This New England

For an interesting panorama of Rhode Island's problems, read "Little Rhody in the Red,'' in the current issue of The Economist, whose print (and of course online) edition is read around the world.

It's bracing to see this stuff as outsiders see it.

Don't you love the range of climate in New England? Though the mountains aren't high, our, well, vibrant climate ensures that we have some snow-capped mountains well into the warm weather.

Consider that you can look west from Portland's Western Promenade and see the snow-capped presidential range, topped by Mt. Washington. (In nooks and crannies of the glacial cirque called Tuckerman's Ravine, snow can linger into July. If the average annual temperature fell by a couple of degrees over a few hundred years, there would again be a glacier there.)

Or consider that Smugglers Notch, between Stowe and Jeffersonville, Vt., is once again open to vehicles, it having until very recently been filled with snow.

Some of the drama of high mountains, but without altitude sickness. Of course, unlike in the Rockies, our mountains start pretty close to sea level.

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Then you have the peculiaries of tree foliage being less out as you go south to Cape Cod. The southwest wind off the still cold ocean delays foliage, especially of the oaks, that might be almost completely leafed out a few miles inland. (The oak is generally a very ugly tree anyway -- especially the leaves, which turn an ugly brown in the fall and refuse to fall off. In the spring, the foliage looks sickly, a sort of vomit yellow-green, and perhaps infectious.)

You can see all this in just a few hours' drive, and with careful planning, even avoid highway tolls.

 Tags  Rhody in the Red Smugglers Notch Western Promenade

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