The eggs come from a farm stand smaller than a chicken coop, and I almost missed it. The sign caught me as I was bowling south down Route 7 — shagbark hickory syrup — and I was curious enough to pull into a snowy driveway and turn around.
I’d been thinking that feels harder to find this kind of surprise right now, in January, on a sunny 20-degree day when the covid numbers are high. Bennington has more than a few shops closed for a few weeks and windows with ‘coming soon’ banners. I wanted something new. Nothing big — a ramble up a back road would be enough, or a new place for some local coffee and a doughnut.
I just wanted a sniff of mischief and color. In the fall I was wandering through Where’d You Get That?! (often a good place for ideas) and found myself looking up the British illustrator of the Harry Potter books. His name’s Jim Kay, and he’s got a new book out, a collection of paintings. The Bear and Bee helped me find a couple.
GPR Craft Products offers shagbark hickory syrup, fresh eggs, condiments and more at a roadside stand in Bennington, Vt.
Looking through his visions of greenhouses so amiably hodgepodge they look hand-blown … I thought that kind of magic might have an appeal right now — a feeling of humor and transformation.
So I went looking. And I found a farmstand with shelves of dried mushrooms and a flavor of distilled sweetness I’ve never heard of before. And half a mile from downtown, I found a trailhead for Headwaters Park along the Walloomsac River. The path crosses the water and runs above a marsh, and the land stretches flat and smooth. I wish we had a word for the shadows the trees cast on the snow.
Here are a few more glimses of color and taste and texture for winter days …
A bridge crosses the Walloomsac river at Headwaters Park in Bennington, Vt.
In kelli rae adams - Forever in Your Debt, bowls fill the hallway at Mass MoCA, some filled with coins and sme empty, considering the weight of student loans.
Artist and Master Printer Robert Blackburn's abstract print Girl in Red appears in a celebration of his life and work at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, N.Y. Press image courtesy of the Hyde and The Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art
Wanga Neges appears in Tomm El-Saieh's 'Imaginary City,' a solo show of large paintings in vivid abstract color, at the Clark Art Institute. Press image courtesy of the museum
Sculptor Anina Major weaves clay into baskets on a wooden pier in 'All Us Come Across Water' at Mass MoCA.
Canape Vert appears in Tomm El-Saieh's 'Imaginary City,' a solo show of large paintings in vivid abstract color, at the Clark Art Institute. Press image courtesy of the museum
Sculptor Anina Major weaves clay into baskets on a wooden pier in 'All Us Come Across Water' at Mass MoCA.
A pathway runs through the snow above the marshland and Walloomsac river at Headwaters Park in Bennington, Vt.
