A boat shed on the eastern shore of Islesboro.

Working Waterfront

It’s a pretty good life

Maine is where many people, famously Scott and Helen Nearing, found the good life. I’m old enough to understand that the “good life” is a pretty subjective term, and can apply to widely divergent ways of living. I’ve been blessed with food, clothing, shelter, and decent health all my life,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Waiting for the warmth prompts grateful thoughts

As people start to reappear in the Cranberry Isles, looking forward to a fresh summer season, no one seems to be asking, “How was your spring?” Most everyone in the Northeast has experienced a colder, wetter month of May than usual. When people arrive to see tulips barely starting to… SEE MORE

A sailboat approaches Portland's waterfront.

Working Waterfront

Island students learn by serving other Mainers

For some island kids, overnight trips to the mainland are no big deal. For others, a night or two in a strange place, especially with teacher chaperones and not parents, is a truly daunting prospect. For that reason, we try to regularly build overnight off-island experiences into the North Haven… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Islander teamwork rescues feathered family

As near as anyone has been able to tell so far, there were ever only two water-powered granite polishing mills in the world (one may have been in Springfield, Mass.), and only one powered by tidal water. The latter was on Vinalhaven and it was powered by big iron turbines… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Are the mussels really gone? Depends on where you look

By Susie Arnold, Ph. D. and Heather Deese, Ph. D. There has been a lot of curiosity about the reported decline of blue mussels along Maine’s coast. Over the last year, we have visited 32 coastal towns and islands, from Portsmouth to Eastport, sharing our Climate of Change documentary film… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The strange story of the North Pond hermit

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel; Knopf, 2017 For 27 years, Christopher Knight was the “North Pond Hermit.” There had been no grand plan for… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Thoughts at my son’s gravesite

This column first appeared in the May 18 edition of the Deer Isle-Stonington Island Ad-Vantages newspaper, and is reprinted with permission. By Roger Greene Son, you know I will always love you and cherish the beautiful times of your life we had together. But these memories become an anguish when… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Private air-traffic control could impact Penobscot Bay

By Kevin Waters In 1998, an ice storm swept through Maine, leaving some communities completely inaccessible. Without general aviation, many towns and island communities would have been cut off from resources for an unknown period. It was general aviation pilots who stepped up to the plate, providing a vital link to ensure… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Transportation decisions must consider community identity

Here’s a question to ponder, maybe while you’re stuck in traffic this summer: What would Maine be like if the interstate highway system ended in Portsmouth, N.H.? Transportation infrastructure impacts the way our communities grow, the way they function, and even what sort of relative prosperity they enjoy. A decision… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Memoir is a rumination on doing good work

A Winter Apprentice, by John Holt Willey; Polar Bear & Co., Solon, Maine, 2016; 280 pages, trade paperback, $14.95. In the summer of 1977 John Willey returned home to Maine with his wife, Barbara, who had never been that far east. His last permanent address had been San Francisco, where… SEE MORE