“Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl,” Thoreau wrote. “It is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling.” Even sealed in a car, you’ll hear that howling as you approach the town of Errol in far northern New Hampshire, the gateway to Lake Umbagog. The region is even a long drive north […]
trees
How New England Can Save the World: Part II in a series Part I: 2011 Biathalon World Cup: Aroostook County Part III: Hardwick and the New Frontier of Food Part IIII: A Bang for Your Buck in the Berkshires When Michael Wood-Lewis and his wife, Valerie, moved from Washington, D.C., to the south end of […]
Winter’s Fire
Farmer Jay has been clearing logs from around the edges of the big field to the southeast of my house. He’s gone back into the cordwood business, he tells me, after a brief hiatus. He did not say why but I assume the favorable price of cordwood might have something to do with it. Cordwood […]
Holiday Travels
Let me begin with a wish for all of our readers out there: I really hope this new year and new decade brings you great wealth — emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially. I also want to thank you for your support — in reading this blog, Yankee Magazine, and our sister publication, The Old Farmer’s […]
The time between Christmas and New Year’s is a silent time, a time of grateful stillness. At least it is here, at this place that is known in the magazine and to the folks in town as Mary’s Farm but that I call, privately, Stillpoint. Since the first night I spent here, the place here […]
Brattleboro, Vermont’s most famous landmark seemed destined to die—but the townspeople had other ideas.
Finding Grace in a Cemetery
I grew up in cemeteries. One Sunday afternoon a month, after Mass, after the midday meal of lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs, my grandmother visited the dead. Mama Rose never learned to drive, so her cousin–Uncle Rum–took her from graveyard to graveyard in his square green Ford. I didn’t have a choice; when Mama Rose […]
Spend a Winter Day in New England
7:30 A.M. WHERE THE SUN RISES FIRST Sunrise from Cadillac Mountain reveals a coastline carved with a crooked knife. From that famous vantage on Mount Desert Island, the coast of Maine comes out of the dark. It’s a complicated affair of peninsulas and coves, a jigsaw of rock and water, a play of motion and […]
This recipe for French Canadian meat pie — also known as Tourtiere — not only melts in your mouth, it keeps a family tradition alive.
Pansies Still in Bloom
The first snow appeared on Mt. Monadnock this morning, the dark profile arching white in the morning’s new light. Rain pelted the windows down here all night long with a thunderous, roaring wind that set one of the shutters loose. But no snow, not even temperatures below freezing. In the old iron kettle on the […]
Ice Storm Futures
I’m burning ice storm wood now. After the big storm and after the snow and ice of last winter had melted, the trees at the edge of the north field remained, bent, broken. Their high tops bowed down, their crowns touching the earth, surrendered to the ice. The warming sun of the new season could […]
Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut, has organized a multimedia celebration of contemporary West Indian culture that includes videos, films, live music, readings, and a wide ranging art exhibition. Entitled Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, the exhibition (through March 14) was curated by Real Art Ways director of visual arts Kristina Newman-Scott and […]