Working Waterfront

Island tick survey gathering data, but more participants sought

An online and print survey of Maine's island residents on ticks has garnered more than 500 responses, but more data is being sought. Susan Elias of the Maine Medical Center Research Institute said some about half the respondents are women 55 and older, and there is an even split between… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Thankful for one president, bracing for another

It’s the season of Thanksgiving and I try, as always, to remind myself of the things I’m most thankful for. For the last eight years, our American president has been among those things. Although I now and then disagreed with him or wished he’d done more or less, I found… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Adventures in eating out

A new restaurant that opened up a while back had itself a maitre d’ and its own bartender and everything. They had a lot of live music and as a result the place was quite a draw some nights. They tapped the locals as waitresses and waiters and these folks,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Taking back the cellar

Just about once a year, often in the fall, Martha Ballard, the midwife who lived in Augusta in the late 1700s and early 1800s, cleaned her “sellar.” I do, too, usually this time of year before I haul down there the last of potatoes gathered up, the apples and other… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cultural close encounter delights island students

A concern that we sometimes have as educators on a fairly isolated island in Penobscot Bay is how our students will react and behave when suddenly confronted with a new group of people. This could be a group of people from as nearby as Vinalhaven or Rockland—our students are sometimes… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Delight of island life shines through Dutch guests

No matter where you live, it is easy to lose sight of the highlights of your surroundings. You do your job, raise children, make phone calls, pay bills and run errands. In the Cranberry Isles, the boat ride to and from our cars on the mainland forces us to notice… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Fund launched to help support Frenchboro school

A philanthropic fund to help one of Maine’s offshore island communities might focus on any of a dozen goals. Or maybe on all of them. But for Frenchboro, the community on Long Island, some eight miles off Mount Desert Island, it became clear that the school was the cornerstone of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven print artist’s work featured at Farnsworth

Vinalhaven artist Chris Clarke is having a fabulous year. Clarke was recently approached by the Farnsworth Art Museum to loan two of his pieces for its current exhibit, "The Art of Disaster," and in August, he celebrated the 10th anniversary of his Engine House Press. "It's thrilling," says Clarke of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

E.B. White was indeed ‘Some Writer’

E.B. White was a writer’s writer. He wrote poetry, columns for magazines like The New Yorker and Harper’s—essays, really, and in a style that remains in vogue 70 years later—and, of course, children’s books like Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. He literally wrote the book on writing, too, building on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My new favorite word reflects my new life

Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. Andrew May is working with the North Haven Community School, Southern Harbor Eldercare Services and Waterman’s… SEE MORE