Working Waterfront

A top-notch choice

I am writing to simply say I greatly enjoyed your column “My happy Maine anniversary” (Rock Bound, September issue). I was enjoying reading your essay—Deer Isle is my ancestral home, both parents born and raised there, and I got a tingle. But then you went and done it. You decided… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Why am I painting the living room?

As summer wanes, the urgency to squeeze out the last of projects and fun grows to a fever pitch, especially so in Maine, where the season is so fleeting. That urgency comes with a conundrum—how to balance projects with fun? Lyrics from an old folk song by the husband and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Raise a pint to remember David Geary

The death of David Geary earlier this summer invites consideration of his contribution to craft beer in Maine. To understand his influence, it’s helpful to remember how dire the American beer scene used to be. In 1980, only about a hundred breweries existed, down from 750 in 1935. Nearly all… SEE MORE

Stow Wengenroth, “Low Tide,” August 1931, lithograph, edition of 51, 9 1/16 by 12 9/16 inches Edition of 51. IMAGE COURTESY OF THE TIDES INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM OF ART.

Working Waterfront

Stow Wengenroth: On the Eastport waterfront

In 1927, the Grand Central Art School started offering summer classes in Eastport. Founded in 1923 by painters John Singer Sargent, Walter Leighton Clark, and Edmund Greacan, the esteemed school located in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal decided to establish a chapter way Downeast. [caption id="attachment_38166" align="alignleft" width="450"] Keith… SEE MORE

An image of herring seining off Vinalhaven in 1957, photographed by Life magazine’s Eliot Elisofon. PHOTO: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

Working Waterfront

When a Life photographer captured a herring harvest

Seining for herring—known in the seafood market as sardines—was a common sight on the Maine coast in 1957, but there is nothing common about the accompanying photograph. It is the work of a photographic master as evidenced in its composition and timing. Looking at the image below, you’re met with… SEE MORE

Otter Cliffs in winter. PHOTO: COURTESY FRIENDS OF ACADIA

Working Waterfront

Mapping MDI’s climate future

Reflections is written by Island Institute Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. In the library, Tremont residents gather around flood maps. Disoriented at first, we find key landmarks—the school, Hansen’s Outpost,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My chat with God

I acknowledge comfortably, eagerly in fact, that I’m very close to a couple who have a transgender child. There was no question, at birth, of course, about whether the child was born a boy or girl and, until a certain point, the parents—long among most of us who, in our… 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

The pursuit of perfection

How has civilization ever coped without lists of “the best” of everything and detailed explanations of “the perfect way” to do anything? I recently read a headline declaring something like, “You are packing your cooler all wrong,” followed by copious advice from professionals on how to place each food item… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

In praise of pruning

In the summer, with my days suddenly unstructured, I become an inveterate putterer. No shelf is left unorganized, no drawer unpurged. The yard gets the most attention. At some point every day, I find myself wandering from plant to plant, flowers and vegetables alike, touching leaves, saying hello (out loud!),… SEE MORE