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By SCOTT MERZBACH

HOLYOKE — Twice facing the trauma of eviction and once making a vehicle home for herself and her four children, as well as living inside a mold-filled apartment, Shaundell Diaz of Springfield brings firsthand knowledge of homelessness.Now the...

By LAWRENCE WINSHIP

Each spring the Connecticut River Valley is flooded with fresh colors and smells as leaves and flowers burst out of dormant buds on trees and shrubs. Green shoots push up through the last snow and over-top last year’s brown leaves, covering the ground...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

Earlier this week my friend Lisa, a demon flower-designer, mentioned to me that she had agreed to provide the floral decorations for her cousin’s birthday party in New York. She lamented that there weren’t many flowers for sale at this time of year...

By MARY BYRNE

GREENFIELD — With the approval of its special permit application Thursday night, the community behavioral health agency Clinical & Support Options can move forward with its plans for the $23 million transformation of the emergency shelter at 60 Wells...

By ALLIE MARTINEAU

The days are longer, snow sculptures have melted and the seeds sleeping in the dirt are considering their next moves. Spring is here, and the outdoors of western Massachusetts are calling.There are plenty of day trips to community gardens, public...

By EMILEE KLEIN

GREENFIELD — For the past 30 years, the construction industry has incorporated renewable energy, increased efficiency of heating and cooling systems, engineered air-tight installation and pursued other efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses emitted from...

By MARY BYRNE

GREENFIELD — At the end of the week, the community behavioral health agency Clinical & Support Options (CSO) will take over as the provider of emergency shelter services to homeless adults at the Wells Street shelter. “We’re looking to transition from...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

In a world of rapidly rising energy costs and quests for sustainable energy, one of the oldest forms of heating may provide an alternative, although its use is not without controversy.Proponents of modern wood heating systems, fueled by either wood...

By EVELINE MACDOUGALL

A decade before Bryant Stewart and Jeanie Schermesser began transforming a former church into their home and art studio, Stewart spotted the Erving building from Route 2. “I stopped in and met the owner, Clessen Field,” said Stewart, 73.Stewart had...

By EVELINE MACDOUGALL

For Laura Schlaikjer, horticultural inspirations come from multiple branches of her family tree: relatives on her father’s side were Midwestern homesteaders, and Schlaikjer says that her mother, Elise, has “10 green thumbs.” Elise gave Laura and her...

By JESSICA DAMIANO

Planning this year’s garden? My guess is you’re envisioning plants bathed in daylight.But the problem is that by nightfall, when the sun has set and you’re ready to kick back at home, you won’t be able to see and fully enjoy the fruits of your...

By STEVE PFARRER

AMHERST — Tibetan activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue, who’s been arrested and jailed multiple times for his activism, is coming to the Valley for a series of talks and to introduce his newest collection of poetry.Tsundue was born in 1975 in India to...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

The state House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously approved injecting more than $280 million into emergency shelter, school meals and food aid programs on the verge of running out of capacity or money.And with the governor already making a...

By CHRIS LARABEE

With last month marking the warmest January on record for Massachusetts and New England, updated data from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is also putting the region on pace for one of its warmest winters ever.The average temperature in...

By BELLA LEVAVI

When members of the all-volunteer Shelburne Energy Committee found out that the Cowell Gymnasium was the biggest municipal energy user in the town, they worked together to make a change. The group obtained a Green Communities grant of about $120,000...

By MARY BYRNE

GREENFIELD — During a weekend where temperatures plunged below zero, police and social service agencies worked together to ensure shelter was offered to anyone who needed to escape the cold.“We checked on people all weekend long,” said Deputy Police...

By CHRIS LARABEE

While campaigning, one of Gov. Maura Healey’s climate priorities was to place a moratorium on commercial logging on state-owned forest land, a move that foresters and environmental advocates say would be detrimental to forest health, the state’s...

By EVELINE MACDOUGALL

This is the second of a two-part series. The Jan. 17 Home & Garden column, “Alternative approaches to death and dying,” concluded with an excerpt from Ursula Snow, a Shelburne Falls resident who died at age 13 in a 2019 accident. Some Recorder readers...

By BELLA LEVAVI

CONWAY — Shelburne Falls resident Karina Lutz, a facilitator with the Work That Reconnects Network, says anxiety found in your body is often your mind’s attempt to make change. This can be true when it comes to interpersonal relationships, difficult...

By MICKEY RATHBUN

A few years ago I was having coffee with my two sisters-in-law at a family gathering in North Carolina. Both of them had recently built new houses and were quizzing me about how to create gardens in the bare dirt surrounding their homes. The question...