Working Waterfront

‘This Island Life’

Photographs of island life made by Peaks Island resident Heather Wasklewicz were on display at the island branch of the Portland Public Library through January. Wasklewicz donated 20 percent of the sales of images from the show, which she titled “This Island Life,” to the library to support its programs.… SEE MORE

Island Institute President Anthony Chatwin

Working Waterfront

Building on centuries of tradition

I am an alewife guy. I know that sounds strange, but I am not alone. In fact, there is a community of us out there who have fallen under the spell of those small, silvery, oily fish that are hardy and resilient, and whose fascinating life cycle keeps them coming… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Living with others

Around mid-day on Friday, Aug. 15, 1986, while excavating on the shore of Carver’s Pond, a gravestone—in one piece and undamaged—was unearthed from a very unlikely spot, only a few feet from the shore, certainly far from the nearest cemetery. The stone was cleaned up and carefully set aside. It… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

And the secret ingredient is…

I would like to humbly apologize to anyone who read my last column about oatcakes and who had baking failures because they followed a recipe in which I neglected to put oats in the list of ingredients. Two cups of oats! Two cups of oats! I so carefully edited my… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A good deed was the best medicine

It’s no secret that these are trying times. It’s a metaphorical rough ferry ride, with the news cycle and pandemic sending us up into an optimistic high, only to bring us crashing down into yet another trough. In a recent column, I wrote about the small gesture of leaving patches… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A sunshine filled kitchen

When Capt. Emery Bunker, who lived in my home with his wife Adrianna in the last half of the 1800s, renovated the house in 1889, he added a kitchen ell and attached it to the barn. Before he became a master mariner, he learned carpentry from his father Silas, and… SEE MORE

Donna Damon poses in front of a bulletin board in her classroom just before she retired. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENINGa

Working Waterfront

Who’s next—bringing in new community leaders

Chebeague Island’s Donna Damon started the October meeting of the Maine Islands Coalition by asking the 30 assembled members and guests an important question: “Who are community leaders?” Her second question may have been more important and telling: “Who will take your place?” The questions were at the heart of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

How Vinalhaven wrestles with the pandemic

Reflections is written by Island 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. When I began my fellowship with Vinalhaven’s town office in September 2020, I came to the island in the midst… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The island approach to medicine

In 1954, crying and clinging to my Dad’s hand with my good arm, I was brought to Dr. Ralph Earle’s office. He walked quickly toward me but then turned and whispered to Dot, his receptionist. She got up, grabbed her hat and left. Then he walked me, still sobbing and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

In praise of the amazing bean

Each year, drying beans ripen in the garden to provide a winter’s worth of baked beans, bean soup, or even refried beans. Traditional Maine varieties like Marfax, Tiger’s Eye, and Jacobs Cattle join Back Coco, Pintos, and Silver Cloud Cannellini. Once dried enough in the barn that the pods snap… SEE MORE