When I had first told my family and friends that I was going to be moving to the Pioneer Valley last Spring, the most common question I was asked was “how close will you be to Yankee Candle?” (and the answer is that I’m about ten minutes away.) You see, the Yankee Candle in Deerfield, […]
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One of the perks of living in the Pioneer Valley is that there is no shortage of small, independent or family-owned/operated businesses and farms that have managed to get creative in this pandemic in order to safely keep their doors open and continue serving their community. I’ve been trying to shop local whenever possible these […]
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Time has been nothing short of an illusion in 2020, often feeling like it dragged on for an eternity when all the days- each very similar to the one before it in this age of quarantines and lockdowns- seemed to blend together into one continuous loop. As the end of the year gets closer and […]
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I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Florence, Massachusetts (a village in the northwestern part of Northampton) that much lately, not because I don’t like it there or because it’s not picturesque and beautiful – because it really is! – but because the pandemic hasn’t really given me a chance to go out to eat […]
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When I moved to the Pioneer Valley a little over a year ago, I sacrificed a couple of things *other than* my being within a short driving distance from my immediate family, longtime friends and my jobs. I also sacrificed space- having significantly reduced my square footage from my previous residence in the name of […]
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This past weekend, I went to a friend’s outdoor and socially distanced wedding ceremony in New Hampshire. While mutual friends and I were wearing our masks and tossing hand sanitizer to one another at the reception- one of them jokingly told me that I needed to get myself set up in a “Hallmark Movie Romance” […]
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The “On This Day” and archive features on social media are such interesting things- moreso in this ongoing age of COVID-19 and especially during the Summer. Although plenty of things I’d posted upwards to 10+ years ago are cringe-inducing- it’s bittersweet to look back on recent Summers before forced quarantines, social distancing and mandated masks […]
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To me, the end of May also marks the end of Spring, which means- of course- that the beginning of June is the unofficial beginning of Summer. Usually I like to celebrate the transition of the seasons this time of year with a trip to a greenhouse to pick up some flowers for my kitchen […]
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Coffee & Chiffon 