Grass is growin’, time to think about mowin’. The warm weather of last week awakened grass, and now cooler and somewhat moist conditions have spurred grass growth. However, before cranking up the mower, rake the lawn to remove dead grass, leaves, twigs, hat and corn cob pipe from your melted…
It’s a reflex for many of us around this time of year to spread fertilizer over our lawns. We may do this out of habit, but like any habit, this one has consequences, many of them not so good.
The recent wacky weather has Garden Journal columnist Ron Kujawski pondering why his Thanksgiving cactus is flowering just in time for Easter and what's causing it to bloom. He also has a list of garden chores for the week ahead.
Naturewatch columnist Thom Smith answers readers' questions about hummingbirds and ticks and provides on update on the status of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
If you're getting out to enjoy this warm weather, columnist Thom Smith wants to remind you that any day above 35 degrees is tick weather.
Happy and healthy New Year!
Gardens are ephemeral. That’s a simple fact, and one I was quickly made aware of by my first job after horticultural school. I was hired by Columbia University to restore, as best I could, the landscaping on a historic Hudson River estate it had turned into a research campus some 30 years pr…
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NatureWatch columnist Thom Smith answers reader's questions about the types of squirrels seen in the fall and winter; the ash borer and how to draw birds to heated bird baths.
Not all insects die with the onset of cold winter; many spend the winter over in leaves, under bark, or elsewhere outside. The wooly bear caterpillar, or woolly worm, is the caterpillar we look to for a prediction about the coming winter. The story is the narrower the rust-brown stripe in th…
Garden columnist Thomas Christopher discusses Dr. Enrique Salmón's new book "Iwígara: The Kinship of Plants and People" (Timber Press 2020)" and what we can learn from native people about native plants in our area.
Do not doubt the blue jay! It is a Corvid, along with crows and ravens, and all are well known as intelligent birds. They have helped spread oaks by spreading acorns, and even as intelligent as they may be, blue jays do on occasion misplace an acorn and other seeds, as do squirrels. I imagine that sometimes one may die before gleaning its cache.
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Get a sneak peek at Naumkeag's Daffodil and Tulip Festival before it opens this week
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Sohn Fine Art changes viewers perspective of still lifes in new exhibit
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WTF's Mandy Greenfield: In-person season will be 'intense undertaking' but Festival is ready
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Thom Smith: The 17-year locusts are coming! But not to the Berkshires ...
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Ron Kujawski: Already itching to mow? You better measure your grass first ...
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Thom Smith: Should we be worried about bird-feeder salmonella?
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Housatonic: A 'simmering' village on the cusp ... of what? Villagers aren't sure yet.
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Great Barrington Public Theater presents virtual world premiere of David Mamet monologues
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Aimee Molloy book picks: Three favorite authors on what you should read next
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Film Clips: Virtual offerings include Misty Blues concert; two Oscar-nominees for best international feature
This year, Naumkeag has 130,000 daffodil and tulip bulbs planted throughout 8 acres of the 44-acre historic house and estate’s gardens. Take a virtual stroll through the estate and think spring (even if there was snow on Friday). Warmer days are ahead.
JP Terlizzi’s photographs of food and dishes are still lifes flipped on their head. Unlike their Dutch and Flemish models that approach a carefully arranged everyday scene from eye level, Terlizzi’s look straight down, turning the dismantled pomegranates and peeled lemons into new arrangements of colors and shapes.
Like each of the seven photographers featured in the juried exhibit “Perspective” now on view at Sohn Fine Art Gallery, Terlizzi reconsiders how you look at the world, and explores different ways to capture it in images.
Thinking outside the box is second nature to Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Mandy Greenfield.
It should come as no surprise, then, that for its 2021 season, Greenfield is bringing the Festival out of its boxes — the indoor Main Stage and the Nikos Stage at Williams College’s ’62 Center for Theater and Dance — into the expanse of the outdoors.
Here's what's playing — April 16 - 22 — at in-person and virtual cinemas in the Berkshires and environs.
Book columnist and New York Times best-selling author of “The Perfect Mother” Aimee Molloy recently asked some of her favorite authors what we should be reading. If you're looking for some great book suggestions, she's got them.
Q: I am interested in seeing the 17-year locusts [cicadas] and don't want to wait another 17 years. Can you suggest places to see and hear them? Will they be around here, and if so, when? I know the annual ones are always noisy here when the hot August summer days get underway.
After being closed for about a year, one of Pittsfield's iconic bars, Thistle and Mirth on West Street, has reopened — with a new co-owner, added space and a menu featuring ramen.
"I firmly believe in Pittsfield and the establishment," said co-owner Austin Oliver.
Spring is here (so we're told!) and so is outdoor dining in the Berkshires once again.
Last summer, area restaurants expanded patios, converted parking lots and set up bistro tables on sidewalks to accommodate COVID-19 restrictions. In the past week, restaurants are begun to announce reopening outdoor spaces, dusting off sun umbrellas from their long winter hiatus. Of course, a few eateries may hold off seating outdoors in the next few days unless you've got a shovel and parka with your reservation — a rare mid-April snow storm could bring a few inches of snow Thursday night into Friday.
Chez Nous co-owner Rachel Portnoy shares her memories of the first time she visited her husband's family in France in the spring: "There was a dish of fresh local radishes on the table with a pile of salt next to them. I’d never seen this and happily crunched into a spicy, puckery, salty, long radish. But one was really enough for me. The strong, unmitigated flavor definitely packed a punch! I love the way that thinly-sliced radishes can give some needed punch and color to a salad, but to eat them on their own like that, I needed a schmear of another Breton delicacy: Sardine Butter."
We all have our weaknesses; those items that you can't resist ordering when you see them on a menu, or the seasonal treat you buy whenever it appears in the store. For food columnist Elizabeth Baer, it's fresh figs. These easy, cheesy stuffed figs are the perfect way to celebrate the spring season.
HINSDALE — Eighteen years after opening Ozzie’s Steak & Eggs in March 2003, Alan and Tracey Lussier are celebrating more than just being in business that long — they’re also celebrating their customers, staff and surviving a pandemic that shut the doors on many other area restaurants.
My last column featured some of my favorite kitchen hacks. I had many comments on the various ideas I mentioned, though, only Marilyn Gattuso, a native of North Adams and a former Pittsfield resident, now of Naples, Fla., offered her favorite.
"When you burn your hand/fingers while baking or cooking, immediately place your hand in a container of flour or cover the area with flour — sting and potential blister/scar will disappear."
Book columnist and New York Times best-selling author of “The Perfect Mother” Aimee Molloy recently asked some of her favorite authors what we should be reading. If you're looking for some great book suggestions, she's got them.
A tireless advocate of the American Indian in the late 1800s and a long-time resident of Great Barrington, Charles C. Painter has slipped through the cracks as both an important figure in American history and as an accomplished Berkshirite. Author, historian and educator Valerie Sherer Mathe…
Novelist Henya Drescher has a penchant for psychological thrillers; reading and writing them.
Looking for new book recommendations? New York Times best-selling author Aimee Molloy offers up some titles that tackle big questions.
GREAT BARRINGTON — Therapist Allyson Dinneen was sitting on her couch during this Berkshires pandemic winter, still stunned that people were interested in thoughts she had been refining about pain and the multitude of emotional sufferings.
James Crews was already collecting poems of joy, hope and gratitude for "How to Love the World," when the novel coronavirus pandemic suddenly spread across the globe; forcing the majority of the population to shelter in place for the better part of 2020.
