Middlebury’s annual town meeting was held in the Town Hall Theater on Monday evening at 7 p.m. In the absence of Governor Jim Douglas, who was away on state business, proceedings commenced on Monday night with the nomination and election of Thomas Beyer, chairman of the school board of Middlebury Union High School and Middle School, as moderator.

The next time you find yourself in the Cayman Islands feeling nostalgic and longing for a little taste of home, look up Kirk Supermarket on Grand Cayman. A trip to the frozen section will yield five different varieties of American Flatbread.

Oliver the camel is not native to Vermont. But then, neither is Judith Giusto, his owner, and she is getting along fine.

Average temperatures in the Burlington area were 26 degrees below freezing on Sunday. Gerry Hartley and his wife Cathy spent the day outside on Lake Champlain ice fishing.

Here’s what I love about Middlebury, Vt., in no particular order.

I always get especially sentimental around the holidays. Perhaps it’s how they don’t change. In my family, the month of December means skiing, cookies, a Christmas tree and my mother’s nutcracker collection parading across the mantel in our living room.

I spent three hours in lab last Thursday removing nodules from the roots of bean plants. I loved it. At one point, I turned to the people in my lab group and exclaimed, “This reminds me of digging for potatoes! Have you ever done that? It’s so fun. Like digging for buried treasure.”

In a warehouse off Exchange Street in Middlebury, towers of old computer parts sit awaiting shipment to Malaysia. Last year, over four millionpounds of such components made their way through the warehouse doors.

Professors are funny people. I don’t mean funny as in odd: I mean humorous. In fact, I find myself laughing out loud in class several times a week. This happens even in the midst of the most serious discussions: I started guffawing rather boisterously today while the professor lectured about methyl mercury in aquatic ecosystems…

For Quakers of the Middlebury area, Sunday morning began with a song. Launching into the last verse, they sang, “’Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be, ’tis the gift to think of others, not only think of me.”

Written in 1848, the lyrics to “Simple Gifts” have not lost significance…