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The Taconic Crest Trail crosses Petersburg Pass.

Category:
Outdoors

Kate Abbott
Azaleas bloom on the Taconic crest in Pittsfield State Forest, with evergreen trees behind them against shifting sun and cloud.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Hikes

Azaleas are in full blow on the Taconic crest

June 6, 2023
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It’s hard to explain the feeling of a whole hillside of azaleas in bloom. Blossoms rise in waves twice my height, blossoms thick on the bushes in clusters ...

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Stockbridge Bowl shows blue water under a blue sky from Olivia's Overlook in Lenox.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Hikes

Olivia’s Overlook soothes and surprises on a spring day

May 23, 2023
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Lie on your back up here with your feet under the lowbush blueberries and you can hear the wind around you like a river. The cups of the blueberry blossoms and a wild cherry sapling are quivering in the warm air.

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Lilacs bloom in Lilac Park in Lenox.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Gardens

Candidly we need to cultivate our gardens … — #Berkshireweekend

May 18, 2023
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The strawberry plants are small enough to hold in a palm, but some of them have blossoms forming. I’m cupping them in my hands and pressing them gently into the earth.

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Trees show crimson buds at Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge.
Photo by Kate Abbott
newsletter

Fresh cheese and sourdough: Farmers markets and plant sales — #Berkshireweekend

May 11, 2023
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And suddenly it’s May. We feel the change coming for weeks, fizzing in catkins and lapping up the lower slopes — and then the sun comes out and the maples open their leaves, and the world turns green again.

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Trees show new sping leaves along the edge of the field at Lime Kiln Wildlife Sanctuary in Sheffield.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Hikes

Lime Kiln Sanctuary gives a sunlit view in Spring

May 1, 2023
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The sun came out, and the undergrowth turned softly green — ten minutes ago I’d been traveling in raw weather and now I’d found spring. I was walking through Lime Kiln Wildlife Sanctuary for the first time.

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Wild columbine blooms vivid red and yellow at Bartholomew's Cobble in Sheffield.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Outdoors

Columbine and jazz: Warm days are coming — #berkshireweekend

April 27, 2023
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The splash of red is vivid and unexpected — wild columbine. I wouldn’t have looked for them this early, or at this bend in the trail, with the white trillium growing thickly up the slope.

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Bloodroot come up on a spring day along the Hoosic River.
Photo by Kate Abbott
newsletter

Spring wildflowers and baby animals emerge — #Berkshireweekend

April 13, 2023
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The bloodroot are back. I just went down to one of the closest places I know to look for them, out on the trail along the western bank of the Hoosic River.

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Bill and Elaine Markham have been boiling sap at Mill Brook sugar house since 1978.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Farms

Early spring explorations near Stockbridge

March 16, 2023
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Mill Brook Sugarhouse is boiling sap in a spring day around the corner from the Roaring Brook Trail, and Irish musicians are tuning up as I explore the Southern Berkshires.

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A hollow tree holds sunlight in the golden hour on an early spring evening at Hopkins Forest in Williamstown.
Photo by Kate Abbott
Hikes

Sap and music rise on the edge of spring — #Berkshireweekend

March 9, 2023
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By the scuffed ground around the bowl, I’m not the only small person who has found this magic circle. I’m out in the golden hour, walking on the lower loop through Hopkins Forest.

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Ceramics artist Karlene Jean Kantner shows her handbuilt earthenware vessels at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Press photo courtesy of BBG
Photo by Kate Abbott
Visual Arts

Clay from an outdoor fire-pit carries ‘Volumes’

March 8, 2023
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Wood-firing ceramics in an open-face pit is a volatile craft — Karlene Kantner can spend 12 hours and more stoking the fire when she makes the clay vessels she has shown at Berkshire Botanical Garden.

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Explore the Berkshires
From back roads to backstage
Kate Abbott
KateAbbott@btwberkshires.com
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