McGowan is celebrating the last 20 years
McGowan Fine Art owner Sarah Chaffee has been a mainstay at the downtown gallery for two decades, and that is a reason to celebrate.So that’s exactly what’s happening – with a new exhibit, of course. “Twenty Years of a Singular Vision” opens this week and will run through April 28. And on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., there will be a big party at the gallery.But before she’s the toast of the town, we caught up with Chaffee to talk about...
Have your energy field repaired at this fair
Is your personal aura all out of whack? Is your energy field misaligned? Or maybe your body’s inner workings are just a little bit out of tune? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re in need of some spiritual and energy healing, which will be provided at the Holistic Health/Psychic Fair at the Bektash Shrine Center on Saturday.This free, one-day-only event, scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April Fools Day no less,...
Catch the Chamber’s 26th Business Showcase
Do you need to get reacquainted with some of the local businesses that make up the fabric of your life? If so, you’ll want to check out the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s 26th annual Business Showcase at the Courtyard by Marriott/Grappone Conference Center next Tuesday.The showcase is somewhat like a trade show, in that all kinds of businesses will have representatives on hand, though this will be more informational than...
Bow Garden Club to open year with meeting Monday
The Bow Garden Club will open their 2017 garden club year on Monday with a presentation by David Murray of Murray Farms Greenhouses, located in Penacook. Murray’s topic will be “Understanding New Plants” and he will enlighten attendees with humorous anecdotes, great gardening tips and stories about his life growing up on the farm. Murray Farms began as a dairy farm, started by Murray’s great-grandfather in the early 1900’s, complete...
Grappone to host N.H. Fiddle Ensemble
We’ve covered concerts in many spots around these parts – in White Park, the Capitol Center for the Arts, the Concord City Auditorium, the Concord Community Music School, St. Paul’s School and more.Although, this might be the first time we’ve told you about one that’s happening in a car dealership. But as they say, there’s a first time for everything.The N.H. Fiddle Ensemble will put on an evening of music at Grappone Toyota (594...
Coffeehouse is back at Audubon
Birds and Beans Coffeehouse returns to the N.H. Audubon McLane Center with another great show. The husband and wife duo of songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and singer Harvey Reid and vocalist and violinist, Joyce Andersen, will take the stage for an evening of musical fusion. “It’s just a variety of bluegrass, folk, old time Celtic,” said Ruth Smith. “Just a nice array of music.” Reid is considered somewhat of a master of the...
Tim finished his Easter bunny pic
With the help of his wife, Mary, and daughter Sophie, Tim finished his Easter Bunny pic. It’s too bad he can’t enter it in the Easter Eggstravaganza coloring contest because this one would be tough to beat. If you’re between the age of 4 to 12, you still have time to enter. Drawings will be accepted through Friday, so go to yourconcordtv.org/projects/easter-eggstravaganza for more info and to print out the page above. Happy coloring,...
Dan Zanes is putting on a Lead Belly concert
If you’ve never caught one of Dan Zanes’s benefit concerts, you might want to consider it.It’s a pretty awesome time that will have you tapping your feet and swaying those hips.And it just so happens that the Concord native is coming home to raise money for the Friendly Kitchen on Saturday.“Concord has been so supportive of me,” Zanes said. “And it’s always nice to see old friends.”While Zanes is well-known for his work in the world...
Capital Quilters Guild hosting biannual show
We really can’t think of anything more cozy-sounding than being in a room full of quilts.Don’t you just love weekend afternoons, curled up on the couch with a blanket that’s been hand sewn with care? They’re also just so nice to look at. That’s why we wanted to share that the Capital Quilters Guild is hosting its biannual quilt show, “Joy to Spring,” this weekend at NHTI.While you can’t take a nap with any of the quilts on display –...
More schools are getting friendship benches
About six months ago, we introduced you to Bow High senior Jack Rich.For his senior project, Rich raised almost $2,000 to purchase a friendship kit for Bow Elementary (which was his original goal) and a friendship bench for Dunbarton Elementary (because he collected so much extra money).His mom, Jean, is the one who come across the website for Tiny Girl, Big Dream – the company who creates the kits – and showed it to Rich. And that’s...
This Week in Concord History
March 28, 2003: The Concord Monitor is named New England Newspaper of the Year by the New England Newspaper Association. It is the 13th time the daily Monitor has won the award since the contest debuted 20 years ago. March 29, 1909: George Foster, a real estate man and investor, takes over the Abbot and Downing Co., once again saving it from collapse. Foster will bail out just over two years later, and yet another new owner...
Bulletin Board
Rundlett showing ‘Screenagers’ Are you watching kids scroll through life, with their rapid-fire thumbs and a six-second attention span? Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston saw that with her own kids and learned that the average kid spends 6 ½ hours a day looking at screens. She wondered about the impact of all this time and about the friction occurring in homes and schools around negotiating screen time — friction she knew all too...
Book of the Week: ‘Nagasaki’
Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War Susan Southard 2015, 302 pages Nonfiction Published 70 years after an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese port city, Southard’s Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War presents the stories of numerous survivors and their experiences following the bomb. Southard’s story focuses on five hibakusha –“bomb affected people” – in particular, and traces their movements on the morning of the bombing and in...
It’s been quite a weird maple season so far
Like the late, great Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots once said, so much depends on the weather.Making maple syrup is no exception to this rule.In the world of syrup making, the weather – and the temperature, specifically – runs the whole show. Too cold and everything’s frozen solid. Too warm and the sap becomes too runny and bacteria-laden.Like any business that relies on Mother Nature for cooperation (plow drivers, ski resorts...
What’s with all the different colors of syrup?
If you’ve ever noticed a difference in color from one bottle of maple syrup to the next, you’re not losing your mind (hopefully). And no, that isn’t just food coloring (again, hopefully).Maple syrup comes in four grades: Grade A Golden, Grade A Amber, Grade A Dark and Grade A Very Dark. These grades relate to the color of the syrup and also the flavor. In general, the darker the syrup, the stronger the flavor. But how do they end up...
Concord has loads of delicious maple treats
If you’re a certified maple addict, you really lucked out this week. Since this is the Maple Issue, and since maple trees produce edible products, we thought it would be a good idea to scour the city looking for as many maple treats as we could find. Whenever the task calls for going out looking for tasty treats across the city, we’re ready and willing to answer the call.Here’s a little sampling – once again, in true Insider form,...
Go for a drive and enjoy Maple Weekend
If you’re a maple syrup fan, this weekend is kind of like your Christmas morning.Maple syrup producers all over the state will open their doors and invite you to taste their recent creations as part of the annual Maple Weekend. So realistically, you can spend both Saturday and Sunday driving all around, enjoying all that syrup season has to offer.Sounds pretty delicious if you ask us.But like the syrup they produce, each sugarhouse...
We learned some stuff about sap and syrup
There’s a big misconception out there when it comes to maple syrup production. Over the years, we’ve heard numerous stories from syrup makers of people showing up unannounced wanting to see the process firsthand. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly how it works. Sure, if you see steam billowing from a sugarhouse, syrup is being made, but it’s not one of the things that happens all day, every day. Like any other agricultural commodity,...
Go Try It: Eat a maple ice cream sundae while you work
If there’s one thing we like to do around here, it’s eat on the job.We understand that we’re among the lucky few out there who actually get to go out and treat ourselves to lunch, dinner and dessert on the company’s dime – which is why we like to use that privilege to the fullest. They tell us if we don’t use it, we lose it, and none of us want that to happen. On that note, it’s time to dig right into this week’s Go Try It, which is...
Got a few maple trees in your yard? Tap ’em!
So you have a bunch of sugar maples in your backyard and want to try making your own syrup, but you don’t have the necessary equipment or a spare few thousand dollars to invest in it. What do you do? Well, just head down to your nearest agricultural supply store and drop a couple bucks on a tap and a bucket. That’s all you really need.Dean Wilber, owner of Mapletree Farm in Concord, knows a thing or two about making maple syrup – he’s...
Food Snob: Have you ever had cinnamon bun pancakes?
With this being the Maple Issue, we had to find a way to put some maple syrup in our bellies.And what better way than drizzled on top of pancakes, French toast or waffles?A while back, we saw that Friendly’s had added a bottomless pancake option to their menu. You would start with three buttermilk pancakes, and once you were done, your plate would be replaced with another one containing two more. Each time your plate was cleared, two...
Check out this scenic shot we found on Instagram
Thanks to last week’s blizzard, Instagram user @broussardish had a nice frame to set up this scenic photo of Abbot-Downing School over the weekend. Tag us using #concordinsider so we can find your classic shots of Concord.
GSM to showcase country women
If you’re a fan of country music – in particular, classic country music by female artists – you won’t want to miss the next installment of Granite State of Mind at NEC Concord. The monthly music series at the downtown campus has been wildly popular since its inception more than a year ago, and it just keeps gaining steam. This month’s feature is called The Women of Classic Country, and it all goes down Saturday night. Several artists...
Goldsmiths Gallery opens in familiar location
When you walk into Goldsmiths Gallery, you might recognize the woman running the store. That’s because Paula Heath has worked in the downtown jewelry shop since 2005, when it was Mark Knipe Goldsmiths. Mark Knipe, a staple in downtown Concord since opening the shop in 1993, decided to (mostly) call it a career at the end of last year at the age of 73. Heath, a jewelry and fashion buff with decades of experience, decided to keep the...
Future In Sight is here to help with vision loss
There’s been a big change for those in New Hampshire dealing with visual impairment.After 105 years, the New Hampshire Association for the Blind has rebranded itself to, drum roll please . . . Future in Sight.While the mission of the organization hasn’t changed, the word “blind” made it hard for medical professionals to have a conversation with patients who were not in fact blind, but rather dealing with vision loss or impairment. It...
Bulletin Board
NHTI Film Society to host screening The NHTI Film Society will screen Lawrence of Arabia (Rated PG, 1962, 216 mins.), on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Sweeney Auditorium. Admission is by donation ($5 suggested); free with an NHTI student ID. For more information, contact Steve Ambra at 271-6484, ext. 4101, or sambra@ccsnh.edu. Doug Schwarz Concert at Hatbox Theatre Saturday Local folk/country singer-songwriter duo Nice & Naughty...
Kimball-Jenkins also has a youth art exhibit
There was so much out there dedicated to Youth Art Month, we had to stretch it out over two issues. This Kimball-Jenkins exhibit, featuring the work of area students, is on display through March 31.
Concord Handmade is hosting a pop-up shop
Outside of last week’s lovely snowstorm (sarcasm), it really feels like spring is around the corner.Monday was the official start of the season and soon the birds will be chirping, flowers will start blooming and we’ll finally be able to put all those extra layers of clothes away.And Concord Handmade operator Alison Murphy is hoping to push things along with a pop-up spring market for the next three Saturdays. “It will sort of look...
This Week in Concord History
March 21, 1820: An editorial in Concord’s New Hampshire Patriot says the Missouri compromise, while disappointing on the whole, “succeeded in rescuing from slavery a vast tract of country, which would otherwise have been expos’d to this dreadful curse.” March 21, 2003: As the war accelerates in Iraq, residents throughout New Hampshire react. “I have really mixed feelings about it,” says Debbie Heckman, as she gets her hair cut...
Learn about national parks at the Audubon
Are you a big fan of national parks? Do you plan your family vacations around a visit to places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Acadia or Zion? Well, then you’re going to want to hear what David Govatski has to say. Govatski is a retired member of the U.S. Forest Service, who also just so happens to spend five or six weeks a year traveling around the country visiting national park units.“I blame it on my parents who would drag me on these...
