Working Waterfront

Christmas expectations are child’s play

After three years of missing out on being together for the holidays, I asked our sons and their families if they would like to come home to Islesford for a family celebration. They agreed, as long as they could still be in their own homes for Christmas morning. One family… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Incandescent yellows and shades of brown

At our October book group meeting, before our discussion of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, one of the members who attended from Pennsylvania via Zoom asked us, “What is the island like right now?” Several people mentioned the rain we’ve had every weekend, and we all compared temperatures from our… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

On the lee side of Lee

On a sunny September Sunday, Hurricane Lee was still six days away. The spaghetti lines of possible storm paths did not bode well for the Cranberry Isles. We knew we’d feel an impact from the storm but the severity was still anyone’s guess. Earlier in the day, Jeremy, the Islesford… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

That pause between summer and fall

I’m at my laptop on a Tuesday, wracking my brain for a subject to write about. It is Bruce’s birthday. I promised to bake an orange cake with orange chocolate frosting and I’m starting to get anxious. I’m fully confident in my bread-baking capabilities, but cakes are not my forte.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Take it or leave it

On Aug. 2 on Great Cranberry Island, the Ladies Aid Society held its 122nd annual fair. It featured, among other things, lunch, crafts, clothing, cookbooks, a garden table, face painting, and a silent auction. For many years the Church Club on Islesford hosted the same kind of fair, making sure… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Sharing a summer house

In September I will have lived on Islesford, as a year round resident, for 47 years, but I have spent part of the summer here for every year of my life. My connection to Little Cranberry Island goes back to two sets of great-grandparents who happened to build summer homes… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The islands explode into bloom

Everything Everywhere All at Once is the title of an award winning movie I have yet to see. It also is a perfect description of the frenetic time of year in the Cranberry Isles between the middle of May and the middle of June. Our island populations are about to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Wisdom from my mother-in-law

This month’s deadline at the end of April has me staring at my 70th birthday arriving in May. I admit to having mixed feelings about it, but so far the only birthday that really bothered me was my 40th. I remember having tea with my mother-in-law, Anna, and her friend,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Here we go!’ time

In mid-March, the early afternoon sun was streaming through my kitchen window as I caught up with my friend Mary over a cup of tea. The warmth was appreciated but the angle of the sun meant “cozy time” would soon come to an end. “I’m not ready for winter to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Adventures in art

As I sit in my 8-foot by 10-foot studio on a sunny afternoon in the fourth week of February I think about the strange winter we’ve experienced. The islands have not had more than 3 inches of snow at a time and that hasn’t lasted. There have been days in… SEE MORE