It’s finally the big weekend! Columbus Day provides a well-timed three day weekend during the height of foliage season, meaning it’s peak time for leaf peepers. New England rolls out the red carpet for the holiday, not just with the colors in the trees, but with many fantastic annual events scheduled as well. Fall festivals […]
A ride in the Hood blimp offers unique scenic views of the Massachusetts north shore from the most famous blimp in New England! I arrived at the Beverly airport twenty minutes early. It isn’t everyday a person has the opportunity to ride in a blimp, and I wasn’t about to miss my chance because of […]
Someone should do a guesstimate of the number of bricks in coastal downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts. Between the sublime curve of buildings at the bottom of State Street, the dizzying triangle of Market Square, and the narrow alleyways stealing off like the Artful Dodger, it’s a boggling convergence of mortar, brick, and seaport quaintness. In fact, […]
The meteorological battles that wage every September between summer and fall are oft fought on violent fronts. New England had an incredibly powerful line of storms move through this past Saturday night, but Sunday dawned clear and cool. It’s unlikely it will be the the last such conflict this season, but the ferocity of the […]
The past decade could be called the “Great Cheese Awakening.” After years of processed slices and fat-free cheddar, Americans have finally discovered the cheese course, fallen in love with artisanal producers, and begun to understand why the French have some 250 or more varieties of fromage in their arsenal. But talk to Dave Smith of […]
Sounding like the locals isn’t easy. Accent coach Thom Jones takes us on a tour of New England dialects and accents.
Adorned with portraits of American heroes and depicting important battle scenes and scenic views, antique Historical Staffordshire is a popular collectible.
Today, you’ll find vineyards all over New England. Take a drive along the southern coasts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in October and, assuming the hard frosts haven’t hit too early, you’ll see glorious golden foliage blanketing the long, straight rows of vines.
Ten years have passed, and still I remember the sensation of floating above the Pioneer Valley, as if tethered to a hawk. Hot-air ballooning is a dawn-and-dusk sport, when the air temperature is right for launching. In the late-afternoon light, we rose above the Connecticut River, just outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Within moments, our balloonist, Paul […]
The creation of the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts came with a cost: The sites of four communities in the Swift River Valley were drowned out of existence when it was built in the 1930s. In their place came two huge earthen dams and a new body of fresh drinking water for metro-Boston residents: a […]
Paul and Jo-Ann Desrochers grow vegetables, peaches, plums, and nectarines, but they have a special love of heirloom apples–nearly 90 varieties, all grown without pesticides. You’ll find ‘Westfield Seek-No-Further’ (a Massachusetts native), ‘Newtown Pippin’, and the wondrous ‘Hidden Rose’, whose bland green-brown skin gives way to bright fuchsia flesh that tastes of raspberries. Open Saturday […]
‘Ashmead’s Kernel’, ‘Roxbury Russet’, ‘Belle de Boskoop’, ‘Pink Pearl’, ‘Winter Banana’ … The names of antique and rare apple varieties are part poetry, part history lesson. Many go back centuries, some as far as the Renaissance. The tiny ‘Lady’ apple, also known as the ‘Pomme d’Api’, was first recorded under that name in 1628, but […]
