In the 1930s, furniture from Heywood-Wakefield gave American homes a bright, fresh look. Today, you can find Heywood-Wakefield pieces at flea markets, thrift stores, consignment shops, and auctions—and they’re priced to sell. Sometimes I fear that modern-day Americans are like hothouse flowers: big, bold, beautiful, yet too fragile to survive outside a pristine environment. I […]
boston
New England hard cider was once a fixture in every farmhouse basement. Now, brands like Farnum Hill Ciders are ushering in a comeback.
Here’s a life list of 75 essential things for anyone who loves New England, native and visitor alike. How many have you done?
For reasons I’ve never quite understood, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston rarely has exhibitions that interest me enough to drive to Boston. Maybe it’s my own largely contemporary tastes or the MFA’s art historical focus. In any event, Nicholas Nixon: Family Album is enough to get me to Boston to see what I’ve […]
Bright , Shiny and Kinetic
George Sherwood brings a somewhat unusual background to the creation of art. The Ipswich, Massachusetts, resident earned a BFA at the Hartford Art School back in 1976 and spent time as a street performer in Burlington, Vermont, before enrolling at the University of Vermont to a study for a degree in engineering (B.S. 1984). He […]
Iceland Diaries, Part Two
On June 15, 2010, at 6 a.m., our Boeing 757 touched down on a long runway and taxied toward what I could see was an elegant new airport. Same place, different building. I had, of course, expected the airport to be modern and updated. And I expected the rocks would still be there but they […]
It’s a good thing I like to travel; I live part-time in Boston and part-time in New Hampshire. Come summer, I try to escape on the weekends. Throw in an assignment or appearance and my life is a suitcase on wheels. Over the Fourth we were asked to be on the Today show, and who […]
Life on an Oil Rig │ Yankee Classic
Working on an offshore oil rig is a demanding and dangerous profession. Author Scott Cramer signed on as a roustabout on a rig exploring the Baltimore canyon. Here is his report. From Yankee Magazine April 1981 The round-trip fare is $50.95. as I board the bus in Providence I try to remember what I accomplished during […]
How New England Can Save the World, Part III in a series Part I: The Maine Way: Aroostook County Part II: Vermont Neighbors Part IIII: A Bang for Your Buck in the Berkshires When you think of Vermont–white church on the tidy green–you’re not actually thinking of Hardwick, which in its days as the “Building […]
Edible Flowers | Rose Petal Jam
I can’t help myself. In the summer they’re everywhere I like to be: along the beach path from my parents’ summer rental in Cotuit, Massachusetts … surrounding my friend’s Nantucket “shack” … along the harbor walk from Charlestown to South Boston … hugging the length of the Province Lands bike path on the tip of […]
If necessity is the mother of invention, what gives birth to reinvention? Is it dire necessity? A quest for perfection? Or a deeply personal conviction? Whatever the case, scrapping something back to its beginnings and re-creating it is a monumental task. Don’t ask me how, at the age of 43, Wallace Nutting had the energy […]
To look at Casey and Garret Roberts’ home, you’d think it was part of the coastline. Their Rhode Island house sits so close to the oceanfront that their backyard should be considered the sea. The driveway is “paved” with glistening white clamshells, and their garden has plants designed in the shapes of nautical knots. In […]