Here are a few items that didn’t merit a full blog post of their own, but that I still wanted to include.
Near the very small center of town in Heath, nestled among the prolific growth of hickory and maple trees in the area, lies a stone cottage that can easily be missed as you drive by. What makes this one notable is that for a time it was the occasional home of Reinhold Niebuhr. He was a renowned theologian of the first half of the 20th century. He is credited as the author of Serenity Prayer and is said to have first preached it in the church a few steps from the cottage.
We were surprised to learn of the artistic heritage of this part of New England. It seems that everywhere we turned we encountered art in one form or another – outdoor music events, writers, glass blowers, ceramics artists, artists of other media. In addition, there were multiple universities and art museums within an hour’s drive, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the Clark Art Institute, with an extensive collection of works by Renoir.
Ticks have become a major problem in this part of the country. We saw them often, and both of us repeatedly found ticks on our skin. It put a damper on our desire to do outdoor activities. Upwards of 25% of ticks in the area test positive for Lyme disease, and we met people who had been impacted by debilitating cases of Lyme.
The locals say Massachusetts has two seasons: July and winter. Even though we were only there for five months, we felt we understood the meaning. We arrived in winter, which lasted much longer than what we’re used to in California; once it finally warmed up (around July), we started seeing signs of fall coming on. In reality the summertime weather we experienced in northwestern Massachusetts was very pleasant. It is not the same hot, humid weather you find in Boston. The extensive forests covering the landscape in every direction kept the temperature very pleasant. The one unusual weather event we experienced appeared to be a tornado; there was a distinct stretch of trees about two miles from our house sit where multiple trees had been blown down and the power went out for several hours.
