Weekend in the Berkshires

Since we moved to New England, people have been telling us we needed to visit the Berkshires, which is only a couple of hours from Boston but might as well be another world. We spent a recent weekend there, celebrating J’s birthday, exploring half a dozen charming little towns and touring a historic Shaker village. It was green and fresh and blooming, quiet and relaxed and charming, and simply lovely.

We stayed at the Apple Tree Inn, eating breakfast on the veranda, playing Super Scrabble in the living room, reading in the front yard, and taking deep breaths of the spicy, woodsy air all around.

Just up the road was Lenox, where we stuffed ourselves with pasta at Frankie’s, savored ice cream at The Scoop, and sampled a range of tapas (and sangria) at Brava. (Fried calamari + patatas bravas = YUM.)

Lenox boasts one bookstore, aptly named The Bookstore, where I found a wonderful old hardcover edition of Anne Frank’s diary (complete with newspaper clippings about Otto Frank) and a copy of a brand-new E.B. White collection on dogs. (He and I share a deep affinity for dachshunds.) They have a wonderfully eclectic selection and an enormous amount of poetry. I could have browsed for hours.

I spent far too much money at Colorful Stitches, a gorgeous two-story yarn shop, and we also stopped by the Lenox library book sale, where J and I each scored a $2 find. (We figured that balanced out the big yarn bill.) From there we drove to Lee, where we poked around a bit and had lunch at the Starving Artist Creperie & Cafe. (Delicious.)

We then drove up to the aforementioned Shaker village, where we saw medicinal herb gardens complete with cool old seed boxes:

There were also baby animals, and lots of old farm equipment, some of which J tried out:

I was fascinated by the looms and spinning wheels, once used by the women of the community:

On Sunday, after checking out, we drove to Great Barrington and enjoyed omelets at Martin’s, then spent a while wandering around Main Street and its environs. The sun was out and so were the locals.

Just before leaving, we enjoyed some (more) ice cream at the SoCo Creamery shop. This was the same brand served at The Scoop in Lenox, and it is delectable. That blue concoction you see below is called Cookie Monster. Nom nom nom.

All in all, a perfect (and delicious) weekend. We’ll be going back.

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