Getting older means getting better for Plainfield musician

Shelburne resident Lance Gauthier uses his hands to describe Pamela Means' guitar playing.

"There are guitar players that can play at this level," he said, holding his hands out straight at waist level. "And then there's her," he said, stretching his hands above his head as far as he could reach.

Berkshire Trail student nature program keeps track of animals in winter

One great advantage of attending school in the Hilltowns is that students can enter nature’s classroom simply by walking out the door. There, coyote, bobcats, squirrels and other animals leave behind a narrative of sorts, especially in winter, when their tracks leave clear evidence of their presence in the snow-covered woods and meadows.

Last week, at the Berkshire Trail Elementary School in Cummington, some 80 students from first through fifth grade had a chance to study animal tracks and "predator-prey relationships" during an all-day Animals in Winter workshop presented by 11 AmeriCorps workers.

Plainfield soapmaker grows a business from scratch

As a soap maker, Plainfield resident Maud Geng spends a lot of time thinking about skin — in particular, whether it stays soft after someone uses a bar of her Dancing Bare Soap.

Like an alchemist, she mixes soap from scratch, adding assorted aromatic ingredients: chamomile, hibiscus or peach pit tea.

After 10 years of experimenting, at friends' insistence, she started marketing her soap in December 2010.

Mae Wolf's moment in Cummington

Cummington resident Mae Wolf holds the distinction of being the oldest person in Cummington, at age 96. Following her in age are three men, and two of them are former poet laureates, William Jay Smith, 93, and Richard Wilbur, 90. Sandwiched between them is Vincent Ridel, 91.

Plainfield woman enjoys a 'kinship' that spans nine decades

Grandmotherhood, it seems, does not always depend on bloodlines. For Plainfield resident Kathryn Metcalfe, who is 99, that distinction came unexpectedly, in the form a 9-year-old girl named Sage Guiel.

Empower consumers by labeling gene-modified foods

PLAINFIELD - During my weekly food shopping, I sometimes think of going to market with my mother. In the 1950s, she was told very little about what she was buying.

A can of a certain type of beans contained those beans. The printed label usually carried an appetizing picture and possibly a short written description of the food contained within - that was all.

Worthington woman's effort to send cheer to troops keeps growing

Worthington resident Louise Finn received a whopping 12,450 cards in response to her call for signed Christmas cards that have now been sent to Soldiers' Angels, a North Carolina-based nonprofit organization, where they will be placed in Christmas boxes to be sent to every deployed American soldier around the world in time for the holiday.