Millpond Live Roars Out of the Gate This Saturday
Summer’s End Means Great Music in Easthampton It’s the end of the summer, and like most people, I’m sad about that. But the one thing that late August brings to the Valley is a series of wonderful outdoor concerts with well-chosen world music stars who make Easthampton’s Millpond Live series […]
Deerfield’s Newest Railroad Tracks to Extend to Greenfield
Deerfield Ruminations…. the town has come together in new ways, unexpected but everyone is happy about it. The new Facebook page, Deerfield Now is getting a lot of comments and people share interesting photos and news. That’s the beginning of making a community better. The infrastructure behind transit projects is always […]
Valley Bike Share: A New Way to Get Around
If you have noticed the shiny new bikes that sit in specially-designed stands in strategic locations around the Valley, you’re not alone. I was thrilled when I heard about these new bikes and entered a raffle at the Northampton street fair a month ago. I won a year’s pass and […]
Trailside: a Cozy Place to Hear Great Music
The Trailside Music Cafe & Inn brings great musicians to an intimate venue where everyone gets a good look at the performers up on stage. Located about 25 minutes outside of Charlottetown in the town of Mount Stewart, it’s a sweet spot for anyone who loves good music and comfort food. […]
Island Summer Review: A Cracking Good Time
Sometimes jokes that seem to be insider-only can be awfully funny. We got a chance to steep ourselves in Prince Edward Island lore and inside jokes when we joined a packed house at the Harmony House Theater in Hunters River, about 25 minutes outside of Charlottetown PEI. It was a wonderful […]
Valley Pearl Oysters: Fullfilling a Lifelong Dream
Jeff Noyes is a man with a dream. A shucker’s dream. He is happy to say that he is doing exactly what he wants to do in life. After 15 years heading up his hometown’s oyster festival, he’s created an oyster tasting room and bar, in Tyne Valley, PEI. We […]
Prince Edward Island, Canada Awaits!
My next destination has eluded me for the many years I’ve been traveling during the summer up to Canada. This time I’ll be heading to Prince Edward Island, in the Canadian Maritimes. Some of things I”ll be doing there include learning how the native Indians made drums, visiting a museum […]
Nathaniel Hartshorne’s Memorial: So Long, Pal
Our father, Nathaniel Hartshorne, died on March 28, 2018, and we’ve been thinking about his memorial service ever since. Last weekend, we finally had the event we had been thinking about and planning for so carefully…and it was all a great success. The main reason we agonized over so many […]
Wendy Foxmyn, Deerfield’s Administrator, Shares Good News
Things are happening in our little town. There are a lot of moving parts, and the person who might know the most about them is our Town Administrator, Wendy Foxmyn. I sat down with Wendy last week in her town hall office to discuss these developments and other things about […]
Vorarlberg, Austria Photo Gallery
Vorarlberg is the western-most state of Austria, bordered at the north by the Bodensee, or Lake Constance, as well as Switzerland to the west and Germany to the north. It’s a land of gentle green hills covered with hay, striking Alpine peaks streaked with snow, and meadows filled with the […]
Hiking from Breakfast to Dessert in Bregenzerwald
I met up yesterday with another local tourism official, Cornelia Kriegner, at my hotel, and we didn’t go out to her car, as I would expect. Instead, we waited for the local bus and rode it up a few miles past the village to a trailhead. Conny was taking me […]
Bregenzerwald, Austria: Whimsy and Beauty
My first full day in Bregenzerwald was long and full of fascinating sites and an overwhelming number of alluring mountain vistas. Around every corner, another tidy home punctuated by red geraniums and stacks of narrow logs neatly tucked away came into view. Many of the people around here use these […]
Franz Fetz Has Seen It All in Bregenzerwald
I had dinner at the fine restaurant at my hotel, the Gastof Hirschen Schwarzenberg, and I ordered the chef surprise. No idea what was going to be served, I left the four courses up to the chef. And a good choice it was! They set four forks in front of […]
Vorarlberg: Austria’s Mountainous West
I’m having breakfast in the mountain village of Schwarzenberg, in the Vorarlberg region of Austria, the farthest west of Austria’s nine states, right near Switzerland. At the top of the map is the Bodensee, which some call Lake Constance. The region was formed in 1919, and this part of Austria […]
Vorarlberg Austria is My Next Destination
On Thursday night I’ll fly to Zurich and then drive about 50 km over to the region of Vorarlberg, in western Austria. It’s right on Lake Constance, and it’s a part of the world I’ve never seen. I met these folks at a European travel exposition, and they kept talking […]
Deerfield Decides to Come Together
Deerfield really feels like we’ve taken a turn into a new chapter. For so long, the symbol of our downtown has been the tired old building that once housed Franklin County’s Cable TV channels, which is now for rent. We’ve had a lot of empty stores and sad “now leasing”signs. […]
Dinner with Neighbors at Atlas Farm
It was the perfect evening, still in the 80s, but cooling off, as we headed down a dusty farm road to a big tent you could see in the distance. The occasion was a customer and vendor appreciation dinner at Atlas Farm, the farm store where we buy lots […]
Railroads, Red Rocks and Buffalo Bill
Denver is an inspiring city, the biggest metropolis for 500 miles around the vast American West. I just spent five days exploring and enjoying Denver and the surrounding countryside, and I came away once again, impressed with how vibrant the place is. Last Sunday I joined a group of travel […]