Working Waterfront

More rumination on ‘imperfect love’

Elizabeth Strout has followed her last novel, My Name is Lucy Barton, with a new book that continues the story. Anything is Possible isn’t only about Lucy and her family, but includes characters we were introduced to previously, and hometown Amgash, Illinois, with its fields of corn and soybeans. We… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The natural accuracy of Kristen Lindquist’s poetry

Tourists in the Known World: New and Selected Poems By Kristen Lindquist; Megunticook Press, Camden The ocean is unsayable, like a lot of the natural world. The night sky is unsayable. The energy in a seed. The sacrality of a maple leaf. The full moon. The mind of snow. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Bridging the communities within a community

A good friend from the Middle East moved to the Maine coast, to a small island community. I asked him what that was like, how difficult it was to find elements in his new community that reminded him of his birthplace. With a large smile and open arms, he said… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

An expedition for a new pilot

By Eva Murray My flight instructor liked to talk. As I circled Belfast endless times with Alfred “Sandy” Reynolds, there was generally idle conversation in the airplane—sometimes, very idle. My lessons did not involve what you’d call a “sterile cockpit,” meaning strictly business, no needless chattering. Sandy wanted to make… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Whaddya have to do to get a popsicle out here?

It was an ordinary evening. Dinner was running a little late because my daughter Penrose and I had made chocolate chip cookies after her nap. As I grated zucchini from the late summer garden for fritters and mixed rice and beans, she played follow-the-leader with the dog, crawling behind him… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Digging into the data about our marine economy

Look out at Rockland Harbor and you may see a tanker heading up the bay to Searsport, a midwater trawler coming in with a load of herring, or the cement tug and barge heading south. Thanks to a federal ocean planning initiative, those interested in the maritime world can do… SEE MORE

A house on Hancock Point boarded up for winter.

Working Waterfront

Reader views on affordable housing

This month, we sought reader thoughts on affordable housing, asking on The Working Waterfront’s Facebook page: Has your town already been priced out of the starter house market? If prices are high, what effects are you noticing? Are there too many seasonal homes? What might the state do to create… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Doing ‘the green thing’ is nothing new

Some of us old baby boomers and a handful of those a little older are sharing a much-forwarded email item entitled “The Green Thing.” It’s a video which begins with a scene in the grocery store where a bagger stuffs groceries into a plastic bag for an older customer while… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Sharing sourdough a way to spread island flavor

I recently participated in the Island Institute’s summer lecture series in Rockland, in fine company with fellow columnists Sandra Oliver and Courtney Naliboff. We answered questions about what it was like to be women writers living on Maine islands. One question that is often asked is: “How do you come… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The tides as one step away from God

Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean By Jonathan White 2017: Trinity University Press Like the tides themselves, this book literally covers the earth. Author Jonathan White gets us started with a dramatic personal story: accidentally grounding his schooner in 1990 in Kalinin Bay, Alaska, in 40-knot winds at… SEE MORE