“Nowhere else in the United States of America does the wheel of the seasons turn more brilliantly than in New England. Winter’s blankets of white, the long awaited buds of spring accompanied by the run of maple sap, summer’s bouquets, and the magnificent palette of autumn: all are feasts for the senses, and lead to the characteristic New England feeling of existing in tandem with, and often at the mercy of, the great forces of nature.’’

— From The Most Beautiful Villages of New England (1997), by Tom Shachtman