The Hoosic River faces challenges to a healthy flow of water for the plants and animals and people who live along it, and local nonprofits and volunteers are talking about the future — as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opens a study that has taken years to secure.
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Curing cabin fever with bright color — #Berkshireweekend
I’ve walked into the Plant Connector on a winter night, whenNorth Adams is quiet, and Meg Bantle and Laura Tupper-Palches from Full Well Farm are teaching a workshop on how to make flower crowns.
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Hot coffee and the swish of leaves — #Berkshireweekend
Where the Hoosic River and the Green River meet, the late maples are gold and sifting down along the bank. You can walk through them ankle deep and stir up the mild sweet mushroom scent.
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The Old Stone Mill turns waste into wellness
Printmaker Leni Fried and metalworker Michael Augspurger are growing the Old Stone Mill in Adams as a Zero Waste Maker Space.
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How to meet a mountain in the rain (August 25 newsletter)
You can see 90 miles from here on a clear day. We can see about 30 feet across the meadow. Up here on the summit of Mount Greylock at the end of a storm, we’re islanded in cloud.
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Spirits of the past — Tracing the Jenks family through 400 years (By the Way column)
Last week I stood on a hill where one of my ancestors stood 230 years ago. Christmas is supposed to be a time for ghosts. Between the old year and the new year, we have a few days out of time. Maybe that’s why so many Christmas stories commune with spirits. […]
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A winter walk on the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail ambles along Cheshire Reservoir
Pronounced Ash-oo-WILL-ti-cook, the Ashuwillticook bike path between Lanesborough and Adams in the Hoosac River Valley takes its name from the American Indian language. Ashuwillticook literally means “at the in-between pleasant river” or, more commonly today, “the pleasant river in between the hills.” Now the south branch of the Hoosic River […]
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Hiking the Hopper Trail up Mount Greylock — BTW column
I’ve been wanting to Hike the Hopper since the first weekend I lived here in summer. In June 1999, after my junior year, I shared a roomy apartment with college friends on the first floor of a big yellow house on Park Street. I wanted to pick strawberries, and someone […]
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Mass MoCA now among the largest contemporary art museums in the world
The tapered wooden shapes are forms for making leather shoes. They are set here in the form of a woman’s body. Women need to feel safe, says the man leading a group to look at the work, and his voice carries across the gallery. When women came out to march […]
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Beausoleil music fills a March night with light
Mitch and Jen Reed, known among the best Cajun fiddlers in the country and champions of the potato waltz in their hometown, played as though they were sharing a potluck in their own music room, with a tub of recorders and penny whistles on the table.
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