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By Credit search: For the Recorder

By EVELINE MACDOUGALL

Over the last few decades, many people felt inspired to learn skills that were common in earlier times. The recent pandemic era nudged even more people to take up practices like baking sourdough bread, knitting, building furniture, and a mind-boggling number of other pursuits. Tutorials are readily available through libraries and on the internet, but there are limits, right? We’re unlikely to find hobbyists handcrafting cars, building computers from scratch, or making their own shoes.

By AMY NEWSHORE

It’s that time again for thinking about the new year ahead and what aspirations we may have for ourselves. The beginning of a new year can awaken motivation to engage in habits, activities and goals that are good for us. For example, we might want to stop drinking or smoking, exercise more, be more patient with our spouse and children, eat healthier, treat ourselves with more kindness, or carve out more opportunities for fun and pleasure.

By SHERYL HUNTER

What better way to spend a cold winter night than indulging in some hot soup and even hotter music. If this is your idea of a perfect evening, consider heading to the Warwick Town Hall on Saturday night, Jan. 11, when Wooden Fender and the Warwick...

By BILL DANIELSON

The final week of 2024 was particularly calm and delightful for me. After the hustle and bustle of hosting a family gathering, my wife and I were able to nestle down into the “holiday bunker” and enjoy some much-needed R&R. For one solid week we were...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

January is National Soup Month. This designation makes perfect sense to me. When the weather turns cold, as it often does at this time of year, I can sip and serve soup at any hour of the day or night.Last week I prepared one of my favorite hearty...

By AMALIA WOMPA

Fueled by community and donor support, Greenfield’s Artspace Community Arts Center is undergoing substantial transformations that are set to be completed in 2025.In 2023, Artspace received a $14,000 matching grant from the Massachusetts Cultural...

By SHERYL HUNTER

It’s hard to believe that it’s already 2025, but before we can fully embrace the new year, let’s look back at some of the highs and lows of our local music scene in 2024.The area’s biggest live music event is the Green River Festival, which is now...

By ZICHANG LIU

For decades, Massachusetts’ adoption procedures have been a catalyst for happy endings for families across the state, including out-of-state birth parents who just want their child to be smoothly transferred to a new, welcoming home.However, within...

By BILL DANIELSON

Happy New Year everybody! I was delighted to have a snowy celebration for this iconic winter holiday and I hope that you are sitting happily with your feet up and a warm beverage in your hand. I am just finishing an hour of bird watching at my kitchen...

By ADA DENENFELD KELLY

GREENFIELD — Residents gathered Monday evening for the second annual celebration of light and warmth with the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah on the Greenfield Common.“This moment rests on 2,000 years of my ancestors keeping this tradition alive. I’m...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, we celebrate both the old and the new. We are looking — like the Roman god Janus, for whom January was named — in two directions.To me, this means that the transition to a new year often involves making new-to-me...

By EVELINE MACDOUGALL

Stepping into an animal enclosure after dusk on Friday the 13th, I moved slowly among feathery shapes that appeared grey in December’s early darkness. The full moon, low in the sky, was the only light source; the atmosphere was eerie and wholly...

By JACOB NELSON

Golden, rich, and delicious, “ghee is basically clarified butter,” explains April Poirier. “But it’s so much more than that.”Poirier is the new owner of Full Moon Ghee, an Ashfield-based business she recently bought from founder Hannah Jacobson-Hardy....

By SHERYL HUNTER

It’s time to dust off your party hats and dancing shoes because we’re about to welcome 2025! New Year’s Eve is only days away, and if you want music to be part of your New Year’s Eve celebration, we have a few suggestions, ranging from kid-friendly...

By ADA DENENFELD KELLY

GREENFIELD — With the goal of bringing “a little bit of light [to] dispel a lot of darkness,” in the words of organizer Jasper Lapienski, Greenfield will have a public Hanukkah menorah and community celebration for the second year in a row.Lapienski,...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Hanukkah begins Wednesday night, Christmas night. I love having the two holidays coincide, which they don’t always do since Hanukkah is determined by a lunar calendar. I celebrate both so it tickles me to wallow in celebration and to sing Christmas...

By NAN PARATI

I came up with a good cartoon this morning.The first panel is set in 1994. Two young women (with big hair) are wandering around a department store. One says, “I love shopping,” and the other says, “Me too! You can never have too much cool stuff.”The...

By ADA DENENFELD KELLY

ASHFIELD — A collective of local storytellers will present an evening of storytelling and music this winter solstice to encourage warmth and community during the longest night of the year.“I think to most of us it means simply, at the darkest time of...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I recently read two books by former ministers in our area whom I am lucky enough to have known. Both books are full of life and color, and both show a sensitivity to nature. That’s about all they have in common, other than my hearty recommendation...

By SHERYL HUNTER

The countdown is on! Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza, your big day will be here soon.Most holiday parties have passed, but if you are still looking to hear some seasonal sounds, there are a few chances left.Tonight (Thursday, Dec....