Five questions with Femke Hiemstra about "Rock Candy," her lovely and surreal book of collected art.

While the lingering snow cover and soft, soggy soils may limit raking and spring cleaning our borders, this is an ideal time to begin pruning many dormant trees and shrubs. A late-winter survey of your property’s trees and shrubs should be performed annually. Mid-February to mid-April is a preferred time of year to prune dormant plants since it is considerably easier to view their architecture and observe damaged, diseased, or crossed branches.

It has been said that the anticipation of something can be as rewarding as the actual event itself. I think that's why early March is one of my favorite times of the year. Each year about now we're so eagerly awaiting the fulfillment of the promise of spring.

Unlike the circus, spirituality is best enjoyed when it is not showy.

There is no more famous marathon in the world than the Boston Marathon. There are more challenging courses, there are more picturesque venues and there are more exotic locales. But there is no other place that 26,400 runners from around the world would rather be on April 19 than toeing the line in Hopkinton for the 114th running of Boston.

Discussing health issues is usually a topic delicately danced around when, in reality, it's better to dive right in and be nosy, says Dr. Alfred George Jr., a geneticist and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Genomics. The more details - who, what, when - that you know about your family's medical history, the better off your future generations will be.

During morose economic times, escaping to another realm can be quite enticing.

Joe Howard thought he was finished. Not finished completely. He’d had hockey taken away from him for too many years to even think of giving up the game by choice. But the travel, the tournaments, the training … no, after dozens of international events and three Paralympics, it was time to play for fun, and when he felt like it. But Howard, 43 and playing with teammates 20 years younger, is out to help lead Team USA to a gold medal in Vancouver.

George Clooney and Matt Damon are cool guys, but in recent films they leave the glamorous, dangerous worlds of “Ocean’s 11” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” far behind. In “Up in the Air” and “The Informant!,” both actors play guys who, in the end, turn out to be schmucks.

Robert Pattinson is a rebellious rich kid who falls for the beautiful daughter (Emilie de Ravin) of a surly New York City cop (Chris Cooper) during the summer leading up to 9/11.

Kirk is not accustomed to hot girls noticing him. So imagine his surprise when this average Joe suddenly finds himself on the arm of a beautiful, sexy woman like Molly.

Matt Damon plays an Army officer in charge of a teams assigned to seek and find WMDs in the early days of the Iraq war.

I’ve joined the texting world, and I’m only five years late.

What do “chutzpah,” “pitted prunes” and “as well as” have in common? They’re among the words and phrases I’ve been asked about within the past few months, and I’m finally getting around to writing about them. And there are more to come.

The Medicines For Humanity group continues to deal with the aftermath of the January earthquake in Haiti, and program director Betty Scanlon said she doesn’t see the situation getting much better any time soon. She should know – she recently returned from the ravaged country at the beginning of March.