Click on the link below of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce for the latest goings on in Manchester.

GARY BAKER PHOTO

Robert Woods, left, and Harry Lux, of LuxBrush Painting Co. paint the cross on top of St. Paul's Church with gold gilt paint last Friday.

Bird feeders and bears

"Please don't feed the bears!" This may sound like a warning in Yellowstone National Park, but it could be a warning in your own back yard.

Black bears need to fatten up at this time of year. They are preparing for hibernation in late fall, and must gain enough weight to carry them through a winter with no food.

The timing of their hibernation helps explain why your back yard could be a feasting place for a hungry bear. The two times of year when bears may be desperate for food are in the fall when preparing to hibernate and in the spring when emerging from hibernation with empty stomachs.

This year it is particularly challenging for bears to find the kinds of food that fatten them for winter: acorns, beechnuts and apples. All three are in scarce supply in the wild or in many orchards. To compensate for the loss of their natural foods, bears must find new sources. This results in searching far and wide, often beyond their usual territories. With their powerful sense of smell, it is not difficult for them to locate birdseed in our bird feeders, as well as suet. Both are highly nutritious for bears, as well as birds.

A bear who discovers bird food in your yard will find a way to get at it. In our yard, it meant breaking the branch the bird feeder hung on and biting through the plastic tube feeder to release all the seeds. A second feeder was dragged off to the edge of the woods.

What to do to avoid losing your bird feeders to bears? Prevention is the answer. If you live near bear habitat - large areas of hilly woods - consider taking your feeders in at night from now until mid-December, when bears should be hibernating. Call your local game warden to find out when bears in your area have begun to hibernate. It varies depending on weather and food supplies.

By having food available during bears' hungry seasons, especially at night, you may be hanging out an "Eat Here" sign. This serves neither you nor the bear. For you, losing your bird feeders and having tree branches broken can be a nuisance. For the bear it can be the beginning of a bad habit - learning to consider human "habitats" as an easy food source. This can lead to the bear having to be removed - either by being tranquilized and taken to a distant place, or shot.

So please don't feed the bears!

Angel’s Café at Orvis opens

MANCHESTER - Two-and-a-half years after Norman Levitz and Gregory Liberis opened Angel's Fine Dining at the Village Country Inn on Route 7A, they have opened Angel's Cafe at Orvis, just up the street.

Originally part of Orvis's new flagship store plans, the breakfast/lunch cafe has quickly become a win-win situation for Angel's - and for Orvis customers and employees.

For breakfast, Angel's is serving New England-brand coffees, organic teas and a variety of fresh-baked morning pastries - muffins, sticky buns and a selection of croissants.

On a recent morning, in addition to a selection of filled croissants, muffins included a choice of raspberry-almond or cheddar cheese-apple. Levitz said he and Liberis prepare all of the food they serve from scratch; baking is under way by 4:30 a.m. and they're setting up at by 8 a.m. for Orvis's 9 a.m. opening.

In the afternoon, the cafe adds a variety of afternoon pick-me-ups: filled croissants, soups, stews and quiches.

Recently, the day's menu featured Charleston bean and bacon soup, braised lamb stew and wild mushroom carmelized onion quiche. In addition to coffee and tea, hot cider and a bevy of beverages are available.

More than a breakfast/lunch cafe, it could be called "Angel's Cafe and Bakery." On Saturday, Oct. 4, an all-out day of rain, Orvis shoppers were visibly delighted with the choice of baked items. It included chocolate-pecan shortbread, pistachio baklava, sour crème walnut coffee cake, chocolate-cream cheese brownie and walnut-raisin-chocolate chip biscotti.

For Angel's coffee choices, Levitz said there's regular and decaf, a city-roast, plus a flavored coffee-of-the-day.

Since Angel's Cafe opened at Orvis on Sept. 27, Levitz said customers have been extremely receptive and that they like the convenience of quality food and beverage service while shopping. As a further convenience to customers who enjoy Angel's Cafe, Levitz said they can make reservations at the cafe for dinner at Angel's.

"Having us here makes for some good will. Customers appear to like quality food that meshes well with Orvis's quality service. It completes the experience here," Levitz said. "When you're in a quality environment, it's easy to blend in and do quality work."

The cafe is located at the front entrance but will soon be moved to a permanent, larger space by the front staircase, and tables and chairs will be added. Once the cafe is in its permanent place, there will be space for espresso and cappuccino service, Levitz said.

Angel's was part of Orvis's grand opening celebration in August 2002, and Levitz said about two months ago he and Liberis were called to explore the options of opening a cafe there.

Ready for the crowds of fall foliage shoppers, Levitz said, "I feel like we're ambassadors for the store. We're the first and last experience for customers as they enter and leave."

Angel's Cafe at Orvis will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day through Oct. 18. Thereafter it will be open Friday through Sunday all year. Levitz said Angel's will have "a greater presence" during Thanksgiving weekend, the week between Christmas and New Year's and President's Day week.

Hildene opening to community

MANCHESTER - While historic homes that house museums all over the country are struggling, and some closing, Hildene executive director Seth Bongartz predicts, "That's not going to happen here."

Bongartz foresees the Robert Todd Lincoln family mansion becoming "more vibrant and alive" each year as a "vital community center."

Current plans include expanding recreational and educational use of the land, focusing on natural sciences, history and agriculture.

Bongartz, who has been director for two years, said Hildene succeeds because it has "assets and opportunities that others don't."

He gives a lot of credit to the "first generation" of Friends of Hildene, members of the non-profit corporation who opened Hildene to the public in 1978, declaring his "complete respect and admiration."

"They did an incredible job with very little money," Bongartz said. "They were very creative in their fund raising," explaining how they managed to survive mainly on fees, volunteers and hard work. They made "sound choices" by focusing on the house and the English formal garden, he said.

Bongartz said Hildene's board of directors hired him two years ago in part because its members recognized it was "time for a change, because times are changing."

Trying to balance historic preservation and community service, Bongartz said he would feel an obligation to preserve the house and gardens "no matter what," but he also wants to "breathe a sense of life and vitality" by making Hildene available to the community.

This is being done in several ways. One of Hildene's assets is a recently restored telescope originally acquired by Robert Todd Lincoln. When Mars passed historically close to the Earth this summer - the "Mars fly-by," as Bongartz put it - more than 500 people visited to look at the red planet.

One of Hildene's greatest assets, according to Bongartz, is its 412 acres of "remarkably beautiful land" in the middle of Manchester. Hildene now has an extensive trail system and a small farm. The trails have been open to cross-country skiers for years, Bongartz said, but only recently has the land beyond the gardens been used in the summer.

Much of Hildene's community involvement is educational. Education Director Diane Newton has been developing educational programs for the past two years, chief among them eight one-week sessions of summer camps for first- through sixth-graders.

Activities at this summer's day camps included nature studies of ponds, rivers, streams and forests, craft making, learning about the history of electricity, puppetry, stories and even inventions.

The camps were well-staffed and highly sought after, Bongartz said. Attendance was limited to 12 children. "It's not day care," he said. He added, "Just having children here gives the place vitality."

Hildene also provides a program for grades K-12 during the school year on the history of the mansion that includes a mansion tour, and one that gives students a chance to experience what it was like to learn in an old-fashioned schoolroom. Students can also study the environment, as in a session on monarch butterflies Newton is offering this year in schools and at Hildene.

Last year, Hildene reached students from 60 schools in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, Bongartz said.

This winter, Hildene's educational offerings will include a program for adults: a five-part history series being presented in cooperation with the University of Vermont and the Vermont Humanities Council.

Hildene's farm took center stage this summer to celebrate the Friends of Hildene's 25th anniversary. More than 250 people came to Hildene's Ice Cream with the Animals event free of charge on July 28, Bongartz said. Children received crayons, a book and a Wilcox Dairy-donated ice cream cone, while also getting to meet the farm's beefalo, lambs and alpacas.

Bongartz said the farm demonstrates niche agricultures that are small-scale alternatives to dairy farming. Borrowing animals for the summer, the farm's alpacas came from John and Lyn Callen of Pawlet and its beefalo from the Kittredge family of Dorset. Farming methods used at Hildene include rotational grazing, high quality solar-powered electrical fencing and an automatic watering system.

An alpaca auction at Hildene this September raised funds to be put toward building a barn, and one participant pledged to donate two llamas when the barn is ready.

Bongartz said little money is being spent on the farm, so operations will be increased in "small steps," with chickens and piglets to be added next year.

Hildene's involvement with agriculture and the natural world is consistent with its history, Bongartz noted, because Robert and Mary Lincoln had a farm on their summer home and the last descendent, Peggy Beckwith, was an avid animal lover.

Bongartz said Hildene has also been serving the community by giving other non-profit organizations the use of its facilities free of charge, including the Mark Skinner Library, the Race for the Cure and Burr and Burton Academy. "We're in a position to do it," he said. "It's the right thing."

Leasing the facilities to other groups is also a source of income, Bongartz said, supplementing entrance fees and interest from a "small" endowment. The financial challenge, he said, is to make revenues keep up with investments, noting that old buildings are expensive to maintain.

Nonetheless, Bongartz expects Hildene to keep expanding its reach.

"We cannot stand still," he said, reiterating his goal of "preservation of historical assets and high-quality programs for children and adults ... in the context of being a vital community center."

If the increase in Hildene's membership over the last two years from 750 to 1,200 is any indication, people are responding to everything Hildene has to offer.

To learn more about the goings on in Manchester, visit the Manchester Journal.  Please click on link below.