A wren is sitting just outside the window. She’s out in the wet and so close to the clapboards we can see her feathers puffed out to keep warm.
Read articleAsip tastes like caramel, but deeper and not overpoweringly sweet, and it’s warm in the back of the throat. It’s color is lighter than amber and darker than gold, almost the color of late oak leaves.
A small group of us were sitting in the cafe after hours. We’d pulled up an informal circle of chairs, and we were tasting cordials at Wild Soul River and talking about how they are made. A cordial is a simple blend of sugar, alcohol and flavors — fruits, nuts, spices.
The complexity comes what you combine, and how much, explains herbalist Leslie Alexander. You could make one up for a friend, she says, and choose each element in it for them. You could think about the flavors they like and what grows where they live, about the natures of the plants and the person you love, and what they want right now.
This holiday, I’m looking for gifts like that … something that takes time and some quiet thinking. And touch. A year ago we were running on adrenaline — we were drinking hot chocolate outdoors and wrapping up in blankets to watch plays in the snow. This year feels more subdued. We start to relax and we get pulled up short. It’s an uncertain time, and uncertainty is getting old. This year, more than ever, I’m drawn to what feels real …
We can find music and storytelling and lights in the dark. NightWood at the Mount has grown along the trails, with torches flaming and sound washing like the sea, and WinterLights at Naumkeag is back with jazzy carols and dancing lights in the fir woods and Poinsettias in the greenhouse. And the cows and merino sheep are sleeping in the Round Stone Barn at Hancock Shaker Village.So you may feel a current running through the stories and events in this holiday section — honest and warm, and sometimes bare. I’ll be sharing experiences that touch my senses and bring me close to the hands and the presence of the people who make them. I can feel them imagining the world they want to live in. It’s enlivened, generous.
More than ever, this year I’m finding that kind of energy in local places. I’ll walk into the Bear and Bee Bookshop in the evening, and find a gathering talking about books. The the world section at Belltower Records pulls me across continents. I pick up baby begonia at the Plant Connector, small enough to hold in the palm of a hand, and they tell me these cuttings come from a woman who lives around the cormer from me.
Wild Soul River is around the corner too, with their herbal teas and tarot, candles and local honey and live poetry. The cordials I first met there come from simple proportions, to begin with: one part sugar syrup, one part alcohol, two parts fruit, and they age for three months, so any you make in harvest season will be ready about the new year. And they’re good for sipping slowly by the fire, especially with company and quiet talk.
Maybe we’re staying closer to home this winter. But the winter holidays are all about feeling at home.
Photo by Leslie Parke
'Snowflake' Bentley inspires contemporary artists
Ice crystals form like stars in fractal patterns. They take shape too small for human eyes to see, repeating smaller and smaller until they vanish. And here in a museum gallery on a winter night they catch echoes in translucent glazes, quartz and silver, abstraction and calligraphy. Snowflakes are translated into contemporary art in Transient Beauty, the new winter show at the Bennington Museum.
The show centers around a Vermont artist known across the world. On a farm about a hundred miles north of here in 1885, Wilson Bentley became the first person to successfully photograph a single snowflake …
Transient Beauty at the Bennington Museum
Katie Cleaver's pendant of quartz and silver responds to 'Snowflake' Bentley's phtographs. Press image courtesy of Bennington Museum
Tom Fels' cyanotype shows leaves from his arbor series in abstract shades of blue. Press image courtesy of Bennington Museum
Erik Hoffner's photographs capture ice fisher's holes re-frozen into orbs. Press image courtesy of Bennington Museum
Joanna Gabler evolves kaleidoscopic patterns from light on a single drop of water. Press image courtesy of Bennington Museum
Leslie Parke's Sky Frost turns ice on glass into abstract patterns of light and color. Press image courtesy of Bennington Museum
Leslie Parke's Landscape through frost turns ice on glass into abstract patterns of light and color. Press image courtesy of Bennington Museum
Photo by Kate Abbott
Winterlights dance in the dark at Naumkeag
It’s full moon, and I’m walking up the hill on the old road across the fields, so I can see the hilltop above me steeped in light. The fruit trees are glowing red and gold. Naumkeag in Winterlights is bright as penny candy.
Tonight is one of those zany changes in plans that turn into serendipity — I’m here for a press walk-through, and I can’t find the right way in, so I leave the car on the main road and come up through the cemetery. … The house is above me on the hill, and I can see the whole sweep of thousand of lights.
Evergreen trees glimmer irridescent in Winterights at Naumkeag.
The blue stairs shine with blue light in Winterights at Naumkeag.
Bulbs open in the greenhouse at Naumkeag in Winterlights.
Poinsettias gleam in the greenhouse at Naumkeag in Winterlights.
A garden path shimmers with rainbow light in Winterights at Naumkeag.
A red ornament glows with starry light in the candycane forest in Winterlights at Naumkeag.
Photo by Susan Geller
Tree farms open with balsam and hot cocoa
The grass is frost-scuffed, and the afternoon light gives the bare trees a glow. We park in the field by the barn and walk up the hill carrying a bow saw. The air smells of balsam.
The baby trees on the fringes come up to our knees, but we are in among the larger ones, circling them to look from all angles. If you have ever chosen a Christmas tree with family and friends, you know this conversation — is it tall enough? You can just reach the top. It’s a little uneven, but we can shape it …
Berkshire tree farms grow spruce, fir and pine
Photo by Kate Abbott
NightWood glimmers with music at the Mount
The flame streams sideways in the wind. The bowl of the torch is gleaming copper — it’s an oil lamp, essentially the same as the lamps that burned in Constantinople 2000 years ago, or in the temple of the Macabees. A procession of them coil along the old dirt road here, into the dark. It’s a cold night with a full moon, and NightWood has come back to the Mount.
The lights stretch away until they’re pinpricks hidden in the trees. I’m at the top of the path through the woods to Edith Wharton’s gardens, and I can hear my own footsteps on hard-packed earth …
Firelight and music transform NightWoodFor our latest holiday stories and events, have a look below …
Poinsettias gleam in the greenhouse at Naumkeag in Winterlights.
A red ornament glows with starry light in the candycane forest in Winterlights at Naumkeag.
Brian Cruey, manager at Naumkeag, walks through a tunnel of light at Winterlights.
The Blue Stairs glow blue and silver at Winterlights at Naumkeag.
Domed sculptures gleam in the Italian Garden at the Mount in NightWood.
Domes glimmer cobalt blue in the Italian Garden in NightWood at the Mount.
Torches light the pathway through the trees in NightWood at the Mount.
Carolers sing near sunset at the annual Williamstown Holiday Walk. Photo courtesy of the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce
Decorating cookies at the Williamstown Holiday Walk. Photo courtesy of the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce
Holiday happenings coming up …
Jan 23 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 24 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 25 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 26 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 27 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 28 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 29 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 30 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Jan 30 2022 @ 10:00 am
The Trustees of Reservations will lead a Winter Wildlife Tracking and Tree Identification trek through the spruce-fir forest at the Notchview Reservation.
Jan 31 2022 @ 8:30 am
Notchview in the Berkshire Hills holds more than 3,000 acres of gentle slopes and miles trails groomed for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.
Berkshire holiday stories
First steps into the new year (December 29 newsletter)
I’m with family this week, writing this by the lights on the concolor fir tree while we’re baking Santa Lucia rolls for a friend’s birthday …
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Happy holidays! (December 22 newsletter)
This month has been full of gifts already. I walk into Chocolate Springs one afternoon just as Joshua Needleman is making chocolate peppermint bonbons, and he offers me a taste …
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Wishing you joy and Wassail (December 15 newsletter)
Imagine gathering around an apple tree at night. The trees are wet and starred with early snow. You stand around a bonfire, and people are singing under the full moon …
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Contradance and caroling share a living holiday music
On the floor, one man with a fiddle had the whole room in his hand. People danced in each other's arms, and I had walked out of the snow into the music ...
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Chestnuts are roasting — over the river and through the woods
I’ve never cracked a hard-boiled egg on my dashboard before … The whole day has been like this, zany and surprising. We’re picnicking in my car in unexpected sun, eating with our fingers, in the middle of an expedition.
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Color and light kindle in the cold (December 8 newsletter)
In a weekend of holiday walks, I was wandering around in the flow of the North Adams farmers market, and I found Full Well Farm for the first time.
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Wallasauce creates fashion for the future
On the top floor of the Beaver Mill, Sarah DeFusco and Andrew Casteel are working in a room full of cloth. They are becoming known for their colorful crazy-quilt clothing — together they’re Wallasauce.
Read articleWinterlights dance in the dark at Naumkeag
It’s full moon, and I’m walking up the old road across the fields, so I can see the hill above me … glowing red and gold. Naumkeag in Winterlights is bright as penny candy.
Read article
‘Snowflake Bentley’ inspires contemporary makers
Ice crystals form like stars in fractal patterns. They take shape too small for human eyes to see… and here in a museum gallery on a winter night they catch echoes in quartz and silver, abstraction and calligraphy ….
Read article