I live in the city of South Burlington where roughly 13 percent of the trees are ash - a popular tree known for its fast growth, nice shade, and ability to adapt to a range of soil conditions, plus its golden amber colors in the fall.

On the eve of her 85th birthday, Governor Madeleine Kunin has given us all a present. Her new book, Coming of Age: My Journey to the Eighties, is a heartfelt and honest look at the process of aging and she writes it with courage, and grace.

Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803, established the American Judiciary as a co-equal branch of government.

It all started when we won a stay at a 150 year old house on Isle la Motte that coincided with the island’s annual Teddy Roosevelt Day - sponsored by three local preservation and historical organizations.

I started smoking when I was 15. By the time I was 16 I was addicted. It took ten years to quit, something some of my teenage friends were never able to do.

Lately it seems like everyone’s got a squirrel story. Newspapers, radio and the internet have been buzzing about the exploding population of Sciurus carolinensis, the Eastern gray squirrel.

I’ve been trying to picture the Catholic Church - the Mother Church if you will – as a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy, in which the first pope had been Christ’s friend and apostle, Mary Magdalene, instead of Peter, the wayward apostle who thrice denied him.

As a Puerto Rican living in Vermont, I was deeply disturbed by the President’s recent tweet denying Puerto Rico's hurricane Maria revised death toll of two thousand nine hundred and seventy five.

Maybe it’s the toxic quality of politics today, or a general sense of unease about the future, but my thoughts – and the thoughts of many others - have been returning to another time of anger and division - and the ways that history affects us.

For the most part, the formal Kavanaugh hearings were a poor example of our democracy at work.