AMHERST – Junction 71, 71 NH 101A, will be holding its Spring Market on March 21-22, officially kicking off the spring decor season. The shop is definitely making a name for itself! After opening in June 2019, the shop won ELEVEN local awards in less than 5 months. And what makes this event noteworthy, is the special guest who will be attending on Saturday from 11-1: Bre Doucette, a well-known home decor blogger, who’ll be on hand for a book signing for her new book, The Gift of Gathering. In addition to this, she will be doing a few live decor demos and holding a Q&A session. This is an amazing opportunity to meet Bre! 

Also on site Saturday the 21st from 11-1 is Emily from Live, Bee or Die Farm. She will have a “build your own bouquet” with fresh cut flowers. She has sold out every time she has been with us. For more info, 603-213-5201.

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KEENE – The Pier One store in the Monadnock Market shopping center in Keene is among some 450 locations to be closed as the home goods retailer files for bankruptcy. The Fort Worth, Texas-based company on Monday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that it has “closed or initiated going-out-of-business sales at over 400 locations.” The company had announced it January that it would be shuttering up to 450 stores.

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MASON – There will be a ‘Solar- How-To Presentation, offering homeowner to save both dollars and the planet with solar power at your home at the Mason Congregational Church Fellowship Hall, 33 Valley Rd., on Sunday evening April 5, from 5:30-7:30PM. Soup and bread will be served. Key points: How much power can you generate? How much will it cost? How to save by installing it yourself and how fast will it pay for itself. Please RSVP to chapman.kathy@gmail.com.

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MILFORD – On Wednesday March 25, 2020 at 6:30 PM, The Wadleigh Memorial Library, 49 Nashua St., will features Ireland’s Great Famine in Irish-American History: Fateful Memory, Indelible legacy, presented by Marcy C. Kelly. Drawing on material from her book Ireland’s Great Famine in Irish-American History, Dr. Kelly will discuss the role of the Famine in shaping Irish-American ethnic identity. Focusing on the long-term impact of the episode between the 1840s and 1990s, she explores the shadowed landscape of Famine legacy and its status in Irish-American culture today. Referencing contemporary press accounts and the writings of Famine survivors and their descendants, Dr. Kelly shows how interrogating Famine memory enables the Irish on both sides of the Atlantic to deal with the material and emotional inheritance of this tragic experience. Mary C. Kelly, Ph.D., is Professor of History at Franklin Pierce University, where she has taught for over twenty years. Her Masters in Modern Irish History is from National University of Ireland, Galway, and she earned a Ph.D. in Modern American History from Syracuse University. Her research explores Irish-American ethnic identity within spheres of faith, political culture, the enduring relationship with Ireland, and Irish-American involvement with the Irish Revolution. Her publications include books The Shamrock and the Lily (2005) and Ireland’s Great Famine in Irish American History (2016; 2014), and her current research encompasses nationalist expression and ethnic Irish Protestant contribution to the ethnic identity. Professor Kelly presents on Famine impact and memory, ethnic political culture, and immigrant settlement in Boston and New York. She was honored with a 2014 Keene State College President’s Outstanding Women in New Hampshire Award and the 2016 Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Committee Ambassador Award. This program is funded by New Hampshire Humanities. To register, call the library at 249-0645, email refdesk@wadleighlibrary or sign up online on the Events Calendar at www.wadleighlibrary.org.

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NASHUA – The Toadstool Bookshop, 375 Amherst St., Somerset Plaza, Nashua, will feature Sonia Claire Asher, speaking and signing her book Surviving the Holocaust: One Family’s Journey, on Saturday, Mar. 14 at 2PM.

“Surviving the Holocaust: One Family’s Journey.” tells the family’s story of her parents are being interviewed for a larger story, after a reporter attended the Grand Opening of their furniture and appliance store in Manchester NH. The reporter was intrigued by their background and wanted to do a larger article on how the Aschers escaped Germany and all the had happened leading up to them arriving in Manchester.

Sonia spent over twenty years researching her family’s background, looking for answers to her parents’ story. As a child of Holocaust survivors, she was determined to break the wall of silence surrounding her parents’ experiences in Germany. Her book, Surviving the Holocaust, One Family’s Journey, tells their story. She has three sons, two stepsons and four grandchildren. A retired management and sales consultant, Sonia spends her time between New Hampshire and England with her English husband. Sonia is also a brilliant photographer and sell her cards locally; Toadstool carries her line, ‘Sonia’s View.’ This event is free and all are welcome. For more information call the bookstore at 673-1734.

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NASHUA – Nashua-based Microdesk, a provider of business and technology services for the design and construction industry, has released ModelStream 2.0, an enterprise asset management, or EAM, application that reduces the time and resources needed to combine assets from IBM Maximo with the Autodesk Revit, a process that normally takes hours of data input, according to the company. To learn more, visit microdesk.com.