Dan Valenti could be found relaxing one day this past spring in the historically cozy front lounge of the Red Lion Inn in his hometown of Stockbridge, Mass. Appearing both laid back and studious-befitting his role as an adjunct professor of English at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass., and his long career as a journalist and author-Mr. Valenti greeted friends and acquaintances with a smile and hug. He and his wife, Paula, live a [Babe] Ruthian blast away from the center of town, and the charm and peaceful environs suit his style well.

Light and color are as necessary as air for the life of Kinuko Y. Craft, the vastly successful illustrator and fantasy artist whose four-decade-long career has seen her work appear in major news magazines and on innumerable book covers.

What most people don't know is that the restoration of Central Park's Conservatory Garden started in Litchfield County, Conn. When folks stroll along the garden's tree-lined walkways and linger under the wisteria pergola dripping with showering flowers, they have no idea that the first seeds of the renewal of that enchanted place were sown in a Sharon, Conn., garden 32 years ago-not literally, of course.

Many a verdant and well-kept rural village within 100 miles of New York City can field a celebrity or two, and Millbrook in Dutchess County, N.Y., is no exception. The late James Cagney had a place there and anchor person Katie Couric rusticates in Millbrook, as does actor Sigourney Weaver.

We've always been drawn to the water. From the time when we depended on lakes, rivers and oceans for sustenance and survival to the present, there has always been something innately desirable being on or near the water-and especially living next to it.

One decorating doctrine dictates that the home should be a sanctuary, a place that articulates personality in color, texture and form. With the world outside seeming inhospitable at times, the inside takes on new importance in terms of comfort and style.

"High-end comfort food with a twist" is how Buffy Arbogast and Beth Daidone, the owners of Babette's Kitchen, describe the homemade fare featured in their gourmet market in the center of Millbrook, N.Y. The two women, along with baker Katherine Balis, offer customers all the comforts of home-only better.

Roughly equidistant from two Berkshire County anchors, Great Barrington and Pittsfield, Mass., and accessed by a nicely shaded stretch of Route 102, West Stockbridge, Mass., is a hidden gem that seems to have sprouted from the lazy Williams River it was built around.