is truly the perfect month for poetry. It is, after all, a time of hope.

In the course of a very busy life, I don't make much time for poems anymore. Nowadays, I find myself thinking of poems as a luxury reserved for the young, when one feels pain and joy most acutely. But it shouldn't be like that. So, in honor of National Poetry Month, I'll throw a poem out there and see if anyone else would like to chime in with a favorite of their own.

By way of introduction, I heard this poem on the radio and tracked it down via the Internet. It made a lovely Father's Day gift.

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's autere and lonely offices?

Robert Hayden
(1913-1980)

Exploring the Sacred

A couple of years ago the Montpelier Interfaith group held a series of programs at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library called Under Abraham's Tent. It was an interesting series and was well attended. This group is now offering a five week series of lectures and conversations Exploring Death and Its Spiritual Dimensions on Wednesdays beginning April 2 through April 30th at 7pm. The lectures will be held at the Stone Science Building on the Vermont College Campus located directly behind the Wood Art Gallery. Other sponsoring organizations include Central Vermont Ethics Committee and Vermont College of the Union Institute and University.
Presenters include Dr. Walter Brenneman, Professor William Paden, John Turner, Betty Blouin, Ellen Fein, Virginia Fry, and local clergy. This series is free and open to the public. If you have any questions Regis Cummings is the person to call at 223-6043.

This Week at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library

THE POWER OF NOW, by Eckhart Tolle, a Celebration with Justine and Robert O’Keefe,
This is the last program of a three-part series
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 7:30-9:00pm
“The Pain Body” Recognizing our cumulative pain and how it is triggered by and feeds on our thought patterns.
Books are available on loan at the library or bring your own copy.

CCV Lecture Series
Computer Information Security for the Everyday User
Thursday, March 27th, 7:00pm.
Cyber security breaches resulting in identity theft and stolen credit card information have brought the world of information security home to the everyday person. Recognizing the need for information security has become front page news and is increasingly salient in the public consciousness. This lecture will focus on how computer users, from the casual user to the more sophisticated user, can protect themselves as well as their company from information loss or corruption. The risks from hackers, dumpster diving and password sharing will be examined. Topics covered will also include password protection, the ethical use of computers and home security such as firewall applications. also include password protection, the ethical use of computers and home security.

Pruning Trees
Saturday, March 29, 2008 10am-12noon. With Dave Wilcox, VT Urban & Community Forestry. This hands-on workshop is a perennial favorite. Dress appropriately for the weather. Meet in the East Montpelier room. If you plan to attend the lilac pruning workshop in May, you must have pruning experience. Registration required! Call 223-3338. A Washington/Orange County Master Gardeners Program.

StoryWalk & Language Lunches at the Library

In today's edition of The Times Argus is an article about StoryWalk. Check it out by clicking here!

Last week the library was featured on the front page! Read about Language Lunches here

EVERYONE'S IRISH!

Hey! Spring fever at the Library! Join us on Monday March 17 for a gala o' green and our Everybody's Irish St. Patrick's Day party in the Hayes Room. With great music by Hilari Farrington (our esteemed library director) and Benedict Koehler, step dancing by Meagan Kane, and an ol' yarn by Ben O'Matchstick. Blimey! Tis a jolly lot o' fun for one great green hour at the library. Begins at 7pm. Wear your greenest attire and snacks for sharing. Want to volunteer for the decoration committee? Come speak to Ben at the Children's Library desk.

Planning for summer hikes

When the snow is three feet deep and the sidewalks are icy it’s hard to think about a time when we want to get outside and go for a long walk or even longer hike. But, of course, now is the time to plan and dream about those long summer treks. Two recent additions to the library could help with that planning.

If your goal is to hike Vermont’s Long Trail (or wonder what it would be like) Jan Leitschuh wrote a day-by-day humorous account called, The Ordinary Adventurer, Hiking Vermont’s Long Trail: a Primer for Baby Adventurers, and Other Musings on the Nature of the Journey.

She and her partner started the month long hike quite out of shape but finished the trip through the wilderness stronger, wiser, more thoughtful, and ready to try the Appalachian Trail.

If a month long end-to-end adventure isn’t exactly what you had in mind, maybe having a smaller area to explore is a better plan. If so, you may be interested in the Guide to the Wildlife Management Areas of Vermont, published by the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department.

This spiral-bound book compiles 81 areas in Vermont that are managed by the state from Averill Mountain located on the border with Canada to Roaring Brook in the south-east corner. Each management area is identified in the book with a full page map, several paragraphs on the fish and wildlife that one can see there, and what the habitat features are including tree species, streams, ponds and/or vernal pools. There is also a short history of the area plus a general description of its location and size in acres. These wildlife management areas are open to regulated hunting, trapping, hiking and wildlife viewing.

Be sure to include a camera and a notebook in your plan. It’s a great way to remember what Vermont looks like when the snow keeps us closer to home.