FRIDAY'S FOTO

Wouldn't you love a home like this one in Lenox, MA?
This is The Mount.

It belonged to Edith Wharton, novelist and expert in home design,
whose book, The Decoration of Houses is still studied today.
The Mount is an incredibly wonderful and beautiful place to visit with expansive gardens,
ponds, and gorgeous views.

Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence.
She was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times.
Perhaps you've read The House of Mirth somewhere in your
American Literature studies.

TRAVEL TIPS--GREAT DIRECTIONS FINDER!!!!

I’ve been using a great mapping program, HopStop.com. This is the perfect traveling companion. It will give you directions—walking, taxi (including estimated cost), mass transit, etc.—when you fill in your starting point and destination.

If you choose the “itinerary” option filling in several locations, it will map them all for you and give you a map of the tour you’ve created. Additionally, you can look at your tour and find out other attractions, restaurants, etc. along the way! Fantastic.

There’s a feature to view "user suggested itineraries" as well as other tours. Today I found a list of prime viewer spots for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as well as an itinerary covering Museum Mile in NYC.

Not enough good news? You can use your cell phone or PDA to ask for and receive directions on the spot! Just look at the site and follow directions! (Ha Ha)

HopStop covers New York City, Boston, Chicago, the Metro North area (in Beta), New Jersey, Washington D.C., Long Island, and San Francisco. If you’re traveling to any of these cities, make sure you try HopStop and add the url to your favorites menu on your computer so you can come back time and again. It will make getting around so much easier--another way to make travel more enjoyable.

HopStop itinerary mapper "Map+program" "New+York" Chicago "San+Francisco" "Washington+D.C." "Long+Island" "Metro+North" Boston "travel+tips" travel "third+age" "third+age+traveler" seniors "senior+travel" maps cities "travel+aids" pda cell "cell+phone" text "text+messaging"

THE MOUNT -- LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS

After visiting Kykuit, I noted that wealthy, powerful men build homes with views of expansive lawns and water. Let me modify that. Wealthy women do too. Witness Edith Wharton’s home in the Berkshires where she wrote several of her most famous novels including Ethan Frome and Age of Innocence.

The Mount, Wharton’s home for about ten years beginning in 1902 until her divorce and expatriation to France in 1913, sat on 120 acres in beautiful Lenox, Mass. Today, 49 of those acres belong to the Edith Wharton Trust, an organization dedicated to restoring Wharton’s summer “cottage” to its original splendor.

What makes a visit here so worthwhile is Wharton herself. She broke the mold of dependent Victorian women by taking a full hand in designing both the elegant house where she shunned the Gilded Age’s excess to bring a European-inspired simplicity and symmetry to the design and the elaborate gardens which she envisioned as extensions of the home’s living space. While she worked with an architect and landscaper from Boston, Wharton is recognized as the guiding spirit behind the ambitious project. Her book, The Decoration of Houses, presented Wharton’s theories of design, and it is still in print and consulted more than a century later. She was a believer in symmetry, and if you look at my photos, you will notice how strictly she held that standard—even at the entryway to her home.

Edith Wharton bought the property with money earned by writing, and she thrived as a writer in this magnificent retreat producing short stories, three works of nonfiction, and six novels including The House of Mirth. She once wrote after receiving a check for her writing, “Many thanks for the cheque for $2,191.84 which, even to the 81 cents, is welcome to an author in the last throes of house-building.” I guess even the rich....

Don’t balk at the $16.00 entrance fee. It’s $16.00 well spent. We received a magnificent catalogue (which would easily cost $10.00 or more at other sites) filled with information about Wharton, the house and gardens, and the restoration work done, in progress, and contemplated by The Edith Wharton Trust. Newly completed is Edith Wharton’s library, the permanent home of her 2,700 book collection begun in her childhood and continuing until just before her death.

To begin our journey, Rob and I walked past the entrance into the huge stables. There we viewed an intelligent, informative video on Edith Wharton’s life, works, and home at The Mount. We learned about her background, childhood, and marriage, which, when it dissolved, caused her leave the house and relocate to France for the rest of her life.

We walked the quarter mile from the stables to the Mansion. It looked like a mansion to me although we were assured by the docents that in her day, Edith Wharton’s “cottage” was small and reserved. If you’ve ever been to Newport where the other socialites of her day built their “cottages,” you’ll know that’s true!

Rob and I took two tours of the Mansion, both included in the admission. The first, an hour long tour of Wharton’s beautiful gardens, was spectacular because we were the only two people on the tour, a reward, in part, of retirees’ ability to travel on weekdays. The volunteer guide was well versed in the types and habits of the garden rooms and paths as well as how the restorative work was done on the walks and walls. She indicated the differences in the land since Wharton’s time and how her views out to the water were different.

If you notice the stairs in this photos, you’ll see they are cut into the earth and are made of grass.

Interestingly, in trying to recreate the size of one huge arbor (pictured below), they relied on photographs taken at the time of one particular visitor. By looking at his photos in different areas of the house, researchers were able to establish his height. Then, going back to the proposed arbor, they were able to establish its dimensions. As we listened to stories such as this one, we came to understand the puzzles that had to be solved before restoration could even begin.

On the second tour, the tour of the mansion, we were joined by a visiting group of Red Hatters. The house is exquisite, a stunning stylistic mixture of 18th century French and English sources. Yet, it is 100% American in its conveniences and plumbing! The combinations are seamless; the result is worth seeing with the guide who explained, once again, the painstaking research to recreate in as many ways possible, the home as well as the spirit of the home. Modern day designers put their own touches and approaches to work in each room’s decoration, relying on photographs as well as the information in Wharton’s The Decoration of Houses. For instance, Wharton shunned color descriptions such as jonquil yellow or willow green. She wrote of her attraction to black for staircase railings. At the Mount, the railings are black and the walls are a neutral tint, thus adding a dramatic effect Wharton sought. The designers paid close attention to detail. In the dining room, for instance, there is a cushion near Wharton’s chair for her favorite dog.

My favorite room was the library with its beautifully carved bookcases, shelves filled with exquisitely bound volumes that, in themselves, create an intellectual autobiography. Although Wharton wrote her own books in bed in the mornings, there is a wonderful desk in the library, parquet floors, and floor to ceiling windows to allow for adequate lighting. It’s a glorious room—a room to envy.

I add that there is a European bistro, the Terrace Café, but it was closed when we were there. There are lectures throughout the season (June to Aug.), and a variety of other special events. Famous writers appear—In Aug., 2006 former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky (who I've seen at the Dodge Poetry Festival) appeared as part of an annual poetry series. Visit the Mount’s website for information and some stunning photographs.

The Mount, as well as the entire Lenox area, is an exciting place for a book lover.

ASTERS REDUX - PITTSFIELD, MA

Asters Redux

Back in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Rob and I head once again to Asters for a quiet, vaguely romantic dinner for two. Asters’ ambiance remains a lure with its black and light colored décor and subtle candlelight at each table. The staff is friendly, and the service excellent and intent on making the Asters experience a good one. This is a great place to remember.

This time Rob and I sit in the bigger dining room. There’s a lovely fireplace there, and this night it is lighted. The room is warm and comfortable.

We pass on the appetizers though the selection from the raw bar is tempting. We tried entrees different from our first visit, and were equally enthralled.

Rob has a yellow fin tuna, sauteed in garlic and lemon-caper sauce. It is served with carmelized onions, mashed potatoes and string beans. Absolutely perfect.

I order lamb chops, and am given three. They are char-grilled with carmelized leeks and roasted red pepper. They are served with twice-baked potatoes, string beans, and English mint sauce. It is the kind of dish over which one lingers, enjoying each morsel.

The ambiance, the lighting, and the wonderful meal causes us to relax and delight in each aroused sense.

Yes, this time we do sit back and order dessert and coffee—our reason for skipping the appetizers. Our selection—the same—crème brulee, the top a sweet crust of raw sugar. This luscious dessert is topped with the sweetest strawberry and mango slices. This is telling and important when reflecting about Asters. It’s the little extra touches that make the difference. If you’re intrigued by the little extra touches a good restaurant can offer, take the same advice we gave to the couple sharing the hotel’s spa with us when they asked for an excellent local restaurant—try Asters.

Asters
1015 South Street
Pittsfield, MA 01201

There’s an air of sophistication in Asters, a sleek restaurant in Pittsfield, MA. known for its raw bar, wine room, firepit patio (operating even when we dined there in February), and Jazz bar. Owned since 2003 by the present restaurateur, Asters began as the Humphrey farmhouse in 1790. Walking in is touching history.

The décor, black tables and chairs against walls of cream and green, is modern and comfortable. There are stylish black and white photographs decorating the walls, and in the background, the music is soft, light, jazz, classic pop or big band sounds. There’s lots of wood, a gorgeous bar, and subdued candle-lighted tables. There’s nothing old or stodgy here. Even in February, fire danced in the open pit on the patio although no one ventured out. The dress—casual chic. It’s difficult not to be drawn into the warmth and ambiance of Asters.

The menu is enticing. Tempted though we are by the Malpeque Oysters from PEI (hello Anne of Green Gables fans), and the appetizers and soups, we look at the desserts and decide to save ourselves for a glorious finale. Desserts are not listed on the menu; they’re prepared and presented as works of edible art.

I order a special—Salmon Wellington—salmon with mushrooms and artichokes served encroute. Rob chooses pork loin stuffed with cranberries and raisins. Selecting is difficult; everything is described on the menu and sounds delicious.

Art as well as taste is considered by our chef. Presentation matters. My salmon, with mushrooms and artichoke filling, is beautiful in its puff pastry wrapping, a sprig of herb decorating the accompanying caramelized onions, garlic mashed potatoes and herbed green beans.

Rob’s pork is excellent, the center of each slice dotted with fruit stuffing of currents, apples, dried cranberries and raisins. It is finished with a bacon sherry vinaigrette, and it is scrumptious. His, too, is served with those garlic mashed potatoes and herbed green beans.

Alas, savoring our entrées leaves no room for dessert, and coffee has to suffice. But we are happy, satisfied, and very ready to recommend this restaurant to you.

LONG WEEKEND IN THE BERKSHIRE MTS. OF MASSACHUSETTS

We wake up, a heavy fog clinging to the mountains and trees, blanketing the snow in thick, grey mist. On our winter vacations we normally wake to the lovely sound of waves washing up a pristine beach. It has been many years since we’ve taken a winter vacation to a winter site, but this short sojourn to Massachusetts’ Berkshires was just the ticket.

Why write about it in May? The Berkshires truly is a four-season area. In the fall there’s antiquing and foliage; winter brings phenomenal skiing; summer is lakes, music (Tanglewood), fishing, hiking and cycling; and spring is awakening nature and art galleries. The area boasts museums—many of literary fame: Edith Wharton’s, Robert Frost’s and Herman Melville’s homes. There’s also the Hancock Shaker Village. This is just a smattering of the possibilities, and the area’s accessibility from urban areas makes it even more attractive. Rob and I are here to relax, unwind, and to visit, in particular, the Norman Rockwell Museum.

We stay in Pittsfield, MA, in the Patriot Suites Hotel, and have a very comfortable suite including a kitchenette, an oversized bathroom, a great master bedroom and king-size bed and TV, and a nice, big living room with a convertible sofa, a TV armoire and dvd player. There’s plenty of dresser space as well as two big closets. Included is a continental breakfast served in a big, centrally located lounge. Lenox is located near Jiminy Peak, one of the Berkshires’ premier ski areas, and it that works well for us in late January.

We no longer ski, but the hotel literally empties out during the day, leaving us with the outdoor spa and indoor pool all to ourselves! There’s nice, soft background music playing and we alternate between heating up in the spa despite the cold weather and snowy mist, cooling off and swimming laps in “our” pool, and reading and writing in between. We’ve already used the nicely equipped exercise room, and we feel wonderful.

This is an area to visit regularly, and that’s just what we intend to do.

Our sleuthing at the Norman Rockwell Museum is yet to come…