Watch your fingers

If you’ve never contemplated the anatomy of a turtle, you should. Its rib cage is fused to its shell, and its shoulder blades are inside the rib cage. Now think about how you would look with your shoulders inside your ribs.And while some turtles tuck their necks sideways into their shell, others have neck vertebrae that stack vertically, almost folding the neck inside— turtles such as the ubiqitous road-crawling snapping turtle.What seems like a short neck on a rather cranky-looking turtle can actually extend out to approximately half the length of its shell.So don’t get too close.“They got their name because they bite,” said Julie Victoria, a wildlife biologist with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). “And they will bite. They don’t have a pleasant disposition.” Snapping turtles seem to be everywhere at this time of year. Although they spend the majority of their time in the water, female snapping turtles journey onto land to lay their eggs in May and June.An ideal nesting site for a snapping turtle is a sunny area near water, with soft dirt or sand. When females go looking for the perfect spot, many times they end up crossing roads, laying on the edge of roads or checking out peoples’ gardens that have newly turned soil. So motorists and gardeners should beware.If you see one of these turtles, large or small, parked in the middle of the road and you want to try to move it, don’t pick the snapper up by the tail. Reach around to the back part of its shell. The tail is a continuation of the turtle’s spine, and picking it up that way could injure it.“And be careful,” Victoria reiterated. “Don’t put yourself in jeopardy.”Snapping turtles, which can live to be anywhere from 40 to 100 years and can grow to be 9 to 16 inches long, are common in Connecticut. They lay approximately 20 to 60 eggs at a time, perhaps the most of any turtle. They have a high mortality rate when young, but by the time their shell is 3 inches long, the snappers have no more natural predators.They are omnivorous, feeding mostly on vegetation but also baby waterfowl, fish, frogs and carrion.Although at this time of year snapping turtles can seem to be a nuisance, they are one of the few creatures left that look as prehistoric as they are. The ancestors of today’s turtles appeared nearly 230 million years ago, in the Middle Triassic period.

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Father Joseph Kurnath

LAKEVILLE — Father Joseph G. M. Kurnath, retired priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, passed away peacefully, at the age of 71, on Sunday, June 29, 2025.

Father Joe was born on May 21, 1954, in Waterbury, Connecticut. He attended kindergarten through high school in Bristol.

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Club baseball at Fuessenich Park

Travel league baseball came to Torrington Thursday, June 26, when the Berkshire Bears Select Team played the Connecticut Moose 18U squad. The Moose won 6-4 in a back-and-forth game. Two players on the Bears play varsity ball at Housatonic Valley Regional High School: shortstop Anthony Foley and first baseman Wes Allyn. Foley went 1-for-3 at bat with an RBI in the game at Fuessenich Park.

 

  Anthony Foley, rising senior at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, went 1-for-3 at bat for the Bears June 26.Photo by Riley Klein 

 
Siglio Press: Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature

Uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.

Richard Kraft

Siglio Press is a small, independent publishing house based in Egremont, Massachusetts, known for producing “uncommon books at the intersection of art and literature.” Founded and run by editor and publisher Lisa Pearson, Siglio has, since 2008, designed books that challenge conventions of both form and content.

A visit to Pearson’s airy studio suggests uncommon work, to be sure. Each of four very large tables were covered with what looked to be thousands of miniature squares of inkjet-printed, kaleidoscopically colored pieces of paper. Another table was covered with dozens of book/illustration-size, abstracted images of deer, made up of colored dots. For the enchanted and the mystified, Pearson kindly explained that these pieces were to be collaged together as artworks by the artist Richard Kraft (a frequent contributor to the Siglio Press and Pearson’s husband). The works would be accompanied by writings by two poets, Elizabeth Zuba and Monica Torre, in an as-yet-to-be-named book, inspired by a found copy of a worn French children’s book from the 1930s called “Robin de Bois” (Robin Hood).

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Cycling season: A roundup of our region’s rentals and where to ride them

Cyclists head south on the rail trail from Copake Falls.

Alec Linden

After a shaky start, summer has well and truly descended upon the Litchfield, Berkshire and Taconic hills, and there is no better way to get out and enjoy long-awaited good weather than on two wheels. Below, find a brief guide for those who feel the pull of the rail trail, but have yet to purchase their own ten-speed. Temporary rides are available in the tri-corner region, and their purveyors are eager to get residents of all ages, abilities and inclinations out into the open road (or bike path).

For those lucky enough to already possess their own bike, perhaps the routes described will inspire a new way to spend a Sunday afternoon. For more, visit lakevillejournal.com/tag/bike-route to check out two ride-guides from local cyclists that will appeal to enthusiasts of many levels looking for a varied trip through the region’s stunning summer scenery.

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