St. Michael's College in the Burlington area has installed the first (possibly) "word garden" in the nation, says the It will act as a campus meditation/communication area in which people can leave messages using stones with engraved words. The garden is the combined effort of Education Professor Valerie Bang-Jensen, Biology Professor Mark Lubkowitz, and Stone Artist Chris Cleary of On the Rocks stone-carving Studio in Jericho. Chris has carved and kept words from stone projects over the years onto a variety of stones in different fonts and did not want to get rid of them. The stones can be moved around to spell out brief messages making use of 350 available words. What sets the Word Garden apart, says Bang-Jensen, is its interactivity. "Feel passion ate forever," or "enthusiastic creosote paid no respect," or "Ninja fur balls drive east in poor boats" are but a few recent messages left by passers-by, students, summer camp youngsters, and professors. The only thing that limits the combination of words is people's creativity. It's the ultimate word game.

How do families back home stay connected to soldiers serving in Afghanistan? Clarendon residents and students from grades 2-6 have a two-pronged answer, says the "Rutland Herald. First the children recorded a song entitled "Box of Kisses," written by Rutland musician James Mee and fellow artist Michael Mugrage, which then was made into 200 CDs. The song was posted on the Internet and aired on public access TV. "The kids are singing their hearts out, many who skipped recess and lunch...singing like that just melts your heart," says Mee. Some of the children's mothers or fathers are serving overseas. They made boxes using paper and crayons, filling them with personal notes and red, white, and blue candy donated by the Vermont Country Store. The CDs and boxes are being airlifted or parachuted to troops in areas of the Middle East. Mee's song has caught the attention of Americans, people from 177 countries, a candy company, a Texas-based radio station serving a million military personnel, and a New York music industry professional. The project helped families keep their away-from-home soldiers much closer to home.

The Hingston family of Springfield knows a lot about growing and harvesting summer berries. Their Cherry Hill Farm grows five different kinds of red raspberries, three kinds of black raspberries, two varieties of gooseberries, red, pink of champaign currants, and four kinds of black currants, says the Rutland Herald. Cherries previously were not one of their fruit offerings, although they recently planted some cherry trees to put an end to the inevitable question of "Why no cherries?" While growing berries is not unique, the custom-built harvester is. The machine was made by Peter Hingston from old farming equipment and tools brought over from England, where black currants are more common. They are always adding new products made from their berries, the latest being black currant juice. Future crops include Damson plums and, perhaps, hops for beer. For the present, however, berries come in a variety of "shapes" and sizes. "We freeze them, we puree them, we crush them, we juice them and we sell them whole," Peter said. Take your pick.