For Scott Miller, the world is full of stories from many cultures, waiting to be told.  And he thinks that by sharing them, the world has a chance of becoming a better place.

“It started on a study abroad to Spain when I was in college,” Scott explains.  “While on the Iberian Peninsula I kept noticing the architecture, the mingling of influences.  In Cordoba I saw the La Mezquita Cathedral which was used by Muslims, Jews and Catholics – multiple faiths worshipping in different ways – in different sections of the same building, each section adorned with details from the others’ traditions. … Read More

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not fooling a soul.” – American Gods

Long-time Norwich residents may disagree with Neil Gaiman’s assertion, saying that Norwich’s career as a fine town antedates the arrival of the Norwich Bookstore, but who would not agree that the Bookstore improves the town? Not just books, but community-building ideas hatch at the Bookstore, such as the Book Angels program that provides donors an opportunity to give books to children at Christmas. And, through the energy of two booksellers, “The Book Jam,” a jazzy blog, was born in 2010 to spread news of good books.… Read More

None of them is Lance Armstrong, but these road warriors are committed and motivated to ride

Behind the windows of The Bike Hub on Route 5 South next to the Farmer’s Market in Norwich are all the sexy toys that makes the two-wheel spandex crowd go weak in the knees: acres of carbon fiber; curvy, other-worldly frame designs, seemingly inspired by the space shuttle. But the shop offers more than eye candy for the road biker – true to its name, it has become the nexus for a vibrant scene of recreational (if sometimes quite competitive) group rides several times a week throughout the summer and early fall.… Read More

The Rosemary Littledale Rieser Trail and Sample’s Woods Project

Just in time to savor sunlight filtering through the pine woods and hear the sounds of frogs and birds from a mossy bog and a rushing brook, Norwich will soon have a new trail for walking and observing nature. Thanks to the generosity of 105 members of the community, the Norwich Conservation Commission, and the Rieser children – Abby, Tim, Len and Ken Willis – a conservation easement and designated trail is being added to the 11-acre property that borders Blood Brook, Hopson Road, and nearby Pine Tree Road.

The Rieser family has been an important part of the Norwich landscape since the late Rosemary Littledale Rieser (pictured below) and her esteemed physicist husband Leonard first took up residence in the village of Norwich in 1953.… Read More

Over two years in the making, “Back to School: Lessons from Norwich’s One-room Schoolhouses” will have its long-awaited premiere this month, with a screening at Wilder Center on Sunday, June 28 at 7:00, and another screening at Marion Cross School in the multipurpose room on Tuesday, June 30 at 7:00.  The screenings will benefit Root Schoolhouse and Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse, with a suggested donation of $10 for adults, $5 for children, and $20 for families.

In the winter of 2013, Boston-based Historic New England, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization, and CATV, the Upper Valley’s local community cable television studio, agreed to make a documentary about the history of Norwich’s one-room schoolhouses. … Read More

Norwich locals behind initiatives bringing Upper Valley citizens together online.

Once the meeting house was the place where people would, well, meet, interact, and exchange news and information while discussing community affairs. Twenty odd years ago, along came the internet, enabling you to connect with a new, ethereal community. Remember dial-up? Your computer and landline joining forces, shrieking awkwardly in an attempt to establish a tenuous link that allowed you to exchange some brief messages with others far away? It was revolutionary and otherworldly, but slow and unreliable. And since the connection couldn’t be taken for granted, it was more novelty than productivity.… Read More

There are worse things than dying, says Ira Byock, MD, former director of Palliative Care at DHMC. One of these is dying badly. To Byock, this means dying alone, perhaps in a hospital room, with the TV on. Rather, he says in the film Holding Our Own: Embracing the End of Life, we should be “waked out of life” in the company of loving family and friends. Illness and dying are often isolating, cutting a person off from both a sense of who they are and who they were, and from community.”

The Evergreen Singers, a local hospice choir inspired by the Hallowell Chorus in Brattleboro, Vermont (which was featured in the film Holding Our Own), is a group that truly wake the dying out of life, surrounded by song, and stir – remarkably – joy in singers and sung-for alike.… Read More

Passing in or out of Norwich this fall one could see that the rolling meadow and apple orchard and the edges of the woods east of Main Street between the school property and I-91 were being pruned, raked, mowed, cut down so that when the job was completed, the entire area had been cleared and opened. A long metal fence, impacted with invasive growth, was dug out and removed. To some, it appeared as if the area had been permanently changed. We will, in fact, have to keep this area mowed until the invasive seeds and viable root systems that are still present have stopped resprouting.… Read More

Montshire Museum of Science Executive Director David Goudy has announced his plans to retire the end of March 2015, following 34 years as the Museum’s executive director.
During his tenure, Goudy led the Museum from a fledgling enterprise to a nationally recognized center for science learning. He has taken special interest in developing the Museum’s capacity for high-quality science education particularly in the context of the special challenges of serving a rural region. Montshire has become a national model, attracting research and program support from numerous private foundations and federal agencies.

Shortly after being appointed as executive director in 1981, Goudy negotiated the acquisition of 100 acres bordering the Connecticut River in Norwich, Vermont, and in 1989 the Museum moved from the former Golfside Bowling Lanes in Hanover, New Hampshire, to its current location.… Read More

Unifying Faith and Place

A neatly shoveled and remarkably wide path through February’s snowpack leads to the front door of the Reeves house at the top of Elm Street. The house itself, nestled into the shoulder of the hill, offers extensive vistas over the Connecticut Valley. The site is a fitting one for Sarah Reeves, whose training and interests combine inner reflection and relating to place in the world. A visitor instantly feels welcome; Sarah’s face, when not already smiling, looks as though it’s about to.

“Without really knowing it, I absorbed a sense of being rooted in the land and enjoying it” while growing up in the Nashoba Valley of Massachusetts, where her father was an apple grower.… Read More