New England Things

It has been around in Providence since 1970 – I was just introduced. Fun and festive, cheap and cheerful. Good Margaritas.

www.tortillaflatsri.com

Famous writers have waxed poetically on their love of Fenway Park and the Red Sox – Here I go:

I went to a game against the Angels in April and felt like I was attending like an award winning play with the best stage set imaginable – the seating is dense like settlements across New England. I thought there must be hundreds of towns represented in these seats and for this evening we were in a town square watching our local stars put on a show.

There was also a beautiful Dunkin Donuts billboard in Japanese.

To get through the winter I decided at age – well nevermind – to learn to ski. I had no more excuses: Wachusett mountain is only 20 minutes away, they have night skiing til 10 pm, they have all these discounts. Cut to: Three months later and I didn’t want the winter to end!!

I did a bit of research and before global warming there were hundreds of little ski slopes all over New England where people skied on any ol’ incline – for free. It is all catalogued on the New England Lost Ski Areas website NELSAP.org. As for me, I bought a half price season pass for next year at Wachusett (still available until May 31st) and i’m planning a trip to visit my friend Dave who loves the $15 1/2 day lift tickets at Bousquets in Pittsfield Mass.

Bousquets still uses this vintage trailmap – what happened to big pompoms?

www.wachusett.com
www.bousquets.com
www.nelsap.org

Snowshoe on Mt. Monadnock – like some more active friends of mine who sent me this photo from the summit.

http://www.nhparks.state.nh.us/ParksPages/Monadnock/Monadnock.html

I love Ethiopian Food – you can file it under the type world cuisine that knows how to perfectly spice food. There is a spice called Bebere that is to Ethiopian food what Garam Masala is to Indian food. It is a long list of spices ground together that turns things I do not ordinarily love -like lentils and split peas – into things I do love. Injera is the spongy bread that soaks up the Bebere lentils and it is super savory. There are a few Ethiopian restaurants in Boston – this is my favorite.

Addis Red Sea • 544 Tremont St. Boston, Massachusetts

Today I wanted to find a nature walk within a thirty minute drive that I’d never visited. Well, I found Tophet Chasm in Harvard on the map – I’d been to Harvard and walked the beautifully prevserved Shaker village but never heard of Tophet Chasm.

A chasm is “a yawning fissure or deep cleft in the earth’s surface” -A very literary and inspired definition. The area is right off of Rt 110 and there are a couple of hikes that feel surprisingly remote and Vermont-like for being in a pretty densly populated area.

Tophet Chasm at Oak Hill is managed by the Littleton Convervation Trust which has another 17 parks and trails and a nice website with trail maps.

Oak Hill – Tophet Chasm Conservation Land – King and Oak Hill Roads off Mass 110

www.littletonconservationtrust.org

Upton Tea Imports
I try to buy locally and I’ve started seeking out New England manufacturers, crafts (the new and old) and purveyors (because purveyor sounds so old world). Upton Tea Imports is a purveyor of…Tea – hundreds of teas. As a business they have some really nice touches – Your tea comes in a personalized tin and they send you a quarerly newsletter that includes a a historical tea story (Reversal of Fortune in the Tea Industry Part 2: The Yuan Dynasty!), A brief guide to tea for making the perfect cup and their catalog with lists and lists of teas with wine-like descriptions – buttery, melon aftertaste, malty finish, hints of butterscotch. Did I mention they take tea seriously?

And they are actually in Hopkington Massachusets – Unfortunatly they are only a mail-order business. I think they should consider opening a tea salon.

www.uptontea.com