It’s a weirdly warm day, balmy and 51 degrees. It’s hardly the type of weather that makes you feel in the Christmas spirit, though it’s still barrelling down at us and will be upon us next Tuesday. I am excited that after so many years we are having a cocktail […]
I’m breathing in a sigh of relief…I can just feel how much I am saving by switching supermarkets to Aldis! For the past seven years, I’ve been forced to shop at the most expensive store in the world–Whole Foods. And Trader Joe’s was the second store, but both are not […]
I’m listening to Vince Guaraldi play his signature piano music that goes with the Charlie Brown television specials….old familiar songs played simply on piano with a bass and drum. Nice and spare, and each song languishes just long enough to feel supple and supine at once. We’re planning a Christmas […]
Thanksgiving a day of traditions This year was different than any year I can recall back to 2006. That’s because we made Thanksgiving dinner and hosted a few family members here with Rachael and her kids. I had ceded control of the cooking feasting holiday for so many years I […]
Snow is coming. These days forecasts have gotten so good that when they say 100 percent, yep, we WILL get snow. So it’s now the week before Thanksgiving, and the radio says we’ll see 4-6 inches, starting around six pm. My snowblower is securely stowed down at Bill’s farm, wrapped […]
We had a rendezvous scheduled with a few dozen Oxford Sandy and Black pigs and piglets who live in small Quonset huts on a hillside overlooking the ocean. Their master is a pair of Guernsey siblings, Nicola Terry and her brother, who together have begun to offer a combination farm […]
Simon Dufty looks the part of the perfect Englishman, except that no man from Jersey would ever call himself English. For 40 years, this impeccable and unflappable gentleman has worked in the hospitality business, and today he manages the delightful Le Fregate Hotel in St Peter Port Guernsey. On the weekends […]
Last night I flew from Gatwick to the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and today I got a chance to tour a bunch of fun places on this 24-square mile island. Though it’s only five miles long, Guernsey doesn’t feel small…there are many beaches that show off wide swaths of odd-looking rocks […]
I learn so much when I come to London for World Travel Market. There is nothing like it, a convention where every country in the world is actively involved and exhibiting. Just about every US state, too, is represented, and preaching to the 51,000 strong throng and the 5000 exhibitors. […]
[wpgmza id=”3″] On Monday night I’ll board a Norwegian Air Shuttle Dreamliner and hit London for World Travel Market at the Excel Center. It’s an overwhelming show with so many people to see I’m sure I won’t see them all. But it’s always fun to be a part of one […]
I first met Jane Trigere about 30 years ago, after she and her husband Ken Schoen moved to town from Easthampton in 1994. They bought the old firehouse, and quickly turned it into Ken’s bookstore, filled with tomes relating to Judaica, his specialty. Jane was very vocal about her opinions […]
About a year ago, my weekly lunch friends and I ate at the Ichiban, the newest Japanese/Chinese restaurant in Amherst, right next to the uber-popular Miss Saigon on North Pleasant St. The restaurant was cavernous, with two huge rooms and few diners were seated with us. Fast forward to late […]