Working Waterfront

Thankful for what we are not

Veteran’s Day was coming as I wrote and has by now gone by. Thanksgiving is nearly here, so I’m going to make an effort to remind myself of how fortunate I am. I do that every year and if it’s not something everyone else looks forward to, well… I do.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Drops,’ the freewill offering of apple trees

In my childhood Octobers, my dad and mom tossed my sister and me plus several bushel baskets into the back of the Studebaker station and we drove to an apple orchard that let its customers pick up apples—drops—that had fallen to the ground. It was a great outing, and the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

From seed to fruit, islands good hosts to apples

Fall has been a season of superlatives in the Cranberry Isles. Along with a November that might turn out to be the warmest on record, in Maine, the foliage has been the brightest we’ve seen in years. A simple walk or trip to the mainland begs one to pull out… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

North Haven nurse brings urban experience to island

North Haven's newest health care practitioner will be able to compare the urban version of medicine with the isolated, rural version. Nurse practitioner and educator Lorraine Reiser is bringing her decades of experience to North Haven to the island medical clinic. Although she commutes between Pittsburgh, her longtime home, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

What if we’ve been doing ‘growth’ all wrong?

It's always been a double-edged sword. As prosperity works its way up Maine's coast—often in sprints and then strolls—the commercial and residential building that comes with it threatens to taint what attracted that investment in the first place. We've all witnessed the rise of strip malls and big-box stores on… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Stonington’s Hagen Wharf slated for rebuild

A pending project to revitalize Stonington's Hagen Wharf is expected to boost a waterfront attraction central to the town's transient boater and tourist economy. Located downtown, Hagen Wharf comprises a granite pier with a ramp down to several floats, with some public parking. It’s home to the community’s Stonecutter Statue,… SEE MORE

The interior of North Haven's Our Lady of Peace Church.

Working Waterfront

North Haven Catholic church sold to summer resident

For 97 years, Our Lady of Peace has provided a spiritual home for North Haven's Catholic community. It was built and consecrated to attract domestic workers from Ireland to the island, and has since hosted a transient Catholic population, largely made up of summer residents. But due to the declining… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island home helps me grieve great loss

I keep my cell phone in one corner of the kitchen, touching a window, where it receives a one- to two-bar signal frequently enough that the battery will go for a few days before it needs to be recharged. The signal might not be strong enough or steady enough to maintain… SEE MORE

Ashley Bryan holds a copy of Beautiful Blackbird

Working Waterfront

Ashley Bryan reminds us: ‘Beautiful are the souls of my people’

The award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Ashley Bryan from Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) often concludes his storytelling performances with a remarkable recitation of Langston Hughes’s poem “My People,” asking his audience to repeat the lines after him. Everyone goes away with the last line echoing in their heads: “Beautiful,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The summer we built ‘The Camp’

Editor's note: Phil Crossman's brother, Dick, has written this remembrance from the boys' childhood on Vinalhaven. It was just a camp built by boys, because that is what we were back in 1959—boys in search of adventure where Brandy Brook empties its copper colored water into Carver’s Pond, an estuary… SEE MORE