We picked up our hire car this morning and headed off with me driving and Geoff navigating, guided by Uncle Google. No dramas. We made a lunch stop at Northampton, home of the all female undergraduate liberal arts Smith College (Sylvia Plath and Gloria Steinem are just two of the notable graduates). Now we have arrived at the swank and secluded Field Farm Guest House, near Williamstown, where we will stay two nights. It is a 1948 Bauhaus era home with beautiful original furniture and a wide array of contemporary art and sculpture, set by a pond on a 300 acre property overlooking hills just starting to show the Autumn colours. Only five bedrooms - so it feels like staying in a friend's country house, without the friend to bother us and no TV to distract us. A wonderfully quiet retreat.