Of all the types of art exhibitions — group shows, career retrospectives, recent work, juried competitions, survey shows, exhibitions organized around periods and styles, etc. — the shows I find most satisfy are theme shows, those in which art and artifacts are assembled around a central idea. Art, after all, is a form of knowledge, […]
maine
From Yankee magazine September 1981 He grew up in Aroostook County, Maine, and when he came home in August of 1945, President Truman awarded him the Congressional Medal of Honor. Over the subsequent years, most of them spent working 60 hours a week in the potato fields, his kids often pulled the medals out of […]
Fiddle virtuoso Lissa Schneckenburger’s latest album Song is, in a word, unexpected. The album is clearly a labor of love, featuring modern arrangements of old Maine tunes that were nearly lost to history. Resurrected from the transcripts of early 20th-century ethnomusicologists who toured the region’s lumber camps, these songs are as much a work of […]
Within a few minutes after turning off Connecticut’s Route 9, which follows along the Connecticut River south of Hartford, we knew we’d taken the wrong exit. With the sun rising directly in our eyes, we couldn’t read the signs properly. Our destination was a horse farm in East Haddam. We’d been corresponding with the owners, […]
Maine
Moose-Spotting Tips
Bear in mind that during the September-October mating season, bull moose will behave more aggressively. And no matter how cute the baby moose looks through your camera, if a mother feels you’re threatening her little one, she’ll move to protect it. A wonderful book to bring to Moosehead Lake is “Maine Moose Watcher’s Guide” by […]
New England
Hiking and Biking: 6 destinations
Connecticut Ten Mile Hill, Kent. In the Litchfield Hills, the Appalachian Trail weaves through deep forests. Start at Bull’s Bridge Falls. From here, the trail rises above the water before descending to Ten Mile Gorge, where the Housatonic and Ten Mile rivers merge. From here, switchbacks climb steadily to the crest of Ten Mile Hill, […]
Maine
Maine’s Moose Country
Coming upon a moose in the wilds of Maine requires that you pass through three stages of comprehension. FIRST STAGE [denial] A moose is very large — larger than you’ve ever imagined. If you’re tall and you ran into a moose, you’d knock your head on its shoulder. You must take a moment or two […]
New Hampshire
5 Beaches and a Seaside Grand Hotel
Connecticut Hammonasset Beach State Park Boasting 900 acres, Hammonasset is two miles of sandy beach with mild ocean temperatures (we’ve enjoyed the sea there well into September) and a light surf, perfect for swimming, hiking, and surfcasting. More than 550 well-maintained campsites make for an inexpensive beach vacation when the big resort hotels are overflowing. […]
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Seacoast: 18-Mile Vacation
The New Hampshire seacoast is the Lichtenstein of New England–a small, generally overlooked principality much beloved by the few who know it, and given little thought by the rest of us. That’s ripe for change. In an era when the long weekend has replaced the two-week vacation (itself a replacement of the months-long summer sojourn […]
Magazine
Best New England Waterways
Looking for the perfect way to spend a summer day with your family? Here are our picks for the best New England waterways. Connecticut Farmington River. There’s no better way for a family to spend a summer day than floating down the Farmington together on bright-yellow inner tubes. Although the river flows for more than […]
New England
Don’t Miss These 6 New England Museums
Connecticut Mark Twain House & Museum. Although a son of Missouri, Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) made his home in Hartford’s beautiful West End. The 90-minute tour of his Louis Tiffany-designed house will introduce visitors to Twain as a loving father, a hapless businessman, and a consummate jokester (he named his cats Famine, Pestilence, Satan, […]
New England
Small Towns in New England
Connecticut Kent. The first dilemma when visiting Kent is whether to look up to the Berkshire Hills or down at the sparkling Housatonic River. Take in both views: Hike a stretch of the Appalachian Trail, which crosses Route 341 about a mile west of downtown. Kent has attracted throngs of artists, resulting in art shows […]