Cuenca Has a Trout-filled River Running Through It
We spent the day in Cuenca, which is a very pretty city, as so many people in Quito told us. There is a trout-filled river that runs through the city, and lots of churches and houses that go back to colonial times. Along the river, green mowed lawns line the […]
Quito is Building a Subway, It Can’t Come Soon Enough!
Quito is an exciting city and over the past three days I’ve gotten a chance to talk to a lot of locals about what is coming up and what’s exciting here in Ecuador’s largest city. I also got to get a feel for the place when I took a long […]
Ecuador Almost Made a Grand Bargain to Save their Rainforest
Inside Café Cultura, a boutique hotel in Quito three fires crackled in the fireplaces, as we were welcomed warmly by Lazlo Karolyi, a Hungarian immigrant who owns this and five other boutique hotels in Ecuador. He was happy have us, having sent a car to fetch us at our hotel, […]
Quito is Full of Beauty and History, and Has Earned its Distinction
We spent the day exploring many of the best attractions of Quito, starting by driving up to the El Panecillo, the park at the top of a mountain that overlooks the historic downtown and its many houses on the hillsides. There is a metal statue of a winged Virgin Mary […]
Tomorrow I Fly to Quito, then to Cuenca Ecuador
I have a familiar feeling of a combination of dread and anticipation because tomorrow morning I’ll catch a flight from Boston to Atlanta. Then after a layover, I’ll fly to Quito Ecuador, and at 10 pm Tuesday night I’ll be in a new country, one that I’ve never visited before. […]
Amherst Block Party: A Great Way to Bring the Town Together
I’ve made a tradition of attending the downtown Amherst Block party, and last night we kept it going, meeting up with family and friends at those round tables they park in the middle of North Pleasant St. I am very fond of events that involve blocking out cars, since I […]
Inka Spends a Dreamy Afternoon Chasing Almonds in Alfarnatejo
Every day I delve into another place. As I comb through my vast inbox full of travel stories, I go to wherever the story is located. Today I enjoyed a lunch with enough good wine to make me sleepy rural Alfarnatejo Spain, where Inka Piegsa-Quischotte took a food tour. It’s […]
The Tech Tax Baffles Even the Department of Revenue…and Needs to Go
I met with a group of software developers tonight and the topic was the onerous ‘tech tax’ that’s been imposed with a very short lead time on anyone in Massachusetts who uses ‘commercial software’ to provide services to people. The good news is that the consensus from these members of […]
Shedding an Old Couch and Getting a Sticker…Little Things Add Up
I think I’ve discovered a secret to happiness in life. Get those little things done that you keep putting off that ultimately will make you miserable if you don’t deal with them. I had a few of those today, first I brought my car in for inspection and was shocked […]
The Woodstove Warms our House and Warms Our Hearts too.
I’m looking at our wood-stove that we installed in April blaze brightly. It’s a satisfying thing to light the first fire of the year, and this new stove just keeps on burning, no need to fiddle or diddle. My old Franklin stove, which had a historical pedigree, would go out […]
This is the Time of Year to Make Corn Fritters
I love corn. This is the perfect time of year for a corn-lover and last night I made a recipe, for the second time, from a cookbook I heard about and ordered. The book is Sweet Corn Spectacular, by Marie Porter, and it contains 70 recipes for fresh corn. Last […]
Paul Ehrlich Was More Than a Sore Loser in “The Bet”
There is probably no name that struck more terror in me as a kid growing up than Paul Ehrlich. He was the biologist who wrote the book that freaked me out more than any other–The Population Bomb. In a review in the WSJ, a new book details a famous bet […]
How Railroad Tracks are Rehabilitated
I am fascinated by the vast infrastructure that’s required to keep a railroad running. And I’m especially excited by the coming Amtrak service that will blow through South Deerfield while making new station stops in Holyoke, Northampton and Greenfield. The other day I was having a soft-serv at Hillside Creamery, […]
Each Well We Dig, Tyler Wrote, Edita Will Be There Smiling
I met a tall man at a party last night named Tyler. He was with his partner, and I heard them say that they lived in JP. Jamaica Plain, Mass. She’s a short pretty woman named Leah who is a nurse. I asked him what he did for a living […]
Off to an Undisclosed Lovely Camping Area
It’s that time of year. Our annual camping trip to and undisclosed location in central Mass. I think I’d get in trouble if I revealed this wonderful place, so you have to imagine it. There is no car parking where we camp, that’s nice because you use carts to haul […]
Greenfield’s First Dishcrawl Packed with Regulars
Familiar faces were all around me last night as I checked in with Dishcrawl Ambassador Jenn Iannaconi at the Greenfield Grill. That’s all we knew–that our night of roaming the town for different courses would begin at this restaurant that was for more than 50 years known as Famous Bills. […]
Dishcrawl Rolls on, This Time in Greenfield
This is the best time of the summer. Finally, finally, the weather is sultry and perfect. Temps like this make me want to get outside as much as I can. And to think that I was just contemplating taking the air conditioner out of the window! Tonight is another Dishcrawl, […]
Tanglewood Awaits–One Last Summer Blast of Beethoven’s Ninth
Today’s August 25, the last, sniff, Sunday in August. How sad, how fleeting…but wait. There’s another day of Tanglewood left for us to enjoy! I am always sad about summer’s abruptness, that no matter how long it’s never as long as the winter. The spring too, sometimes seems drawn […]