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By Credit search: For the Gazette

By BILL DANIELSON

The story of this spring has been the weather; specifically, the rain that just keeps falling. Add in the new arrival of the hazy smoke blowing south from Canadian wildfires and you’ve got a soggy, foggy, smoky, cloudy mess. The grass in my lawn is growing like crazy and the notion of a No Mow May wasn’t even really much of a choice so much as it was foisted upon us by the weather. When I finally get a dry moment to get out into the yard I am going to have to keep my eyes open for tigers and velociraptors in the tall grass.

By JOAN AXELROD-CONTRADA

I was scrolling through my Google feed (that algorithm really gets me in ways that are both spooky and oddly comforting) when, kaboom, a headline fired up my inner skeptic. “Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys (scientifically) makes people happier than any other song,” it said.

By GRACE CHAI

NORTHAMPTON — A majority of one of the largest remaining unprotected farms in the city is now conserved for agriculture and wildlife habitat, thanks to a unique conservation effort that taps into federal funding.

By LILY REAVIS

Thousands of western Massachusetts residents rallied in the streets on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies, joining the nationwide “No Kings” movement against actions they called authoritarian. Many in attendance pointed to the administration’s recent immigration raids and Trump’s federalization of the military against protesters as key drivers for their attendance.

By LISA GOODRICH

The Smiarowski family name has been a fixture in Valley farming since around 1923 when Alexander Smiarowski came from Poland, and purchased farmland in Montague for a dairy, along with cucumbers, asparagus and corn.

By MOLLY PARR

For years I’d been nervous about making cheesecakes. They seemed so difficult to master. I never quite trusted the combination of “water bath” and springform pan. I mention this because the Jewish holiday of Shavuot happened earlier this week. It’s traditional to eat dairy foods like cheese blintzes, noodle kugels, of course, cheesecake.

By Grace Chai

EASTHAMPTON — Cultural Chaos: the unique alliterative name hints at a festival chock-full of art, music and fun — and that’s exactly what’s coming to downtown this weekend.

By RICHARD MCCARTHY

It’s interesting how certain actions are made rarer, even extinct, by advancing technology, one-by-one, in an ever-longer line.

By BILL DANIELSON

June is upon us and we are all set to celebrate Father’s Day this coming weekend. If we have any luck at all the weather will be cooperative, but the pattern has been pretty dismal so far; 12 consecutive rainy weekends according to my brother. It has been a rough spring for outdoor activities, but that is seen strictly through the human lens. Our wild neighbors have a schedule to keep and the game is on rain or shine.

By MICKEY RATHBUN

John Smith likes it when people stop outside his house, a lovely Carpenter Gothic on a quiet street in Florence, to peek at his garden through the fence. “I tell them, ‘Come on in and have a look around,’” he said. On June 14, Smith will invite the public to come in and look around his eye-catching garden. It’s one of six local home gardens on this year’s Northampton Garden Tour.

By LISA GOODRICH

When farming is in the family, the land calls no matter where else life takes you. Aaron Moody, owner-operator of Moody Family Farm, was born in Greenfield, and from the beginning, he knew that he loved working with animals. Three generations of Moody’s family farmed, and young Moody occasionally worked at his uncle’s dairy farm while growing up.

By BILL DANIELSON

Anyone who has spent any time birding will understand that there are certain birds that are more difficult to find than others. Anyone who has spent a lifetime birding will understand that there are certain species that are diabolically difficult to find. Anyone who has spent any time trying to photograph birds will understand that there are some species that are diabolically difficult to find, but even more difficult to spot in the viewfinder of a camera. Today I introduce you to just such a bird, the great crested flycatcher (Myiarchuscrinitus).

By GABRIEL O’HARA SALINI

Over 50% of small business owners said they were likely to close or sell their business in the next five years, citing high costs across their businesses as a driving factor, a recent study from UMass Donahue Institute showed.

ELISE LINSCOTT

HOLYOKE — The crowd roared inside the MassMutual Center in Springfield on Saturday morning as Holyoke Community College conferred associate degrees and certificates to 742 graduates from the class of 2025 at the college’s 78th commencement ceremony.

By STEVE PFARRER

Stephen Platt, who teaches 19th and 20th century Chinese history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, made a significant name for himself with his two last books.

By SAM FERLAND

DEERFIELD — Deerfield Academy’s 207 graduates were urged to be who they are, fearlessly, by a commencement speaker who seized the opportunity of a lifetime.

By BILL DANIELSON

It has been a long, wet, raw month of May and my outdoor time has been curtailed by rotten weather on the weekends. So, it was with the utmost enthusiasm that I capitalized on a rare rain-free Saturday morning to get down to the Thinking Chair and commune with Nature just a bit. The chickadees (at least one of them) were ready to resume the practice of landing on my hat for some treats and I was very happy about that. I was also keen to see what was going on deeper in the forest, so after an hour of quiet observation time I got up out of my chair and headed into the woods.

By CHINANU OKOLI

Some local farmers hope bills to mitigate PFAS contamination in Massachusetts could safeguard their work and protect their lives.

By JACOB NELSON

“It’s usually around April 20 when I plant things in the field that can handle light frost,” says farmer Dan Greene of Good Bunch Farm. “Then there’s about a longer wait until the next big planting date in late May. By then the threat of frost is gone and you can finally plant all the warm-loving crops. After that, you really don’t have any time except for weeding and harvesting.”

By AMY NEWSHORE

What do you think is the No. 1 issue couples bring to therapists and relationship coaches? If you guessed communication, you’re right.

By CHRISTINE HATCH

If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Well, it most certainly can.