The fall season in New England with all of its color is a relatively short period between the summer greens and the winter white. Transitions by their very nature are volatile, and this past week, a violent cold front broke a streak of hot humid weather with cooling winds and spectacular lighting. The calm after […]
yankee
The uncertainty that accompanies any major move in life is often expressed in odd ways.
History
Constant Comment
Since 1945, the Bigelow Tea Company has been supplying New England and beyond with quality teas, and none is more popular than the brand’s signature blend, Constant Comment. It was invented by Ruth Campbell Bigelow in the kitchen of her New York City brownstone in 1945. Unhappy with the teas available on the market at […]
On a weekend camping trip near Palm Springs we stopped at a remote supermarket for supplies. Around the soup section, I discovered a real old-timer. His wrinkled face was red and rough, and his pushcart contained only two items: cranberry juice and Cape Cod potato chips. “With your taste in food, you could be from […]
Yankee
Bud | A Vermont Dog
Bud was a Vermont dog, a purebred malamute. He lived in and about Adamant, a village bounded by mountains and set in a curving bowl of fields, woods, marshes, and ponds. Bud was brought to Adamant by Louis Porter, a ten-year-old boy, during the summer of 1986, but in September of that year, when Lou […]
When these entrepreneurs applied Yankee ingenuity to their canine dilemmas, the pet products they came up with created a whole new premium pet market. 1. In 1999, some clever folks at Jefferson Rubber Works–makers of molded rubber products for military and industry– reimagined a rubber disk originally intended for water-treatment plants and turned it into […]
He was a barn cat, half wild, half tame. When his life hung in the balance, which half saved him? As usual, I let the cats out a few minutes after sunrise on that Sunday last July. We live at the end of the old town road on a hilltop surrounded by the area’s last […]
Everyone loves a title, everyone wants to be special, even entire communities. Take Groton and New London, Connecticut, for example. The good folks of Groton, Connecticut, posted a sign, “You Are Entering the Submarine Capital of the World,” to eliminate confusion, because some people believe that New London, Connecticut, across the Thames River is the […]
A stay in a rented summer cottage always seems to start with a note from the owners that reads something like this. Welcome to Bide-A-We!! Before you and the gang rush out to the water, here are a few things you probably ought to know about our beloved home. First of all, the plumber’s name […]
Magazine
Pickle Day | Yankee Classic
When I think back on pickle day, I see Aunt Etta in the side yard. And I hear, at times, the rare sound of my Grandmother’s laughter.
Magazine
Nor’Easter Wedding
In retrospect, an outdoor wedding reception during a nor’easter was a perfect introduction to New England.
Massachusetts
Pettengill Farm’s Vintage Bazaar
I am always on the hunt for something to finish up a room or reinvent a space. It drives my husband nuts, and me sometimes too, but when I find the right piece, I can move on to the next room—until I find another piece that completely derails my “finished” space. And truthfully, old vintage […]