Issues → March/April 2009 → Features →
Inside Yankee: March/April
Journeys: travel the border, along stone walls, into spring
by Mel Allen
Who among us doesn't love a journey? Come along with us in this issue, as we seem to have journeys on the mind. First, Edie Clark takes us to the northern reaches of New England in "Along the Border", as she meanders back and forth along the U.S./Canadian boundary line. Over the course of several visits, she found that what was once the "friendliest border in the world" has changed dramatically for people living between the two countries.
In "Fresh Start", by Annie B. Copps, six notable chefs travel from winter to spring, selecting one favorite ingredient--parsnips, sorrel, fiddleheads, or rhubarb, among others--to highlight as the earth finally warms. Robert Thorson, profiled by Jim Collins in "New England's Stone Wall Defender," has traveled countless miles over the past 25 years documenting the fate of what he calls New England's true archaeological ruins. It's easy to take stone walls for granted--they're everywhere in rural New England. When Professor Thorson looks at them, though, he sees our walls disappearing at an alarming rate.
One of the prettiest places in New England to see stone walls, among many other bucolic vistas, is a nook of Connecticut and Massachusetts that combines many towns and villages under the geographic rubric "The Last Green Valley." Annie Graves let herself get "Lost in the Last Green Valley," and her enthusiasm for a place she'd never seen before comes through on each page. Photographer Lisa Sacco took her camera there with the assignment to capture green. You'll see that emerald light fairly bursting from her lens, a welcome sight after our black-and-white days of winter.
Steve Kemper journeyed north as well, and back in time, as he explored "Vermont's Sleeping Roads." The issue surrounding these roads is anything but a sleepy affair, however, as many lives could be affected by potential disputes over these long-forgotten rights of way.
But there's no disputing the pleasure that I hope awaits you as you journey from the first page of our March/April issue to the last. Happy spring awaits us all.
Reader Comments
Registered users can add comments.
Registration is free, and just takes a moment.
Login or Register.