Poster by Corey Elbin of Gorinto Productions Music and art fans will have several days to feast on at the end of May and beginning of June, thanks to the fourth annual Rhoneymeade Fest. The four-day fest begins on Thursday, May 30, with an exclusive event for weekend passholders followed by a day of free programs in downtown State College. Then the fest moves to Rhoneymeade Arboretum and Sculpture Garden outside of Centre Hall at 177 Rimmey Road. According to a news release, “The family-friendly event features an inclusive slate of more than 40 live performances by show-stopping national act ..read more

Pine Grove Mills Cemetery | Photo by Georgianna Sutherland The Pine Grove Mills Cemetery will be an official location for this year’s National Wreaths Across America Day, which is Saturday, Dec. 14. It will be one of 4,225 participating locations in the national program. According to a news release, “Wreaths Across America started as a simple gesture of thanks that has grown into a national, yearlong movement of dedicated volunteers and communities coming together to not only remember the nation’s fallen and honor their service, but to teach the next generation about the value of freedom ..read more

Getty Images This past spring the Bellefonte Area School District involved the community in a new way by offering five free courses that were available to parents, guardians, staff and community members. The five programs were: the History of Bellefonte, Driver Safety, Pickleball, STEAM 101, and Healthy Lifestyle/Healthy Community. Four classes were taught by Bellefonte Area School District (BASD) teachers and one course through the district’s community outreach partners. The History of Bellefonte was taught by Bellefonte Area High School (BAHS) history teacher, Matt Maris. Part of the progr ..read more

It’s a real-life Field of Dreams, the notion that if you build it, they will come. Claude Monet probably didn’t have tourists in mind when he built his own gardens so he would have plenty of subjects to paint. Google “Monet” and the hits just keep on coming. My wife, Paulette and I, toured the gardens last August on a cruise from Paris to Prague. Monet’s house and gardens are in Giverny, about an hour northwest of Paris. The place was packed, the temperature was high and our tour guide maintained a pace that left little time to take it all in. The gardens are especially famous for the water l ..read more

  Photo courtesy of The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber), a 24-year-old online program, offers students in grades K-12 and their families an alternative to traditional schools. With 21,000 graduates, PA Cyber is similar to traditional public schools in many ways. State-certified teachers follow curriculum guidelines set by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Additionally, students gather for field trips and school dances, join clubs and make friends. Like regular school, students must meet specific graduation requirement ..read more

Three Part Harmony During a recent exhibit of my work in the Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre County, a visitor asked what I was thinking when I painted “Fleeting Glimpses.” I said something like “I thought I was going to paint a landscape but it evolved,” which was about all I could recollect. This frequently happens when I look at a painting after it is finished; I rarely remember my original intention. Although I may not plan far ahead, I do think as I go along — about colors, shapes, lines and layers. Even when I start with an idea, the painting almost always goes its own direction. I wo ..read more

Getty Images Summer is coming. With the warmer months, we can look forward to hiking on shady paths, jumping in a cool pool, visiting new places and of course, reading exciting books. This year, the Summer Reading theme is “Adventure Begins at Your Library!” As you ease into summer, start by embarking on a book adventure where you get to guide the story with some new and exciting choose-your-own-adventure-style books.   Have you always dreamed of being a scientist and searching the mysterious ocean depths for new creatures? Then Search For a Giant Squid: Pick Your Path by Amy Seto Forre ..read more

Getty Images Before we head outside for a day of fun in the sun, most of us lather ourselves with sunblock. Sometimes, though, we forget, which can leave one sporting a red, uncomfortable sunburn. If you’ve been burned recently, treatment is as simple as looking in your medicine cabinet. A sunburn happens when your skin is damaged from exposure to UV rays, and that exposure can lead to a painful, red burn. A burn can happen fast. So even if you only plan to be outside for a few minutes, don’t forget your sun protection. Sunburns don’t just happen in the summer, either. Anytime you’re out in ..read more

A view of the original front of the house and garden Roger Zellner greets me at the gate to his property, not the door. He tells me that he will guide me through the house that his late partner, Stuart Frost, purchased in 1956 and that he and Frost developed and added on to through the years to create a unique house in Harris Acres. It’s only after I’m inside the door that I understand Zellner’s need to guide me. The house is packed with his “stuff,” as he labels it, and the only way to get from the entrance to original kitchen is to follow a narrow trail through the stuff, a trail that’s mo ..read more

Photo: Getty Images It’s no secret that wine grapes — like other agricultural products — are highly susceptible to changes in weather and climate. Last summer, temperatures in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys in California hovered in the lower seasonal range, causing the harvest to be delayed by a few weeks. While that may seem insignificant, it can have a profound effect if the temperatures suddenly spike near harvest. It turns out the delayed harvest actually was an anomaly. According to a study published last year in the International Journal of Climatology, since the late 1950s, the growing s ..read more