Photo/Art by Brenda Darroch Seasons matter in New England, and the best harbinger is what’s available at your local farm stand. Farm stands come in many varieties and sizes, from apple orchards to year-round markets. The ones highlighted here are three- or four-season spots, with spring seedlings, summer veggies, fall fruits, and winter seafood. Most […]
When Sonya Speranza was 7 years old, she took her first trip in an airplane. She traveled all the way from Hartford, Connecticut, to the village of Pescara, Italy, to meet her relatives and to see the place where her mother had grown up. In the backyard of the family home stood a rustic wood-fire […]
I first saw Jon Shain at the tiny black box theater at the Mansfield Music and Arts Society. By chance, the Patriots’ Divisional Playoff game against the Jaguars was scheduled at the same time, so needless to say there were a few cancellations. Excluding the two owners, the opening act and her mother, there were […]
Roxanne Quimby’s goal is to preserve the landscape of Maine’s North Woods forever, but controversy has been sparked by those who want to retain use of that land. In the early summer of 1975, 24-year-old Roxanne Quimby arrived in northern Maine, having driven across the country with her boyfriend, looking for a place to homestead. […]
It’s time for spring cleaning, and I’ve learned that some of my favorite cleaning products can be toxic. What’s a good alternative?– M.R., Dover, VT Common household cleaners that contain chlorine, ammonia, and petroleum-based chemicals may contribute to respiratory problems, release harmful fumes, irritate allergies and chemical sensitivities, and burn skin or eyes on contact. […]
We’re big fans of the 22-mile Cape Cod Rail Trail, especially when you take it in bits and pieces. But to be frank, the actual ride, even after the route’s recent refurbishment, can be a real yawner for kids. It’s a former railroad line, straight with very little grade. We like the ups and downs […]
Stephen Jermanok, travel writer and father of two young children, reveals his favorite family adventure spots. Get ready for New England’s best adventures in rafting and biking in Massachusetts, mountain biking in Vermont, sea kayaking in Rhode Island, camping in Maine, and canoeing in New Hampshire.
If you drive down Main Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts, you’ll see the old block-long storefronts, broken and gapped now as tenement after tenement is condemned and demolished. Sometimes you can still see the rubble strewn around these empty lots, but mostly they’ve been cleared away, leaving fresh, undisturbed lawns of grass. Preservationists hate grass — […]
These two books have three things in common: Both are by former Yankee writers from Massachusetts, both are compulsively readable, and both are about quests. Suzanne Strempek Shea’s Sundays in America (Beacon Press, $24.95) begins with the flood of grief that accompanied the death of Pope John Paul II. “As a Catholic who in recent […]
Erosion may be a significant concern for beachfront homeowners, but other species of Cape Cod dwellers are also finding themselves threatened — not by loss of sand, but by its deposition. The birds that mate and nest at Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, south of Chatham, Massachusetts, have enjoyed safe harbor here since 1958, when a […]
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Though I don’t own up to it in “The Life and Death of the Skinner Coffee House” (because it wasn’t pertinent), I was one of the grad students working with Joseph Krupczynski on the project in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The pictures and video here are part of the presentation we gave to the mayor in December […]
