Locke's Mills

The Local Hub is open on the corner of Route 26 and Howe Hill Road! We are all very glad to see our corner store back in business. Formerly Round Pond Corner Store and before that Bob's Corner Store, The Local Hub is much more than just bread and milk. They carry farm-fresh eggs, gluten-free baked goods from The Dunham Farm, and many other great items. Stop in and check them out.

Last weeks's Bethel Citizen had an article claiming that Greenwood was sending more trash than usual to the G&W Recycling Center. I asked Greenwood Town Manager Kim Sparks where the numbers came from, and she did not know because data is not collected. By the time you read this, the Selectmen of both Greenwood and Woodstock as well as their town managers will have met to discuss this. Maybe the front page of today's paper will give us more information about this claim.

There is great area pride in Bethel's inaugural poet Richard Blanco. During the early 1900s another well-known writer was a frequent visitor to this area. Kenneth Roberts, author of the novels “Arundel,” “Rabble in Arms,” “Northwest Passage” and more, came to an old farm in Ketchum to write his columns for The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines. As the story goes, Roberts' friends, who owned the farm, would drag him up here from Kennebunk, Maine, for a “sobering” few days so he could get the article written.

Norm Milliard's gallery, Artistic Endeavors, is hosting an exhibit of Francoise (Lougette) Fetchko. Francoise paints in oil and utilizes nature and her surroundings as her inspiration. The exhibit opening is Friday, Feb.1, 5-7 p.m., and the location is 171 Main Street, Bethel. Her art will be on display through Feb. 23.

The cold and the strong winds of last week made it quite clear that it is winter in Maine. Too cold to go out except briefly, and that can mean the onset of cabin fever. Irritable, cranky, restless, and stuck inside. That pretty much covers it. The phrase supposedly first came into being in 1918 and meant “a need to get out and about.”

Stephen King did well by it with his novel “The Shining.” The main character had an extreme case of cabin fever to say the least. But there is an immediate cure for cabin fever, and that is get out and about. The long-term cure for cabin fever? Spring.

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