Summer Guide: Live music flourishes outside this summer

This year it’s all coming back — plus some new opportunities to sway and dance and sing along under the Vermont summer sky straight through to October.

Migratory birds returned to Vermont in March, April and May, and now they are singing their beautiful songs throughout the forests and fields. Summer is a great time to check out our avian neighbors.

Mud season is over and you will find that summer is perfect for enjoying Vermont’s landscape with a good hike — whether that is a 10-mile trek up in the mountains or a more modest ramble on some of the other low-key hikes in Addison County.

Do you marvel at the celestial wonders you see on television? Middlebury College’s Mittelman Observatory will give you a chance to see some of them with your own eyes this summer.

After the city council gave its unanimous blessing to the venture, beginning on June 16 the market will again set up shop along Main Street on Thursdays from 3 to 6:30 p.m. It will run through Oct. 6.

Not only is the town blessed with incredible natural beauty — Bristol Cliffs, the New Haven River, Bartlett Falls and Bristol Pond come immediately to mind — it also has what you might call a “community beauty.”

For those of us from Vermont, the quest to find the perfect maple creemee is a lifelong mission, even an obsession.

MIDDLEBURY — Henry Sheldon purchased a Roman coin for one dollar in 1875.He was an inveterate collector, and the ancient coin was just one of many, many, many unique and special objects that the Addison County icon gathered together in his house in Middle … (read more)

BRANDON — After a year in virtual isolation it feels good to take part in an activity with a group. One activity that you could do alone is watch an old silent movie. But it is so much more fun to watch the black-and-white film spiel out in a theater with … (read more)

FERRISBURGH — Pennie Beach summed up the outlook for the summer of 2021 at Basin Harbor one word: “Gangbusters.”Thirty-two weddings are on the docket at the beautiful, 700-acre resort and boat club on the shores of Lake Champlain in Ferrisburgh.Beach, a f … (read more)

ADDISON COUNTY — Dining al fresco has always been a highlight of summer in Vermont. But it took on new importance when the pandemic struck and made many folks wary of spending unmasked time indoors. Even as vaccinated people return to dining indoors at re … (read more)

ADDISON COUNTY — This part of the world has long been called the Land of Milk and Honey, but there’s a lot more going on with beverages locally than just moo-juice — and many of these drinks are for those who are 21 or older.In Addison County alone there … (read more)

SALISBURY — There have been occasional years when, for one reason or another, I didn’t make it down to the fish hatchery off Route 53 in Salisbury. But I try to make it an annual pilgrimage.The hatchery, more accurately known as a “fish culture station” a … (read more)