Past Articles

I’ve spent this week in the town of Cabras, Sardinia, moving between our city center hotel and various attractions relating to the Marine Protected Area that encompasses the sea all around the island’s west coast.  We’ve gotten a rare opportunity for a trip like this…to spend time in one town […]

In our earthy crunchy Pioneer Valley, we like to talk about eating local. We talk about 12-mile meals, and eating farm-to-table, but tonight, I have them all beat.  Once again, on a visit to Italy’s magic island, Sardinia, I’ve eaten a 100 foot meal, and boy was it good! We […]

Seven years ago I first came to this second-largest island in the Mediterranean that the Romans and Phoenicians called Ichnusa.Sardinia today is an autonomous region of Italy, but as my guide Davide told me, it’s not Italy–the natives even speak a unique language on this island, though most people here also […]

I have always been a noisy sleeper–snoring like a banchee and known for falling asleep while sitting in my favorite chair.  To many people, this might indicate that I have sleep apnea, and with this in mind I met today with a friendly nurse practitioner named Cathy Burbank at Sleep […]

My journey to the Mediterranean is looming on Monday. I’m happy to say that I’m NOT flying to Rome via Moscow, nor am I returning from Provence via Turkey. I have adjusted my flight plans and all seems pretty good right now. I’m going to take two separate eco-tours, both […]

I have nailed down a fantastic  trip–in fact, back to back trips–that I am very excited about.  On September 27, I’ll fly to Rome and then to Sardinia, the big island over Corsica that’s famous for being the home to some of the longest-living people on Earth.  I visited the […]

For as long as I remember, there has been an old yellow house right next to Leader Home Center in South Deerfield. This is one of the most important businesses in our small downtown and they have an interesting history. Back in the 1990s, the owner, Grant Gagnon, called the […]

Cars lined the road leading to the Ashfield Lake House last night as rain drizzled down. Inside, the place was packed, and big stacks of magazines were piled up for all to enjoy. It was the launch party for a new magazine published by a man well-known in Northampton, Michael […]

I trained it down to Baltimore for one reason. My friend Pam Scott, VP of Communications for Red Lion Hotels, told me her company had just opened a new hotel, and I wanted to check it out. Well, maybe there were a few other reasons too, namely, that Baltimore is […]

I’m heading southbound on the Amtrak train out of Greenfield, the second time I’ve taken this journey. Today my destination is Baltimore, where I am going to check out a new hotel that’s been opened by Red Lion hotels. Once again, I marvel at the amount of debris that the […]

We’re heading for four days of relaxation around the campfire at Tully Lake in nearby Athol.  This state park is unique, because the camp-sites are located away from where the cars are parked. So we don’t have to put up with that familiar car-camping sound of car doors opening, alarms […]

It’s been quite a long road for Cinda Jones, who has a vision of her North Amherst Mill District becoming the next bustling commercial neighborhood in Amherst, and yesterday was a big day. Cinda knows that food and drink are the keys to get people to visit a new shopping destination, […]

Are the empty storefronts in our little town indicators of what is to come in the future?  I was saddened recently when the one high-end restaurant in South Deerfield, called MRKT, closed its doors in July.  There is now a sign that says ‘for lease’ and like the general store […]

  We had a magical summer evening last week when we visited the Park Hill Orchards in the rolling hills around Easthampton for their bi-annual celebration of outdoor art known as Art in the Orchard. New for this year are spiffy handicap accessible men’s and women’s bathrooms, along with a […]

What if there was a safe and easy route to ride a bicycle between South Deerfield and Greenfield?  I think a lot of people would ride this route. I have a dream that we could create such a bike path, and provide not only a tourist attractor, but an alternative […]