The tulips are glowing around the greenhouse at the foot of the hill, crimson red and flame orange and lemon. … I’ve caught an hour of sunlight on the morning I slipped down to Stockbridge for the daffodil festival, and it feels like pure radiant luck.
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Flights of Fancy bring sparkling color to the garden
Growing up on a farm in Hong Kong, Mindy Lam saw the bright flashing colors of birds, and moths as large as her two hands. She would wade in the river, looking for shrimp and minnows and dragonflies. So it means a great deal to her now, as an internationally known jewelry artist living near Washington D.C., to bring her creations to the Berkshire Botanical Garden.
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Farms offer maple syrup in sap houses — and online
Syrup and sugared nuts and fudge-like cream … the sap is boiling, and maple growers are expanding in the Berkshires with web shops. You can stop in for a quart or order one from home.
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Weaver and fiber artist grows and teaches her art
Sculptor, weaver and fiber artist Andrea Myklebust has come a long way from urban centers and metro lines to a farmyard where she cares for the goats and sheep who grow the wool she will weave by hand.
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Shops and co-ops link knitters and locally grown wool
It’s a quiet movement, sliding the yarn over the needle, pulling the loop through and repeating. The the feel of wool can be warm and earthy in your hands.
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Can you feel the sap running today? (March 3 newsletter)
Sweet — That scent in the air like caramel over wood smoke — it feels almost unreal after all this last year, but it’s here. The sap is boiling.
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Russell Banks excavates a bare and rugged New England
Russell Banks came to talk about how to put a book together, how to make a character human, how to make us admit that any character, no matter how broken, is like us — how to drop the defenses and put aside the scrims.
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W.E.B. DuBois strengthens the soul of a community (February 17 newsletter)
This morning I remembered a day in July in a garden along the Housatonic River. A woman was singing in a strong, rich alto, leading a spiritual in the W.E.B. Dubois memorial garden, and we were thinking about how he felt about the town where he was born.
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MoonCloud seasonal cocktails bring warmth home
How about a drink with a kick for a night with frost in the air — a touch of pumpkin, honey spiced with ginger and cloves? At Moon Cloud in Great Barrington, you can pick up a carefully blended bottle to bring home.
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Parisian pastry adapts to the country at the Lost Lamb Bakery
Pumpkin tarts and spicy chocolate mousse … clam chowder and crusty baguette … where does New England meet a French pâtissière? In Stockbridge, Claire Raposo runs the Lost Lamb bakery and cafe.
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