“In years long gone, too many for the almanac to tell of, or for clocks and watches to measure, millions of good fairies came down from the sun and went into the earth. There, they changed themselves into roots and leaves, and became trees. There were many kinds of these, as they covered the earth,…

These photographs were taken on Hafelekarspitze (Hafelekar Peak), a mountain in the Austrian Alps right above Innsbruck. The following is an excerpt from a piece I wrote for Past@Present, the UMass Amherst Department of History’s blog, about this trip to the Alps. In November 2019 I went to Innsbruck, Austria, to attend the Annual Conference…

The bridge in the sky connects two towns and crosses a chasm. It was built for people to drive up to the village to spend money and then to cross it and then to cross back or perhaps to embark on a longer journey but either way they end up back at the starting point….

Mount Katahdin is the tallest peak in Maine and the northern endpoint of the Appalachian Trail. We attempted to summit Katahdin this past June, working it into a ten-day road trip through Vermont, Canada, and Maine. We camped the night before the hike at Roaring Brook Campground where the rain, black flies, and mosquitos were…

The New England Peace Pagoda, built in 1985 in Leverett, MA, was the first of its kind in the United States. It is run by the Nipponzan-Myohoji order of Buddhist monks, founded in Japan in 1917 by Nichidatsu Fujii. After witnessing the atrocities of war following the detonation of nuclear bombs in World War II, Fuji began…

The Green Karst region in southwestern Slovenia is named for its blend of forests with karst formations and caves. Stopping in this region on our drive from Trieste to Ljubljana,  we visited two towns and landmarks of spelaean note: a castle in Predjama and a cave system in Postojna. Predjama Castle (Predjamski grad) is the…

The former Yugoslav nation of Slovenia is mostly landlocked by Italy and Croatia, with under 30 miles of coastline on the Adriatic. However, inland lakes and rivers contribute significantly to Slovenia’s natural beauty. The Municipality of Bled is the northwestern corner of the country, south of the Austrian border. Its seat is the town of Bled, which lies…

Mount Lebanon is the name of the mountain range that vertically bisects the country, as well as the name of a governorate region to the west of the range. A Lebanese claim to fame is being able to ski and tan at the beach in the same day, and in the winter months this is possible due…

North Lebanon is one of the country’s eight governorates, or muhafazahs. The region formerly reached to Syria, but recently Akkar has separated from the North. The decision was made in 2003 but the implementation of the new region started in 2014 and is still ongoing. The capital of the North Governorate is Tripoli, but photos in…

Valtellina is a valley in the northern Italian province of Sondrio which borders Switzerland. This summer, we spent time in an assortment of quaint Valtellinese towns and comunes. Morbegno, with its frescoed façades, fountains, and Roman bridge spanning the Adda river, is the home town of my father-in-law and my husband’s paternal lineage. Driving from…

El-Hemmeh is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic archaeological site in Jordan. I have spent two field seasons excavating at el-Hemmeh and, back in the lab, analyzing objects of personal ornamentation. I wrote my master’s thesis at MIT on the production of stone beads at the site, which dates to around 10,000 years ago. It’s located in the Wadi el-Hasa, on…

We spent a weekend in Vermont last month, hiking to the summit of Killington Peak, the second highest mountain in the state, driving by bucolic pastures, staying at Bailey’s Mills, a lovely bed and breakfast, and enjoying fall in New England. Southern Vermont

Mount Evans is the easiest 14er to bag, since the summit is only 140 feet of elevation above the parking lot. The Mount Evans Scenic Byway is the highest paved road in North America, taking you up to 14,130 feet, only a short hike away from the summit of Mount Evans (14,270 ft). In August of…

The Harvard Mountaineering Club, of which I was a member while in grad school, owns and operates a winter cabin on Mt. Washington at the base of Huntington Ravine. Mt. Washington is the highest peak of the White Mountains in New Hampshire and is renowned for it’s unpredictable and often dangerous weather. These photos were…

Old South Cemetery is a historic graveyard off Burroughs Road in Boxborough, Massachusetts. My small hometown was settled in 1680 and incorporated in 1783, and this cemetery dates back to colonial times. South Cemetery

Møn is an island in the south-eastern corner Denmark. The eastern coast of the island, which faces the Baltic Sea, is lined with sheer white chalk cliffs. Møns Klint, as this formation is called in Danish, is quite impressive in magnitude, color, and texture. Møns Klint