Is one of the small towns in the county of Berkshire, Massachusetts which is where we stayed. The county is pretty much what people are referring to when they say the Berkshires. It is the western edge from north to south of the state so there is some overflow to New York, Connecticut and Vermont for the "Berkshires" area. Lenox is a very nice, upscale small town - population is only 5,000. It is full of nice shops for all sorts of items from clothing to housewares and good restaurants too of course.
The Berkshires became part of the itinerary on the advice of fellow travelers in Cape Cod and then the night before we came here we met a couple from the area who could be the tourist bureau so we heard a lot of nice things and they were true. The area is rolling hills covered in forests filled with all sorts of professional entertainment venues with New England history mixed in to boot.
Interior views of a barn they had in their back yard. They relocated it from Vermont. People inside were neighbors there for a 4th of July get together we were invited too.
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| Gorgeous massive space with lots to do |
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| 1 of 3 Lionel train sets |
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| 2 of 3 Lionel train set |
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3rd floor of the barn
More scenes of Lenox
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| fox Jeff saw on a morning run - hundred yards from our rental |
Historical
Red Lion Inn
The couple who we met at the resort had told us we needed to eat at the Red Lion Inn. They assured me the food was good and they were correct. They also said we needed to just experience it. They were correct there too. There has been something either a pub or an inn at this site since 1773 so they have a few old things and the building has some interesting spots too. One of the things to do is sit on the front porch; have a drink and watch the world go by - just what I am doing in this picture. The inn is in Stockbridge, MA which had a famous resident in the 20th century - Norman Rockwell. He painted a Christmas scene mural in the early 60s of the main street including this inn. Each year at Christmastime, the town shuts down for a day and builds fake exteriors on buildings as needed and brings in old cars to recreate the scene. It is supposed to be impressive. Not too far away is the Norman Rockwell Museum.
Hancock Shaker Village
At one time there were 3 Shaker Villages in the area. The Hancock Shaker Village was found in 1783 on land that was donated by a couple who converted. Over time all 3 villages closed. The last Hancock residents (3 old ladies) left in 1960 and the land was sold to local residents who formed a non profit to maintain the village and form a living history museum. There are 20 buildings on the property and it is being farmed some with its own CSA and other ongoing activities.
Ashuwillticook Rail Trail
Ashuwillticook Rail Trail is a former railroad line that connected 3 of the towns running along several ponds and in shady woody areas. Ashuwillticock is a Native American name for a branch of a local river and meant "the pleasant river in between the hills".
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| cabin with gorgeous flowers by a lake we passed on the trail |
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| beaver dam on another pond along trail |
Entertainment Venues
There were all sorts of professional entertainment options in the area. There was a local production of Gershwin songs with Broadway performers, an annual dance festival (Jacobs Ladder), a Shakespeare Festival, Tanglewood with music and other smaller events too. Down the street from us in a former large estate we saw people out painting and I just realized it is a girls camp so the hills are full of arts!
The Shakespeare Festival
We went to a production of King Lear with Christopher Lloyd. Neither Jeff nor I remembered ever reading the story and have to say we had to read the synopsis a couple of times to get our minds straight on the complicated storyline. It was a brand new stage for the festival and was obviously designed for Covid times. The festival has year round facilities here at the site of another former gilded age mansion. The theater was outside on a terraced lawn with granite and rocks. Seats were pre arranged in groupings with space in between. The seats were not permanent but rather upgraded versions of modern folding lawn chairs. So if it rained, no show, if there was lightning then you were rather exposed. Oh and the shows started around twilight with an ending around dusk since very little lighting. It was a small theatre. I bought tickets the week before we went and got 3rd row out of maybe a dozen rows. For once in my life, this short person could see very well. The show was nice, my complaint was they ran over a half hour late which when you make after show dinner plans is a problem. Also we had lightening in the area - did they pick up the pace? Nooo - long sword fight slow death at which point they were losing me - come on already and die may have come out of my mouth.
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| the stage from our seats |
TanglewoodTanglewood was probably the one thing Jeff and I both knew about the Berkshires before we decided to visit and at that we knew: John Williams conducting the Boston Pops at Tanglewood from TV. Well Tanglewood is yet another old mansion/estate and right in Lenox. The estates were all given names and the Tappan family named theirs Tanglewood. The concerts started in the 1930s. In the winter of 1936 the estate was donated to the orchestra. The musicians play under the "shed" and you can sit there but we were advised to get tickets for lawn seating. Luckily for us we had brought our lawn chairs and a blanket. We went to a concert of the Boston Pops on a Sunday afternoon. Throughout the summer there is a mixture of classical, jazz and pops programs put on by the Boston Pops and other groups such as well known musicians and the students of the onsite music school.
Going to Tanglewood and having lawn seating is kind of a combination of going to the steeplechase or a fancy tailgate event on a pretty site with music thrown in. It was predicted to rain so people held back some I suspect, but in the parking lot I immediately noticed all the people with foldable wagons full of chairs, food, drinks, blankets and maybe even flowers. Yep they were coming to party and relax. We staked out our place to the right of the entrance as instructed which was wise because then we were directly behind the middle of the orchestra and in site of a large LED screen to see inside the shed. We then went exploring. First we noticed all the niceties people had like low wooden tables if they were on a blanket or umbrellas that attached to their lawn chairs. The estate still has wonderfully manicured grounds and a nice well maintained old house that we could see. We wandered through a maze, a terrace, a grape vine arbor and huge old trees. You could tell who came regularly and what they appreciated like the groups that were far from the music, but had a gorgeous view of the mountains. The chance of rain prediction was for the time the program was to start - this time the weatherman was correct. Since the musicians are covered the show goes on even in rain. Happily it stayed a light drizzle/rain throughout the concert. They were giving everyone large tarps for the ground so we used that and placed our chairs on it in our raincoats and shared a golf umbrella for protection. We enjoyed the show. It was 3 modern pieces with one being a new piece that was supposed to have its world premiere in Philadelphia in March of 2020, but got cut because of the pandemic. It was a nice piece, then we had a violin soloist and ended with a Dvorak piece which is why we had chosen the program.
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| ready for the concert |
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| the mountain view |
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| inside the "shed" |
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| a selfie |
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| front entrance |
Museums
Mass MoCa
We had never heard of Mass MoCA before this trip, but can now tell you it is one of the largest modern art museum in the world. It is located in a former print factory so you wander between several buildings to see the exhibits. Some of these exhibits are huge. Like the first one pictured below. It is the entire room and the room is probably the size of a basketball court. The museum encourages artists to come and stay and build huge pieces of work onsite. It also likes pieces that span more than 1 art form. For instance this one pictured below lasts for about 30 minutes and the lights change, people speak, you move along a walk way at times. I appreciate modern art more after this museum because I realized how exact and precise some of the parts of these works had to be. If you hang that little plastic aircraft at the wrong height its shadow will not appear to fly where you need it to be.
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| yes those are plastic figurines - they were in an enclosed walkway between 2 buildings and went probably 30 feet and were located on shelves about a floor or so above ground |
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| a very relevant painting |
The Clark Art Institute
The MassMoCA is not the only modern art museum in the area. The Clark Art Institute or The Clark is named for the couple whose art collection started this museum. Sterling and Francine Clark were art collectors in the early 1900s. He met her in Paris while he was in the army. He had inherited a fortune from the Singer sewing machine company. They liked impressionist and several of the modern artists popular in the early 1900s. There is a whole gallery dedicated to French Impressionists which is a favorite of mine. When they went to set up their museum, there was fear of war so they did not want to go to New York City and his family had ties to Williams College which is next door hence a nice art museum in the countryside. The museum has a lot of land which has cows mixed with art or so I am told - it was a rainy day when we went so no outdoor exploration was done.
There were 2 visiting exhibits inside while we were there. The Nikolai Astrup exhibit and the Claude and Francois Xavier Lalanne nature transformed exhibit. Astrup was a Norwegian from the early 1900s. An impressive thing about his work was that he would do the same scene as a painting and as a wooden ink print. His prints could take up to a year to complete. He would use the same wooden prints to make more than 1 version of a scene sometimes playing with the ink colors or even leaving parts out since each final product was composed of multiple wooden printing plates.
The other special exhibit was a husband and wife team who each did their own thing, but they complimented each other. There were very much into nature and making it whimsical in art. The fish below is one of their pieces it is a carp that is above water and is supposed to be out of the water. There was a rhinoceros close to real size with part of it that opened up to be a desk. Also I think they are the inventors of something I have seen before - groups of fake sheep in a room. They had that on exhibit too.
Norman Rockwell
On our way out of town, we stopped in Stockbridge to visit the Norman Rockwell museum. Below is the painting that I mentioned above of the town during Christmas. The Red Lion Inn is on the far right side. The painting was the cover of a McCall's magazine in 1967.
I learned a few things about Norman Rockwell. I knew just as the guy who did all those Saturday Evening Post that were iconic American scenes. Turns out he also did some work for the government during WWII to aid in bond drives - the four freedom series and he left the Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s so that he could produce more thought provoking paintings.
These 4 paintings were done for the government for the bond effort. Each painting was assigned a theme. The themes were: freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom of speech.
Berkshires Botanical Gardens
We tend to like botanical gardens so that is always a popular spot for us. Thus we visited the local Berkshires Botanical Gardens one afternoon. Jeff took a picture of their straw art butterfly chasers. They also had a nice area with topiaries of a variety of things mostly with tongue in cheek design. Unfortunately a lot of them need more time to let the plants grow so we chose the vignette of chairs and a wall painting.
Breweries and Wineries
Barrington Brewery and Restaurant
We visited Barrington Brewery on the day we chose to visit the town of Great Barrington. The brewery is interesting in its own right. It is in an old barn and it uses solar power for a significant portion of the brewing process. We ate lunch there and Jeff had one of their stouts while I went for a local cider. The area loves IPA beers and Carol and Jeff do not. The main course was nice, but the dessert was great. All of the desserts were homemade and on display. I chose the chocolate stout cake and it was delicious.
Balderdash Winery
We visited the Shaker Village on a week end and at the end we asked if there was a winery or anything near by to spend the rest of the afternoon. The clerk did not know, but 2 other customers chimed in and said you must go to this cute little winery called Balderdash Cellars. It was only a mile away so off we went. While the wines were nice, the view and ambiance were stellar. They had terraced a portion of a field that flowed down to a clearing so you could see a lake and had run electricity out to a spot for musicians. They had red Adirondack chairs and rocking chairs with little tables to sit on while you listened to music. Each seating area had a number so they took your order by number and kept everyone's order straight. It was a nice afternoon.
