1. This posh 16×16-inch Morris pillow ($140) features a wool-felt stripe motif appliqued on organic cotton flannel (cheery Pod pillow, $164). Made by Balanced Design of Providence, Rhode Island. 401-486-3589; balanced-design.com 2. Stimulating and playful, this Color Blox hand-hooked wool-felt rug (seven sizes, $80-$1,925) pops against a neutral color palette. Made by Dash & Albert […]
boston
Yankee
Like Breath on Glass
When I was doing graduate work at Simmons College back in the early 1970s, I often spent my lunch break next door at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, that elegant little palazzo frozen in time on Boston’s Fens. The art, the architecture, and the atmosphere, especially the indoor garden, were like a vacation abroad, if […]
New England
Hot Dogs: New England’s Best
I’ve been eating a lot of hot dogs lately. And when I talk about eating hot dogs, people e-mail and tell me about their favorites. Right now, Flo’s Hot Dogs in southern Maine, on Route 1 in Kittery, and Fred’s Franks in Wakefield, Massachusetts (exit 40 off Route 128 at the roundabout), are topping my […]
Massachusetts
Nantucket’s Shifting Shoreline
Around 20,000 years ago, the massive Laurentide ice sheet halted its southerly advance just past Cape Cod and, shedding its load of till, and began to form a terminal moraine still discernible in the series of hills that stretch from Tuckernuck to Siasconset. Back then, sea level was nearly 400 feet lower than today, placing […]
Massachusetts
Sophia Thoreau Leaves | Concord Museum Exhibit
Henry David Thoreau’s poetry inscribed on leaves. The symbiotic link between nature and literature is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in Concord, Massachusetts. With just enough forest between Concord’s tree-lined streets and Boston’s bustling avenues, this village remains a place of solace for writers and vacationers alike. In one shady corner of town you’ll find […]
Massachusetts
Restaurant Review: L’Espalier, Boston
For more than 25 years, a clientele of dedicated food and wine enthusiasts have ascended the creaky staircase of an 1886 Gloucester Street brownstone in Boston’s Back Bay to celebrate the milestones of their lives with chef Frank McClelland of L’Espalier. Now the much-anticipated opening of the Mandarin Oriental hotel at the Prudential Center on […]
When we first corresponded with the owner, we weren’t sure whether to visit this property. The owner is well-known artist and sculptor Kendra Ferguson, whose work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Harvard’s Fogg Museum, and others. When she told […]
New Hampshire
Monadnock Region: New Hampshire
The secret to savoring New Hampshire’s Monadnock region is to drive slowly and stop often.
Gardens
Defense of the Norway maple
I live in a small house with many windows. From mid-October to Thanksgiving, the front and sides bathe in a fierce yellow light, thanks to the leaves of the Norway maple that grows in the eastern tree zone. Its leaves hold the light of the sun; even at dusk and on overcast days, there’s a […]
Yankee
Antiques: Mourning Pictures
I recently attended the wake of a colleague’s husband. It was made bittersweet by the fact that his wife and family had carefully displayed old photos and scrapbooks, their wedding album, and small mementos gathered over the course of his lifetime. This makeshift memorial illustrated that even in death, this man would not be far […]
Peter Ralston is telling me about a boy he once knew. In 1957, when the boy is seven years old, he moves to an old gray stone house in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
“I grew up on a farm in New Hampshire,” says Frank McClelland, “so I couldn’t imagine not having a garden, let alone not teaching my children about how things grow.” For almost two decades, Frank has been chef and owner of Boston’s L’Espalier restaurant, a fine-dining spot that has long set the standard for elegance […]