Members of the chorus are given their lyric sheets.   MICHELE STAPLETON Sue Spalding, a retired music educator, directs Ten people file into the nave of Brunswick United Methodist Church on a Tuesday afternoon in early September and take their seats in rows facing the altar. Everyone is over the age of 65, some considerably older. About half of them…

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Column…

By Laurie Schreiber A severe shortage of affordable workforce housing on Deer Isle and in Stonington has hit crisis proportions. Employers can’t attract new employees because of the cost of…

By Tom Groening In theory, the home base of Monhegan Boat Lines in Port Clyde is much like a bus station. There’s an office to sell tickets, a passenger waiting…

By Tom Groening Stephanie Spera promises she won’t be bored by your old vacation photos, even if she doesn’t know any of the people in them. As long as those…

By Dana Wilde Long ago, before realizing I was unfit to write poetry, I set myself a project I thought might become my life’s work.  My childhood was still fresh…

By Sandy Oliver There is a whole lot of canning going on out on Islesboro. Probably no one in Maine with a garden or access to plentiful vegetables is exempt…

By Phil Crossman When I was a teenager, I lived in the Moses Webster House on Vinalhaven, a wonderfully impractical six-bedroom Victorian Mansard next door to another, equally beautiful Victorian…

By Jack Sullivan More than two years ago, three Casco Bay islands began in earnest their pursuit of high-speed, reliable internet, otherwise known as broadband. One of the three, Cliff…

By Barbara Fernald“Do you have any interest in this food from my refrigerator?” It’s a common question for those of us who live here, or haven’t left for the season yet.…