This month, the Travel Adventure book group discusses Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon by Melissa Sevigny.

“In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off down the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious expedition leader and three amateur boatmen. With its churning rapids, sheer cliffs, and boat-shattering boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. But for Clover and Jotter, it held a tantalizing appeal: no one had surveyed the Grand Canyon’s plants, and they were determined to be the first.

Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their forty-three-day journey, during which they ran rapids, chased a runaway boat, and turned their harshest critic into an ally. Their story is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a little-known corner of the American West at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.”

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals present….A Comedy of Errors at the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church.

The Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals are the oldest student-run theater group on the Dartmouth College campus. Dedicated to producing at least one Shakespeare play a term, which is always free to the public, our goal is to spread our love for the Bard within our community for newcomers and superfans of Shakespeare alike. Our 90s sitcom-inspired production of The Comedy of Errors follows two sets of identical twins—Antipholus and Dromio—who were separated at birth and unknowingly reunite in the city of Ephesus. Following the show is a workshop in which we'll do some theatre exercises and work on acting out a Shakespearean scene together! 

Please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com if you’d like to participate in the workshop, thank you!

Natalie is conducting her Storykeepers program that shows how to do historical research based on family stories. Units will include where our names come from, genealogy and family trees; photography and learning what old photographs tell us, and how to do detective work by looking at fashion, hairstyles, etc.; primary/secondary sources; artifacts; census records; and other online research such as findagrave.com, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov (newspaper archives), and ancestry sites.

THIS WEEK: Online research

This class is free and is for adults and children 10 and up. You can sign up to attend one, two or all three of the sessions! To register, please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com

This is the third in a series of three workshops with Carrie Becker of Transforming Early Childhood Education. Free, childcare provided, registration required here. At the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church.

How often do you find yourself in the push and pull of power struggles with your young child? Our children are in a constant search for power. Did you know that for young children, independence is power? The more young children do for themselves, the less they seek power in ways that feel undesirable to the adults around them. During this session, we will discuss strategies for supporting young children as they build their independence skills. 

This month’s book is Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce, description below. Copies available at the Simpson Library.

From the back of the book:

It is 1950. London is still reeling from World War II, and Margery Benson, a schoolteacher and spinster, is trying to get through life, surviving on scraps. One day, she reaches her breaking point, abandoning her job and small existence to set out on an expedition to the other side of the world in search of her childhood obsession: an insect that may or may not exist--the golden beetle of New Caledonia. When she advertises for an assistant to accompany her, the woman she ends up with is the last person she had in mind. Fun-loving Enid Pretty in her tight-fitting pink suit and pom-pom sandals seems to attract trouble wherever she goes. But together these two British women find themselves drawn into a cross-ocean adventure that exceeds all expectations and delivers something neither of them expected to find: the transformative power of friendship.

Here is what Barbara Kingsolver said about this book on a recent instagram post:

“If you’re wishing you could be in a faraway land right now, but would accept the alternative route to New Caledonia via a deliciously improbably plot, wonderful characters, sparkling sentences, and too many belly laughs to count: have I got a novel for you.

Trust me. You will love this escape. Bon voyage.”

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

Celebrate National Haiku Writing Month- aka NaHaiWriMo- at the third annual East Craftsbury Haiku Slam! This is an informal event, where participants are invited to share Haikus of their own making or others’. Hosted by Craftsbury’s own Lalee Bond. All ages welcome. The Haiku Slam will be followed by pizza and games.

Natalie will be conducting her Storykeepers program that shows how to do historical research based on family stories. Units will include where our names come from, genealogy and family trees; photography and learning what old photographs tell us, and how to do detective work by looking at fashion, hairstyles, etc.; primary/secondary sources; artifacts; census records; and other online research such as findagrave.com, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov (newspaper archives), and ancestry sites.

THIS WEEK: Names/Genealogy/Family Trees; and Photography
Next week, 3/1: Primary Sources/Artifacts; Census

This class is free and is for adults and children 10 and up. You can sign up to attend one, two or all three of the sessions! To register, please email jwsimpsonmemorial@gmail.com

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell. Pre-registration is encouraged, please fill out this form to register. 

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell. Pre-registration is encouraged, please fill out this form to register. 

Whether you are sketching or knitting, folding paper or sewing, darning or making pom poms, all creative projects are welcome here!

For beginners and experienced knitters alike, you can learn how to knit, fine tune your skills, or finish that unfinished project with certified knitting instructor, Lise Roussell. Pre-registration is encouraged, please fill out this form to register. 

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

This is the second in a series of three workshops with Carrie Becker at Transforming Early Childhood Education. Free, childcare provided, registration required here.

As adults caring for young children, we often feel challenged by the behaviors our young children exhibit. When we understand how to decipher our children's message, we are less overwhelmed and more confident in our parenting practices. During this session, we will build an understanding of early brain development, antecedents (things that prompt a behavior), and scaffolding (providing support/guidance). 

Whether you are sketching or knitting, folding paper or sewing, darning or making pom poms, all creative projects are welcome here!

This is the first of three workshops with Carrie Becker of Transforming Early Childhood Education. Free, childcare provided, preregistration required here. At the East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church.

What do you do when your big feelings overwhelm you? Do you shut down? Do you yell? Do you take a deep breath, work through your feelings, and move on? As adults, we don't always know what to do with our big emotions, so why do we expect young children to know what to do with their big feelings? During this session, we will learn skills for self-regulation and develop tools to help guide the children's big feelings in our care.

Join local artist Jenn Detweiler for this hands-on block printing workshop.  Learn how to design, carve, and print your own art on greeting cards. Materials provided, no experience necessary, free! Some premade stamps will be available for use as well.  Please email to register.

While Bread and Puppet is best known for its hard hitting political shows and large scale pageantry, the theater also has a long tradition of making shows for young kids and old folks.  The puppeteers use cardboard, paper, and scraps of cloth to create puppets; and fairy tales, folk songs, and nursery rhymes as their inspiration and texts.  Songs, stories, puppets both small and life sized to delight and entertain both young and old!

Beginning Wednesday, January 15th, the John Woodruff Simpson Memorial Library and Cabot Arts will partner to host an old-time jam session. The session will occur every 1st and 3rd Wednesday from 6 - 8pm.

Old-time music, also known as Appalachain stringband music, is traditionally played on the fiddle, banjo, guitar and bass. Tunes are learned by ear and are ideal for community participation. The music is the sort that one would naturally hear at a square dance or a contra dance.

Acoustic musicians of all ages and abilities are encouraged to attend. The session is free and open to the public. Listeners are encouraged to attend as well.

The East Craftsbury old-time jam session is supported by Cabot Arts’s Music Mentoring Program whose mission is to revive community fiddling and to encourage participatiton in traditional music.

Do you have family photos or letters that you have been wanting to digitize? Preserve your family and community history at this community scanning day!

Staff from the Vermont Historical Records Program, based at the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration, will be at the Simpson Library with a large format and regular format scanner. They will be available to advise you on how best to store and preserve your historic materials and how to organize them once they are scanned to a digital format. Free thumb drives available to store and bring your newly scanned materials home. If you so choose, your digitized materials can be added to the Simpson Library community archive. Email to sign up for a specific time, or just stop by.

Island of the Lost: An Extraordinary Story of Survival at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett

“It is 1864, and Captain Thomas Musgrave’s schooner, the Grafton, has just wrecked on Auckland Island, a forbidding piece of land 285 miles south of New Zealand. Battered by year-round freezing rain and constant winds, it is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. To be shipwrecked there means almost certain death.

Incredibly, at the same time on the opposite end of the island, another ship runs aground during a storm. Separated by only twenty miles and the island’s treacherous, impassable cliffs, the crews of the Grafton and the Invercauld face the same fate. And yet where the Invercauld’s crew turns inward on itself, fighting, starving, and even turning to cannibalism, Musgrave’s crew bands together to build a cabin and a forge—and eventually, to find a way to escape. 

Using the survivors’ journals and historical records, award-winning maritime historian Joan Druett brings to life this extraordinary untold story about leadership and the fine line between order and chaos.” - description on the back of the book

Ping pong, skittles, chess and cards. Have a favorite? Bring it to share.  Free, all ages welcome.

Bring your knitting, sketching, writing, needlepoint- all creative projects welcome! This informal group is open to all ages.

Bring your knitting, sketching, writing, needlepoint- all creative projects welcome! This informal group is open to all ages.

Whether you are knitting or drawing or sewing or bookbinding, all creative projects are welcome for this informal gathering.