Fast Faves with Joan Woodhead

As a longtime Concord resident, Joan Woodhead knows firsthand the benefits of living in the Capital Region. In 1966, her family, then with four young children, bought a farm just outside the center of the city. They became self-sufficient — raising their own food and...
Follow a rail trail

Follow a rail trail

Thanks to the White Mountains, New Hampshire is famous as a place to take long walks going almost straight uphill. But increasingly it is also a great place to take long walks on the straight and narrow. “A lot of people have trouble doing the 4,000-footers, all those...

Pedal on the metal

Pedal on the metal

One of the things you won’t find on most rail trails are rails. Usually the tracks get pulled up after the local train company abandons a corridor before the state makes it available for public use. But not always. Concord contains one of the most unusual examples of...

The need for seeds

The need for seeds

When spring comes, gardeners itch to get plants into the soil. The same goes for foresters. Tree lovers are descending on the Concord area every year to pick up their annual allotment of bare-root seedlings from the State Forest Nursery, which began by providing baby...

History: A not-so-rough past

History: A not-so-rough past

“In the Fall of 1896, Mabel Hill, Harriet Huntress and Paul Holden could be seen hitting golf balls into the fields opposite the West Concord Cemetery,” reads an entry in The Village of West Concord. “The following Spring, with the added help of Adam Holden, they...

Poetry: The Daffodil

Poetry: The Daffodil

I wish I could be as strong as the daffodil.   This herald of spring never permits winter’s   dangerous plan to scar her heart,   nor does she hold winter against itself.   She accepts its nature, while I sulk like   Schopenhauer when a friend...

A Thousand Words: Making a summer splash

A Thousand Words: Making a summer splash

Hanging around the city pools has been a rite of passage for many of Concord’s youth. It’s also where many learned their first doggy-paddle many years ago. The city of Concord has seven pools, and in recent years it’s been a challenge to find the staffing to keep them...

A tribute to Katie

A tribute to Katie

For this dad, only lilacs can capture his daughter’s beauty The idea hit John Bentley at the West Salisbury Cemetery. A horticultural geek since childhood, Bentley always loved lilacs best. His daughter, Katie, buried in the cemetery, always loved purple best. And the...

The sit-down: Q&A with Tom Raffio

The sit-down: Q&A with Tom Raffio

Like most of us, Tom Raffio was a little slow to recognize COVID-19 for what it ultimately became – a pandemic that would challenge our businesses and our institutions like never before. In fact, Raffio, an avid basketball fan, was at a packed TD Garden watching the...