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December 3
Potential energy in my yard, and in island life
Preparing for winter means digging down
By Courtney Naliboff Last month, my daughter and I planted tulips, the first fall bulbs I’ve put in since my wedding seven years ago. Back then, a friend and I pre-dug holes in the border of our woods, and my young female friends and relatives planted a variety of daffodils in the middle of the ceremony. Every spring I check…
December 3
Revisiting N. C. Wyeth
Portland museum mounts blockbuster show of master illustrator
By Carl Little For a couple of months, the Portland Museum of Art is stealing some of the Farnsworth Art Museum’s Wyeth thunder. “N. C. Wyeth: New Perspectives” (through Jan.…
December 3
Rural communities continue to find paths to broadband
Remain flexible, find own path is advice experts offer
By Tom Groening Public spending to bring high-speed internet—also known as broadband—to rural Maine is not on the horizon. Not yet, anyway. Broadband proponents argue that bringing this infrastructure to…
December 3
The Outer Bell
A ferry’s imagined part in islander lives
By Phil Crossman (The perspective is that of a Maine State Ferry on a day in 1973 when I was reminded of its involvement in our island lives.) A cocky…
December 2
Challenging the enduring weight of ‘local’
Elections tease our native, non-native tensions
By Tom Groening For journalists, elections are something like Christmas morning. Actually, as the polls close and the counting starts on Election Day evening, it feels like Christmas Eve. Then…
December 2
Living in, and with, a lighthouse
Memoir recounts quirks of Isle au Haut’s light and keeper’s house
The Lighthouse & Me: History, Memoir, & Imagination By Jeffrey Burke Review by Tina Cohen It isn’t always the case that storytelling in support of a larger purpose—fundraising for example—can…
December 2
Monhegan’s water supply threatened
Island community lands funding to plan adaptations
By Craig Idlebrook Monhegan Island’s freshwater supply faces a triple threat—rising sea levels, seasonal overuse, and antiquated infrastructure. Residents are studying how best to safeguard the water from sea level…
December 2
On land and sea, Swan’s Island entrepreneurs find their niche
Gary and Meri Rainford establish Coffee Love, Jason Joyce runs boat charter
By Jennifer Helman//Photos by Dale Joyce Living on an island requires resilience, patience, creativity, and an entrepreneurial spirit. But some islanders take that to a whole new level. Gary Rainford,…
December 2
Radicals, rivers, and other useful information
Our readers respond to our stories
Giving thanks works To the editor: I really connected with Barbara Fernald's piece on “tacking toward the positives” in life (Cranberry Report, November issue). Her physiological explanation for the seasonal…
December 2
Rebuilding the bond between people and nature
Author Richard Louv argues human well-being needs ‘habitat of the heart’
By Stephanie Bouchard When Richard Louv published his book, Last Child in the Woods, in 2005, he argued that it is fundamental to human well-being for people to spend time…
Island Postcards
EPISODE 10: Keep the Light Shining
Two ambitious young women swam around the entire Island of Isle au Haut during the summer of 2019 to raise money for crucial renovations to the lighthouse.
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