For outdoor adventure or indoor comfort, get ready to lose yourself in the beautiful towns and mountains of western Maine.
winter
In downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, there’s one tree that looks particularly well prepared for winter. A colorful stockinette sweater hugs its trunk, with holes carefully placed to accommodate its branches. A yarn monkey dangles from one of the boughs. Around the base of the tree are three twentysomething women knitting furiously. Brie, Rachel, and Katie comprise […]
Yankee
‘A Hard Place to Grow Deer’
The winter of 2011 came slowly to north-central Maine. Low snowfall and mild temperatures had run through most of December, giving the deer a reprieve. But in January the season turned cold and unrelenting. For six weeks, there was no thaw, and now the snow on the eastern side of Moosehead Lake lay three feet […]
For almost half a century, Bob Fogg has been Hancock, NH’s man of the hours.
New England
Holiday Gift List: Wrap Up an Outdoor Adventure
In just a couple weeks, Yankee Magazine’s January/February issue will be on newsstands. It’s a not-so-serious guide to loving winter and includes 43 reasons to embrace the season. This issue resonates with me for many reasons, primarily because I love everything about snow. Plus, who wouldn’t welcome a good excuse to eat doughnuts? (Reason No. […]
Gardens
Force Amaryllis Bulbs to Bloom
Add a little color and beauty to your surroundings this winter by forcing amaryllis bulbs to bloom.
Magazine
In Praise of Kabocha Squash
I first tasted Kabocha Squash about six years ago, when I lived in California. It’s practically a fall and winter staple food there, and in the test kitchens at Sunset magazine, where I worked at the time, we came up with all manner of ways to stew, roast, and steam it. Kabocha is a winter […]
Magazine
Getting to Know Provincetown
There is no better way to know a famous tourist town than arriving off season, when the tourists have left, and the locals reclaim their streets, their beaches, their way of life that brought them here in the first place, perhaps generations ago. I rarely visit a beautiful place without daydreaming at some point about […]
Gates, arches, arbors, fences, bridges, stepping stones and paths signal to us that there is something beyond our line of view that is worth exploring. They stand in all their glory silently beckoning visitors to enter and see what surprises await. A space with flowers becomes a place for flowers when it is framed by […]
New England
New England Snow Storm and Late Foliage
I’m a day late in posting the foliage blog this week, but I’ve been playing chicken with the forecast of winter weather. Will it happen, how much will fall, where will it fall, how long will it stay, and will there be a second storm? All questions that have the meteorologists in the region anxious […]
Centuries ago Christmas and winter-holiday celebrations were centered around the rhythms of nature. From the gifts that were exchanged to the wreaths on the doors and the decorations on the tree, everything was either home spun or thoughtfully gathered from the outdoors. The simple joy associated with such traditions and connecting with the beauty of […]
New England
Best 18th-Century Inns: 7 Runners-Up
When you travel many hundreds of miles in search of the best old inns in New England, it’s hard to narrow the list down to only ten. Here’s our list of the seven runners-up. Blue Skye Farm Waldoboro, Maine In this gem of a house, the two-story central stairwell is patterned in a green-and-red pineapple […]