Seems like every city has a YMCA. I know I grew up playing floor hockey, learning to swim and taking part in afterschool activities at my local Y. I recently visited the Concord Y and received a tour from membership director Brian Brown. When I opened the door to the pool and took that first breath of humid, chlorinated air, I was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia. The Y was a part of my childhood; there must…

Fenway Park, the hallowed home of the Boston Red Sox, will celebrate its 100th anniversary this year. About 70 miles north, Noonan Field will celebrate its fourth.So what's the connection?Noonan Field is a miniature replica of Fenway Park's fabled outfield wall, Green Monster and all, erected by the Noonan Family on Branch Turnpike in 2008. It's an accurate enough representation…

When Dr. Katherine Evans took the leap and opened the Holistic Veterinary Center on West Street in 1998, she hung onto her full-time job at an emergency clinic in Manchester, just in case.It didn't take long, though, for the new venture to turn into a full-time gig - and a full-time passion."It's being able to really help some patients that have really chronic illness, to…

Name: Susana PattersonOwner, Susana's Sewing Studio, which is moving to 26 Warren St.How long have you been sewing?At least 30 years.When did you open the business in Concord?We opened in the winter of 2009. We do tailoring for everybody's clothes, and most of the clothes I wear, I make.What's the funkiest thing you've ever stitched?A straightjacket for a kid in a band…

Winterberries at this season of the year lift up our spirits as we hunger for color in the drab days of winter. A species of holly that loses its leaves in the fall, winterberries are hardy plants with bright red berries clinging to bare branches long into the winter. Seeing this bush in the center of a windswept field of frozen snow or in a table centerpiece gives a festive jolt to our winter weary eyes.In the winter…

Fred Graf is absolutely correct that something got transposed in the last paragraph of my original column on number and amount, fewer and less. Then I wrote that a simple way to tell which word to use is to look for an s or es. "If it's there (lunches, bills, vandals), you want amount and fewer. If it's not (food, cash, damage), you want number and less."In correcting my error last week, the Insiders…