Nov. 27, 2014 Article by Dave Read

The 2014 Thanksgiving snowstorm in Lenox, MA amounted to about a foot of fluffy snow that attached to tree branches and shrubs for a pretty effect. Pretty good timing for the season’s first snowfall because there’s not much traffic in town on Thanksgiving.

Lenox, MA Thanksgiving 2014 snowstorm photos

Sept. 29, 2014 Article by Dave Read

Leaf-peeping in the Berkshires may be an event of its own that would collow a route that you plan to follow to a destination such as a Bed and Breakfast in Great Barrington, or it may be a serendipitous event because the fall foliage was at peak display while you were in the Berkshires. History buffs are a cohort likely to produce new devotees of the region’s autumnal splendor as they converge on Williamstown to visit Clark Art Institute between now and Nov. 2 for Radical Words, an exhibition that brings together the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, an early draft of the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, Cheshire Reservoir, Cheshire, MA

Here are photos that display Berkshires Fall Foliage, the subtle, early autumn variety, as found on the section of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail that runs along Cheshire Reservoir in Cheshire, MA. The images were made on Sept. 28, 2014 around 2:30 PM. Later, we headed north to see what’s new at MASS MoCA, and we’ll post those photos soon.

August 26, 2014 Article by Dave Read

Visitors to the Berkshires during Fall Foliage season 2014 will find a variety of events scheduled in many Berkshire county towns and cities, including Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington, West Stockbridge, Williamstown, North Adams, Hancock, and Pittsfield, MA. Many Autumn celebrations are annual events dating back several decades with origins that had little to do with tourism, but were meant to be community gatherings. The Northern Berkshire Fall Foliage Parade, on October 5, 2014, will be the 59th annual. Another long-running event is the Harvest Festival at Berkshire Botanical Gardens, Oct. 11 & 12, 2014.

Berkshires Fall Foliage video Cheshire Reservoir

Berkshires Fall Foliage September 2014 schedules

• North Adams – Berkshire Food Festival — September 15, 2013 – 12-4pm
• Lee – Founders’ Weekend — Friday, Sept. 19, 2014
• Pittsfield – Hancock Shaker Village Trail Races – Sept. 20, 2014
• Lenox – Lenox Tub ParadeNoon – Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014
• Lenox – 38th Josh Billings Runaground Triathalon — Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014
• Lee – Founders’ Weekend — Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014
• Lee – Founders’ Weekend — Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014
• Lenox – Apple Squeeze — All day – Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014
• Lenox – Apple Squeeze — All day – Saturday, Sept. 28, 2014
• Pittsfield – Country Fair at Hancock Shaker Village – Saturday, Sept. 28, 2013
• Pittsfield – Country Fair at Hancock Shaker Village – Sat. & Sun. Sept. 27 & 28, 2014
• Lenox – Brock Trot — 7AM registration – Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014
• Adams – Annual Fall Run to Charlemont — 11AM – Sunday, Sept. 28, 2013

Berkshires Fall Foliage October 2014 schedules

• North Adams – Fall Foliage Parade – 1PM – Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014
• Stockbridge – Berkshire Harvest Festival — 10AM – 5PM – Sat. Oct. 11, 2014
• Stockbridge – Berkshire Harvest Festival — 10AM – 5PM – Sun. Oct. 12, 2014
• Pittsfield – Pittsfield CityJazz Festival — Oct. 10 – 17, 2014
  • Pittsfield — Columbus Day weekend (Oct. 10-12); Jazz About Town – venues TBA
  • Pittsfield — Jazz Prodigy Concert, 7pm, Berkshire Music School – Oct. 15, 2014
  • Pittsfield — Third Thursday block party, featuring Metro West Thump – Oct. 16, 2014
  • Pittsfield – vocalist Stephanie Nakasian with the Hod O’Brien trio at Baba Louies – Oct. 17, 2014
  • Pittsfield – Empire Jazz Orchestra w/ Claire Daly, Sharel Cassity, and Ada Rovatti, Colonial Theatre – Oct. 18, 2014

We will update our Berkshires fall foliage listings with information about general self-guided leaf-peeping, hiking and cycling, and other material that visitors and local may find useful.

Article by Dave Read

Edith Wharton (and husband Edward “Teddy”) built the Mount and surrounding gardens, comprising an estate of some 150 acres in Lenox, Mass. in 1902, and lived there until 1911, when she moved to Paris. She was honored by France for her charitable work during WWl, returned to the US only once after the war, and was buried in the American cemetery at Versailles in 1937. Edith Wharton was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1921, for The Age of Innocence, the first woman to receive the Pulitzer.

Edith Wharton Restoration, a.k.a The Mount, was founded by in 1980 by Shakespeare and Co., the theatre group that set up shop there in 1978, after the property had been left vacant years earlier by the Foxhollow School. In 2001, Shakespeare and Co. moved from the Mount and in recent years, the Edith Wharton Restoration has been plagued by financial problems, which led to the resignation of its president under the threat of foreclosure in 2008 when it defaulted on repayment of a $4.3 million loan. The National Endowment for the Humanities gave it a grant that helped re-structure the debt. Edith Wharton Restoration has won several preservation awards, including from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Mount contact info.

• 2 Plunkett Street- Box 974-Lenox, MA 01240-0974;
• Open daily May 1 – October 31 – 10am to 5pm;
• Admission: $16 adults; $13 college students; 18 – under free;
• Phone: (413) 551-5111 –
• Web: edithwharton.org

Driving directions to The Mount

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