A red oak meets its end, but not the limit of what it can offer. A decade ago, when I first moved to an 1850s farmhouse set beside two huge red oaks, my new neighbor, Mrs. Atwood, heaved open her window and leaned out to announce, “Your leaves are on my lawn.” I stood by my […]
I wondered if perhaps New England could lay claim to the very first American Christmas tree, so I began rummaging around in our library.
At The Rocks Estate Christmas Tree Farm in Bethlehem, New Hampshire, it’s as though a rural Downton Abbey has merged with Kris Kringle’s village.
It’s not unusual for live Christmas trees to need to be trimmed a bit before they’re decorated. Whether it’s to help fit the tree through the door and into the house or merely to tidy up the branches, clipping some boughs leaves you with a pile of heavenly-scented tree trimmings. Before tossing them into the compost pile, consider these five fun and […]
Here’s an easy way to make birchbark houses using items found almost entirely in the woods.
Once I believed that the holidays meant rituals of obligation: a Thanksgiving feast, and then with barely a breath in between, an almost obsessive need to bestow gifts. When my sons were young, I filled secret places with toys and gadgets, even making one final sweep on Christmas Eve for that “needed” stocking surprise. I […]
With winter coming, there was one more short drive to take. Putting the truck away for the winter is a ritual, just as is getting it out in the spring. I don’t use the truck in the winter, one way to extend its already long life. The truck is a 1997 Ford Ranger, white with […]
In northern Vermont, “stick season” is the time between the leaves’ dropping and the first snow that sticks— a time that brings its own stark beauty and rituals.
White-steepled churches, country stores, black-shuttered white clapboard houses, and bobbing boats provide the backdrop to the prettiest towns in New England.
The growing season may be over, but a gardener’s thoughts are never far from the love of nature’s bounty and the gifts from the good earth. The holidays are a perfect time to celebrate the everlasting spirit of gardening. Read on for five ways to incorporate gardening into holiday decor. Garden-inspired Christmas trees — 3 ways to […]
Many communities put on a show for the holidays, but Christmas celebrations in Manchester and Woodstock, Vermont, are especially festive.
More than 50 years ago, Beatrice Trum Hunter published the first natural foods cookbook in America. Now approaching 100, she’s still fighting to help people eat better and live without toxic chemicals.
