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 room, parking, and a designated site to board. But that’s where the similarities end.  Amy and Andy Barstow, who have been running the business since 2010, after buying it from…

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.…

By Laurie Schreiber At any given moment, inventive entrepreneurs are busy working on an astonishing array of start-up activities at the Union River Center for Innovation in Ellsworth. In a…

By Courtney Naliboff This fall marks the first time Maine’s October three-day-weekend will be held in honor of indigenous people in the state, rather than that guy who accidentally landed…

By Yvonne Thomas What has allowed the Outer Islands Teaching and Learning Collaborative, or TLC, to survive and thrive? For 10 years, the one- and two-room schools on Cliff Island,…