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How to spend the winter planning and preparing for your spring garden

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Gardening isn’t usually the first thing that springs to mind when the calendar page turns to January. But with the holidays behind us, there’s no better time to start planning and preparing our 2024 gardens.Of course, that will mean different things in different places. It’s impossible to account for every microclimate in every region, but frost – or lack thereof – is the defining characteristic that should guide gardeners over winter.WHAT YOU CAN DO NOWIn regions where frosts and freezes are common, gardeners should monitor for heaving, the lifting of plant roots and bulbs out of the soil resulting from the season’s freeze-thaw cycles. Pushed up out of the ground, even ever so slightly, they become vulnerable to exposure and could die.Take periodic walks around beds and borders and push heaved roots back into the ground with your foot, then apply a few inches of protective mulch over them.Keep off the grass. Walking on frozen or muddy lawns can injure grass and damage soil st...

For the new year, Shanghai-style noodles and greens augur tastiness — and prosperity?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Around the world people prepare special foods for the new year to symbolize luck or wealth, often drawing on traditions that date back centuries. In East Asia, for example, the shape of noodles represents a long life, while greens augur a prosperous year.To kick off 2024 right, try both in this Shanghai-style stir-fry from our book “Noodles,” which adapts beloved noodle dishes worldwide for American home cooks. Typically, the noodles in this dish, called cu chao mian, are thick, chewy and wheaty, and they give the simply seasoned stir-fry much of its appeal. Japanese udon is similar in appearance and texture, and since it’s easier to find in dried form in supermarkets, it’s what we call for in our version of the dish.For the greens, we like bok choy — its more tender leaves and crispier bases are like two vegetables in one. Make sure to wash and dry the bok choy before cooking to remove the grit that often collects between the leaves. First cut the bok choy lengthwise into quarters,...

Timing and totals for the 1st snowstorm of 2024

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — While the new year started sunny and mild, the first snowstorm of 2024 will arrive by the end of the week.The Pinpoint Weather team has issued a watch for Thursday as they continue to fine-tune the forecast. Many towns across Colorado will see snow, but the totals are subject to change. View the latest Weather Alerts in Denver and across Colorado on FOX31 Here is everything you need to know about the first snowflakes of 2024.TimingPinpoint Weather Meteorologist Travis Michels said a temperature change will arrive by Thursday when the Denver metro goes from highs in the upper 40s to the upper 30s.The snow will make its way into Colorado just after midnight on Thursday and will only last a day, moving out by Friday morning.Those living or vacationing south of Interstate 70 in the mountains will see snow Thursday morning. Pinpoint Weather: Tracking of snow by 7 a.m. on Jan. 4 By midday, the snow moves across I-25 into southeastern Colorado and begins its way north. By...

Dolphins pass rusher Bradley Chubb done for season with torn ACL

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins pass rusher Bradley Chubb has a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will miss the rest of the season, coach Mike McDaniel said Monday.Chubb suffered the injury in the final minutes of a Sunday’s 56-19 loss at Baltimore. He went down after trying to make a tackle and grabbed at his right knee. He was carted off the field.McDaniel expressed regret afterward when asked why Chubb and other Dolphins starters were in the game at that point, when the deficit was 30 points with 3:05 remaining.“In hindsight, I would absolutely not have one of them out there if I had known that he was going to get hurt, for sure,” the second-year coach said Sunday. “That’s a known part of the job that I understand fully. It doesn’t look smart at all.”Added McDaniel on Monday: “It was a tough moment that I wish wouldn’t have happened. Hindsight is 20/20. Every decision I make, I understand how important it is to everyone that I’m doi...

Key West High School marching band performs in London’s New Year’s Day Parade

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

LONDON (WSVN) – The Key West High School Marching Band, known as the “Marching Conchs,” brought their musical talents across the Atlantic to ring in 2024 with a stellar performance in London’s New Year’s Day Parade.Having received a special invitation, the Marching Conchs embarked on their journey to England after raising nearly $400,000 to cover the expenses. On Monday, the band showcased their musical talents by playing hits like The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” Elton John’s “Your Song,” and Blondie’s “One Way or Another” along the two-mile route. Hundreds of thousands gathered to take in the event, which compares to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with millions more watching on TV.

France closes embassy in Niger

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

PARIS — France has officially closed its embassy in Niger, the French foreign affairs ministry announced Tuesday. The decision — a rare move that shows how strained the relationship between the two countries has become — comes after Paris was forced to pull out French troops from the African country after this summer’s coup. “The embassy will continue to operate from Paris. In particular, it will maintain links with French nationals on the ground, and with NGOs working in the humanitarian sector, which we continue to fund for the direct benefit of the most vulnerable populations,” the French ministry’s statement reads. Relations between Paris, a former colonial power, and Niamey significantly soured after a military junta forcibly took power in July. French President Emmanuel Macron had continued to back the elected leader Mohamed Bazoum. In September, Macron announced France would gradually withdraw its 1,500 soldiers by the end of 2023. According to Le Mond...

The visionary legacy of Jacques Delors

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Alberto Alemanno is the Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Law at HEC Paris and founder of The Good Lobby, a nonprofit committed to equalize access to power.If the European Union were a country, the passing of former Commission President Jacques Delors would have been mourned by millions across the Continent.No other EU leader would have had a better chance at attaining a state funeral than the Frenchman who led the bloc from 1985 and 1995, indisputably shaping the lives of the last two generations of Europeans. Delors’ political accomplishments expanded their daily opportunities, protecting them from the impact of shrinking nation states in an increasingly globalized world.Consciously or not, millions of Europeans are indebted to him. This is true of the 11 million Erasmus students who have so far participated in the program, and the million babies born out of that life-changing experience. Equally so for all the Europeans able to freely travel across the EU after the Schengen...

New Boston Council President Rejects “Zero-Sum Mentality”

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

At-Large City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune was elected president of the Boston City Council Monday, succeeding Councilor Ed Flynn in that post and pledging to make equity a guiding principle while aspiring to “bring everyone along” in the city.The daughter of immigrants from Haiti, Louijeune was born and raised in Mattapan and Hyde Park and attended Boston Public Schools. An attorney, she graduated from Columbia University, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is trilingual with French and Haitian Creole.  Louijeune served as senior counsel for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, previously worked as a lawyer at Perkins Coie LLP, and recently started her own legal and advocacy business, The Opening PLLC.“I believe in all of us and I believe in Boston,” Louijeune said following her election. “One thing to know about me is that I unequivocally reject any zero-sum mentality that suggests that...

Boston PD requests public’s help as they work to find missing 75-year-old man living with autism, Alzheimer’s

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

Police in Boston are asking for the public’s help as they work to locate a missing 75-year-old man living with autism, developmental disabilities, and Alzheimer’s disease.The Boston Police Department issued a Missing Person Alert for Harold Brown of Roxbury on Tuesday morning. The department said the 75-year-old man, who is said to also have a heart condition, was last seen on Monday around 3 p.m. as he left his home on Walnut Avenue.According to police, Harold was last seen wearing a black winter hat, a black-hooded sweatshirt, a blue and white flannel shirt and possibly black shoes with white soles.He is also known to use a walker for assistance, but may have left his residence without one.Boston police said Harold is known to ride the MBTA and frequent the Natick area, the mall at 330 M.L.K. Jr Blvd in Boston, as well as the benches found on both Walnut and Circuit streets and also Walnut and Rockland streets.Anyone with information on Harold’s whereabouts is asked to...

George R.R. Martin is working on three animated ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoffs

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:00 GMT

(CNN) — George R.R. Martin knows there’s a lot to choose from in terms of content, but that’s not stopping him from adding more abundance.In a blog post over the weekend, the “Game of Thrones” author shared that he’s working on three animated projects based on that wildly popular franchise.Writing, “There is so much on television these days, in the age of streaming, it is hard to keep up,” Martin wrote. “It is always a joy to stumble on a show that you haven’t seen before, a great show that just blows you away, that sinks its claws into you and won’t let go.”He noted that Netflix’s animated series “Blue Eye Samurai” is just such a show, which led into the revelation about his own animated shows in development.“As it happens, HBO and I have our own animated projects, set in the world of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE.  None of them have been greenlit yet, but I think we are getting close to taking the next step with a couple of them,” Martin wrote. “When this ...