Welcome to the September 2007 edition of Jud’s New England Journal, the rather curious monthly musings of Judson Hale, editor-in-chief of Yankee Magazine, published for over 70 years in Dublin, N.H. The Happiest Time in the Life of a Community Church Oddly, it’s often during those months — sometimes even a year — when it’s […]
new england
Finding Fall in New England
This is my 28th autumn at Yankee. For each of those years, the editors have talked for hours about how to best capture on our pages this most singular of New England’s seasons. Can we do it just with photographs? Can words give our readers a sense of the color marching up the hillsides; the […]
From Yankee Magazine May 1996 Commonly they did not think that they were lucky, or well paid for their time, unless they got a long string of fish, though they had the opportunity of seeing the pond all the while. They might go there a thousand times before the sediment of fishing would sink to […]
Corn Mazes in New England
Have you been to a corn maze? Bring a sense of adventure and get ready to laugh, scream, and have fun at these New England fall farm features. Visit, for example, Marini Farms in Ipswich, Massachusetts, where an 8-acre, interactive Maze Quest opens September 12 with clues via 3-D glasses and text messages. The maze […]
12. Destination
Visit Harrisville, New Hampshire’s town center — a classic New England mill village and a National Historic Landmark. Tidy red-brick buildings and a granite mill are reflected in a pond and the millstream that once powered a woolens manufacturer. The buildings are fully restored to their 19th-century splendor, thanks to a savvy nonprofit group that […]
7. It’s Not Just About the Leaves
Fall is also harvest time — that time of year when we visit New England’s apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and corn mazes. Maybe best of all are the county and state fairs that celebrate the season’s bounty. This year, check out the 189th Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts (888-781-3247, 978-887-5000; topsfieldfair.org). America’s oldest continually operating […]
4. When You’re Thirsty
Try the season’s apple cider — celebrate Cider Day in western Massachusetts’ Franklin County (413-773-5463; ciderday.org). Or, look for fall ales, on tap or bottled. Two popular brews made in New England are Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale (Maine) and Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale (New Hampshire).
Capture fall in a pottery or bronze leaf, a candied apple, a Cider Day brew. Take a drive, take a hike, or take a balloon ride. Paddle a canoe or kayak. Pick a pumpkin. It’s autumn in New England.
Residents of the Newport’s Top of the Hill section feel it is the most heavenly neighborhood. And we recently found out why. For one thing, the Top of the Hill neighborhood is just an easy 10-minute walk to the downtown area with all those wonderful shops and restaurants along the harbor. Get Our FREE Yankee […]
How local is the Farmers Diner? The first thing you see when you walk in the door of this Quechee,Vermont, restaurant is a jukebox, glinting like any diner jukebox. Some Willie Nelson, some John Cougar Mellencamp. But half the albums are by Vermonters. Phish, sure. But it’s Grace Potter and the Nocturnals who get the […]
Lisa Saffer is a 47-year-old diva. She received her master’s degree from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music in 1984, and today makes her home in Portland, Maine. In the great opera houses and concert halls of the world, she sings in many languages, her small frame launching glorious sounds that reach to the farthest […]
I’m standing in the parking lot of a large RV dealership south of Boston, notebook in hand, scribbling furiously as our rental agent points out every button and lever on the 33-foot Winnebago we’ve rented for a weekend of October leaf-peeping up the Maine coast. I have a bad feeling. Two hours in, and we’ve […]