Last week it was tempting to paraphrase Gilbert and Sullivan: “The snowflakes that fall in the spring, Tra la, have nothing to do with the spring.” A relatively mild early March had lulled us hoping for an early spring only to remind us, the week before Easter, of our northern location. However, the vase of forced forsythia branches on our table inspires me to think of foods for the season.

“Did it hurt?” asked Pickles.

Typically, I work on articles while listening not to calming music or white noise but, rather, to the sound of snoring: a rumbling, wheezing, near-incessant snoring that emanates from my 17-year-old, eight-pound Pomeranian, Hedgehog.
(“Paper Pets” spotlights the animal companions of Lincoln County News employees.)

We are starting to gear up for spring and summer here at Healthy Lincoln County. We are updating our volunteer training forms, reaching out to farms, networking our summer meals program for children 18 and under, and thinking about all the ways we can support food security in our community.

The Round Pond dock is pretty much completed and will be open this spring not only for skiffs but for jumping. The picture was taken by Red Boutilier back in 1970. From left: Debbie Poland (sitting), and jumpers Patty Ball, Susan Poland, Terry Leeman, the high-flying daredevil of the group, and Jill Russell. Marshall Hanna is observing from the ramp.

Once again this past week I went through another old box containing a large amount of notes and handwritten notes written down by Kathleen Cooper. Many of these letters or notes were just held together by a paperclip or in an old envelope with a note written on the outside with questions she wanted to ask her neighbors about the history of the area when Winfield and Kathleen Cooper bought their new home, then called Knowlton Farms, in 1943.