New England - Barbara Delinsky

April 30, 2012

Fiddleheads!

They’re back! DH and I were strolling through Whole Foods the other night when I spotted a precious sign. Fiddlehead Ferns, it read – and there they were, packed in a bin with tiny ice chips to keep them crisp.

For the uninitiated, fiddleheads are the immature, unopened fronds of a fern that, when harvested at infancy, make a yummy vegetable. The season is short, really just a matter of weeks in early spring, but that’s one of the things that makes them special. Another is their scrolled shape, another their nutty taste.

March 5, 2012

The how-to of collecting maple sap

Have you ever had pure maple syrup? Once you have, the other never quite works for you again. Pure maple syrup is deep in color, rich in taste, goes down slowwwww-ly, and lingers wherever it lands. It is sweet without containing the kinds of processed sugars we’re told to avoid, which makes it a super treat.

I’m a native New Englander. My first childhood memories of pure maple anything were of the little maple sugar candies that my parents brought back from vacations up north. These came in a box of four or six and were shaped like pine cones, maple leaves, or trees. Put one in your mouth, and it melts, just like that. I have newer memories of maple products, but more on that in a sec.

February 22, 2012

Where does the dock go in winter?

We were at the lake last weekend, looking out our windows at the winterness of it all. Winterness? Try bleakness. There isn’t much snow this year, and the lake hasn’t frozen thickly. Local officials actually had to modify the rules for the annual ice fishing derby weekend, because the ice wasn’t thick enough to support the stores and restaurants, trucks and buses that occupy the frozen bay during this event. Typically, the ice is 18” thick by now.

December 4, 2011

Life’s little surprises

I love unexpected pleasures. Some hit me in the face, others are more subtle. But each is a joy.

Take this blog. I set out today to give an early December update of I write, I knit, I live. And then, tucked into each paragraph, came a little surprise, turning what might have been just another blog into something really fun.

November 1, 2011

Powerless in the age of power

So. We’re watching “Margin Call” on TV Saturday night, starting to really feel the suspense, when suddenly everything goes black. I’m not talking about just the TV. The entire house is pitch black and eerily silent.

It was the Nor’easter that had hit us, not so much with snow as with ice on trees that, thanks to an abnormally warm fall, still had plenty of leaves. Don’t get me going on global warming; suffice it to say that with ice on those leaves, limbs had dipped lower and lower, finally snapping and falling onto electrical wires all over town.

October 28, 2011

Writing in snow

We woke up this morning with a dusting of snow on the ground. It wasn’t a surprise. The weather guy has been forecasting it all week, and people have been talking, most with moans and groans.

Not me. I’m ready. The trees are already half-bare; pine needles cover the yard. A coating of snow pretties things up. The first snow of the season always does. Besides, it won’t snarl traffic. The roads are too warm for much to stick, and here in Boston’s MetroWest, we didn’t get more than an inch.

But it’s a harbinger.

October 24, 2011

Lake news

We were at the lake this weekend, and it was amazing. The foliage is past peak, but there were still a few brilliant shots. The lake water is colder now, so you don’t get the mist rising as it did in September when the water was warmer than the air. And the water is very still — I mean, it doesn’t move. I’m always struck by that in fall.

October 20, 2011

Big damage at a book signing

I kid you not. It happened yesterday in West Hartford, Connecticut, where I did an UPLIFT signing at Lyn Evans Potpourri Designs.

Don’t know the name? If you live in New England, you likely do. There are eight of these stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut; they are specialty boutiques that carry chic clothes for women of all ages. I‘ve bought many things over the years in my local Potpourri, but had never been to the West Hartford one. Nor did I know that Lyn Evans, the owner, is devoted to doing charity events – in the case of UPLIFT, in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

September 9, 2011

Displaying family pictures in a digital age

Remember when we used to sit on the floor sorting through boxes of photos, reminiscing, laughing or groaning depending on how we looked back then? There is no box now. Our photos are on the computer, the iPad or the phone.

So how do we reminisce?

I start by combing through digital files, picking the best shots and printing them out. I don’t do fancy editing, only what’s available in iPhoto, but I do like to tinker with my pictures, cropping, fixing red eye, enhancing color. Once they’re printed, I frame them and put them wherever there’s room in the house.