It was a Saturday in the middle of May, and the day was warm in the sun, and I decided to take a walk at Mass Audubon’s Pleasant Valley Sanctuary in Lenox. It didn’t go as planned — gloriously.
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Recent Stories
Mass MoCA shapes a community and me (BTW column)
The coronavirus pandemic is putting a strain on many artists and museums and creative spaces. Last week Mass MoCA explained how they are responding. It shakes me as a writer in the Berkshires. And I’ve been thinking about all the reasons why.
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Coltsfoot blooms in early spring
The first adventuresome blossoms of the tiny yellow dandelion mimic we call coltsfoot come up in March, and a April settles in, masses will appear along the banks of gravel roads.
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Holding on in a time of coronavirus
Why am I remembering those afternoons, baking in the old kitchen and singing along to Hair — why am I remembering that tonight, in a pandemic, when I and everyone around me are stunned and scared?
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While we’re at home: Berkshire food
Berkshire restaurants, co-ops, markets and farms are adapting to the changing world, and many will deliver. Here is a running list of resources for takeout, groceries and more.
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While we’re home: Berkshire storytellers
The Berkshires have connections to a broad collection of storytellers: actors and slam poets, bloggers and podcasters, spoken word and story slams, fiction and poetry. Here are conversations to share in a virtual world.
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While we’re home: The Berkshires in a time of coronavirus (BTW column)
In a few days, the world has changed. The streets are quiet. Colleges, libraries, courts, museums, public spaces have closed. This is the Berkshires in a time of coronavirus.
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Virtual art in the Berkshires
Many Berkshire art museums, artists and galleries have artwork and collections to explore online this spring while people are staying home.
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While we’re home: A Berkshire playlist
While we’re home, here is a growing playlist for the next few weeks — Berkshire musicians and musicians who have performed here recently or will when times change.
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The Berkshires navigates concerns over the corona virus (BTW column)
This rambling website is all about getting out and finding people. And now, with the concern over illness spreading daily, the prevailing wisdom is to stay home, sit quietly, wash your hands. What is responsible, when all of this is new to us?
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Thom Smith looks for giants — old growth trees
Old growth woods have never been harvested. As much as 70 percent of the Berkshires’ woods were cut down between the arrival of the first European colonists and the Civil War — but in pockets, often in hard-to-reach places, giant trees still grow.
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