The Vessel and the Painting
June 1, 2024On the afternoon of Essex’s Groundhog Day parade, figures walk through the misty streets, past clapboard houses and American flags, and gather in The Griswold Inn’s Wine Bar....
Estuary for Young Readers #14
June 1, 2024My little cousin, Ben, broadcast the news as he left my side and ran into his house, “JJ’s home! JJ’s home!”...
What’s For Dinner? Summertime, Summertime!
June 1, 2024Nothing screams summer like a bowl full of tomatoes freshly picked from the garden....
New Community Park Coming to the Riverfront
March 1, 2024Moments after we stepped out of our car and began to take in the 61 acres of open space sweeping down to the Connecticut River, we spied a coyote skirting the tree line....
Estuary for Young Readers #13
March 1, 2024“So, how?” Lieutenant Dunbar said, arms folded, eyes squinted, staring out across the Rappahannock River. “The cavalry could just charge across the river at Kelly’s Ford, but they’d get blown out of the water by those three cannons....
Celebrating Microcultures
March 1, 2024On a tributary a mile west of the Connecticut River, above an old milldam in Centerbrook, Connecticut, a small former auger bit factory breathes the 21st century air...
What’s For Dinner? Spring Asparagus Two Ways
March 1, 2024Welcome to spring! It’s such a delicious time of the year....
Estuary for Young Readers #12
December 1, 2023At the same instant the tree limb went crashing to the ground, the hot-air balloon broke loose and shot up so fast that in seconds I found myself clinging for dear life to the safe end of the limb and looking up at the bottom of the basket....
A Story of Restoration: Of a Car, Not Fish
December 1, 2023This is a love story. An unusual one, perhaps. Nonetheless a tale of steadfast devotion and affection that has endured through good times and bad for many, many decades....
What’s for Dinner? Apple Cider Braised Chicken
December 1, 2023Bone-chilling days call for bone-in chicken....
Ribs and Roots
September 1, 2023Now we turn our attention to the colors and flavors below the ground—the roots—such as potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, celery root, sweet potatoes, turnips, and ginger, to name a few....
Estuary for Young Readers #11
September 1, 2023My battalion of three-month Connecticut Union Army volunteers, along with a cavalry unit and a couple of drummer boys, sailed out of New Haven on board a double paddle-wheel ferry headed for Camp Glenwood, a mile or two north of Washington, DC....
Currents of Culture
June 1, 2023Just at the southern bend of the Farmington River, high on a hill above Miss Porter’s School and the grave of William Gillette, poets are gathering....
Estuary for Young Readers #10
June 1, 2023While Mum cleared the supper dishes from the table, Cap starts talking about me taking over responsibility of the ferry right away, saying nice things like I’m so much better at ferrying than he ever was when he was my age, and how I know so much more now because I’ve made a study of the river, the tides, the currents, and such, and how my whole approach to ferrying is more modern than his....
Lawn Care We Can Live With
March 4, 2023Ah, spring. For the gardeners among us it is the long-awaited return to being outside, smelling the soil, welcoming the sun. And regardless of how you spent your winter month —planning or just anticipating—the gardening season is now upon us. And suddenly there’s oh so much to do....
Book Announcement- If Only Houses Could Talk
March 1, 2023A bright side of COVID gave Portland, Connecticut, architect Alain Munkittrick time to produce his book depicting 160 restored and historic houses in the Connecticut River Valley, all of which have stories to tell....
The Spirit of The Kate
March 1, 2023The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, affectionately and officially known as “The Kate,” is first and foremost a performance space....
Gardening for Good- Lawn Care We Can Live With
March 1, 2023Ah, spring. For the gardeners among us it is the long-awaited return to being outside, smelling the soil, welcoming the sun. And regardless of how you spent your winter month —planning or just anticipating—the gardening season is now upon us. And suddenly there’s oh so much to do....
What’s For Dinner?
March 1, 2023For centuries it had been thought that one should only eat shellfish in a month with an R in it—the “R factor”—and for good reason....
Estuary for Young Readers #9
March 1, 2023Here in Saybrook, we’re still adjusting to the idea that our new President, Abraham Lincoln, is calling up an army so he can preserve the Union and abolish slavery....
Estuary for Young Readers
December 1, 2022I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
Made You Look
December 1, 2022These sorts of outdoor spaces often serve as both installations and galleries for the sculptors....
Lying in Wait
December 1, 2022Those familiar cinnamon plumes, waving in unison from their towering vantage point above our marshes and sand dunes, were not always so abundant, or robust....
What’s for Dinner- Savory Apple Stuffed Chicken Breast with Cider Sauce
December 1, 2022Yum yum summertime…and what better way to celebrate than to have a barbeque! Our choices are diverse, but let’s focus on what’s fresh and readily available at this time of the year. What comes to mind? … Corn and tomatoes, which can be prepared with a minimum of fuss…and what a delight to the eyes as well....
Gardening for Good- The Best Time to Garden
August 31, 2022Those familiar cinnamon plumes, waving in unison from their towering vantage point above our marshes and sand dunes, were not always so abundant, or robust....
Estuary for Young Readers
August 31, 2022I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
What’s for Dinner- Bounties of the Fall Harvest
August 31, 2022Yum yum summertime…and what better way to celebrate than to have a barbeque! Our choices are diverse, but let’s focus on what’s fresh and readily available at this time of the year. What comes to mind? … Corn and tomatoes, which can be prepared with a minimum of fuss…and what a delight to the eyes as well....
The Art & Scienceof the Connecticut River
May 31, 2022Beyond a small café and an administrative building, four banners hang from the welcome hall portico: the Cat in the Hat, an Indian Motorcycle, a T-Rex, and a 19th century painting of a young girl by William-Adolphe Bouguereau....
What’s for Dinner
May 31, 2022Yum yum summertime…and what better way to celebrate than to have a barbeque! Our choices are diverse, but let’s focus on what’s fresh and readily available at this time of the year. What comes to mind? … Corn and tomatoes, which can be prepared with a minimum of fuss…and what a delight to the eyes as well....
Estuary for Young Readers
May 31, 2022I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
Estuary for Young Readers
February 28, 2022I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
What’s for Dinner
February 28, 2022Not just for pancakes, maple syrup has been a staple in the North American diet for centuries....
The Secret Bog
February 28, 2022Wildflowers—on my own home turf here, at the southern end of the Connecticut: this should be fun....
Maple Sugaring
February 28, 2022The maple sugaring season is one of the most celebrated and ephemeral of spring events to occur up and down the Connecticut River watershed....
Estuary for Young Readers
December 1, 2021I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
What’s for Dinner? – Turkey Pot Pie
December 1, 2021Yum yum summertime…and what better way to celebrate than to have a barbeque! Our choices are diverse, but let’s focus on what’s fresh and readily available at this time of the year. What comes to mind? … Corn and tomatoes, which can be prepared with a minimum of fuss…and what a delight to the eyes as well....
One Photograph – Woods, Brooks & Early Spring
December 1, 2021But from the first few dreamy days of April on well into May, where better to discover springtime than in one’s own patch of cozy, quaint New England woods?...
Tales of a Connecticut River Ferryman’s Son
September 1, 2021I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
What’s For Dinner?
September 1, 2021Plump and ripe with sweetness, the apples and gourds are ready to tease the palate with new flavors and aromas—a genuine departure from summer fare....
What’s For Dinner?
May 31, 2021Yum yum summertime…and what better way to celebrate than to have a barbeque! Our choices are diverse, but let’s focus on what’s fresh and readily available at this time of the year. What comes to mind? … Corn and tomatoes, which can be prepared with a minimum of fuss…and what a delight to the eyes as well....
Tales of a Connecticut River Ferryman’s Son #2
May 31, 2021I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
The Taste of Home
May 31, 2021As you settle in to watch the sun setting over the leafy ridges, you sip a glass and wonder where you are. Is this wine country?...
Hands on the Land
May 27, 2021Hands on the Land: Art & the Environment in the Connecticut River Valley” is a collaborative exhibit between the Connecticut River Museum and the Lyme Art Association....
Building Along the Lower Connecticut
March 1, 2021Welcome to the lower Connecticut River valley! This last section of the river, just before and as it reaches the Atlantic Ocean, is a scenic and grandiflora tour de force that rivals any along the eastern seaboard of the United States. Birders, naturalists, and the first American Impressionist painters—anyone in love with nature and her bounty—have for centuries known about and continue to find wonder in and draw inspiration from this greenest of green deviants from the generally-overpopulated coastline....
Foraging for a Spring Treat
March 1, 2021They’re delicious and free for the picking! Before the oaks and maples leaf out in early spring, tasty fiddleheads are pushing through the bronze leaf litter in moist woodlands throughout New England....
Tales of a Connecticut River Ferryman’s Son
March 1, 2021I put my hand out in front of me like I’m offering to shake and say: “How do you do, sir. I’m called JJ, just like my father, and his father, and his father before him. We’re all ferrymen here in Old Saybrook, and we’re all called JJ.”...
What’s for DINNER?
March 1, 2021Lamb vs. Mutton They are both domestic sheep…but hardly interchangeable....
What’s for Dinner?
November 29, 2020Pekin Duck and Peking Duck are wildly different! Peking Duck is the cooking preparation and presentation of a duck dish originated in Peking (Beijing), China, during the Imperial era and is still popular today....
A Connecticut River Odyssey
September 1, 2020Book memorializes 400-mile paddle down New England’s great waterway...
What’s for Dinner?
September 1, 2020Quail is an upland gamebird, which, according to Wikipedia is an American term that refers to “non-waterfowl birds hunted with pointing breeds, flushing spaniels, and retrievers.” However, if you’re not “game” for dashing through field and wood and pulling shot out of your prey, thankfully there are many choices today from your local gourmet shop or butcher....
A Solitude of Space
September 1, 2020Three miles from the Connecticut River, we stood in a circle under a tree in the garden of Emily Dickinson’s home, reading poems, passing a book around, no more than two or three feet from each other. The 1813 Amherst home built for her grandparents stood proudly in the sunshine, and the voices of another tour group filtered out....
What’s for Dinner?
June 1, 2020There are so many opportunities today to enjoy fish from around the world but indigenous trout have always been a North American favorite....
Naulakha
June 1, 2020Just a mile from the river, North of Brattleboro in the tiny village of Dummerston, a bungalow-style house perches on a hillside. With views across to Mount Monadnock, this magnificent home called “Naulakha” was built by Rudyard Kipling after he married Vermont heiress Caroline Balestier. When Kipling wasn’t playing tennis with Arthur Conan Doyle, he wrote The Jungle Book (in which the short story about the courageous mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, appears) and Captains Courageous here....
About the Seasonal Ecology Mural
March 1, 2020In 2016, the Connecticut River Museum commissioned renowned wildlife artist Mike DiGiorgio to create a painting that would bring to life the tidal marshes of the lower Connecticut River. The painting was photographed by award-winning photographer Jody Dole and enlarged to a mural that is 81 ¼” L x 76” H and installed as a permanent exhibit at the Museum....
Name Gourmand
March 1, 2020A poem by GRAY JACOBIK, a widely-published,nationally-recognized American poet....
What’s for Dinner?
March 1, 2020Well, if it’s May or June, it’s fresh shad! Indigenous to the East Coast from Newfoundland to Florida, American shad migrate from the salty Atlantic to fresh river waters to spawn. Its Latin name, Alosa Sapidissima, translates to “most savory shad” or “delicious herring,” which indeed it is. Shad’s unique flavor is both an acquired and sought after taste....