From left: Arachnologist Dr. Kefyn Catley, Maine Master Naturalist Donne Sinderson, and Dana Wilde examine specimens while spider hunting along the shore in Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge. PHOTO: BRUCE WENNING.

Working Waterfront

Spider haven and the mystery of Islesboro’s up-island arachnid

On Islesboro, there are some really big spiders. So startlingly big, that a legend has grown up in recent decades about an “up-island spider" living on the upper end of the island and rumored to be as large as 8 inches from toe to toe. It has red eyes. Its… SEE MORE

Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh row toward the Sirius to board, with a helping hand from Joe Burke of North Haven. The couple charted and flew the great circle route to China, a course still followed by airliners. PHOTO: COURTESY NORTH HAVEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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North Haven to China, a flight that ‘staggered the world’

This story first appeared on the website Maine Island Living and is reprinted here by permission. “An hour and a half before they took off, you could have walked across the Thoroughfare on the rowboats,” wrote Ellen Pratt (1906-2000) of the day Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Charles Lindbergh left North… SEE MORE

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Canada’s Pelee Island gets $20 million internet upgrade

What is believed to be the longest freshwater fiber link in Canada —almost 75 kilometers (46 miles) in length—will soon be installed to create an upgraded broadband internet connection for every resident and business on Lake Erie’s Pelee Island. The federal and provincial governments will jointly fund the $20 million… SEE MORE

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A commencement speech that might have been

This might have been this year’s commencement address, had there been a commencement: “You and I and many of the others gathered here have a great deal in common. We each finished high school in Vinalhaven and we each have the rest of our lives ahead of us. I hope… SEE MORE

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Islesford’s outdoor market is booming

Last summer’s Bar Road Market on Islesford was just what I needed to give me focus and a chance to safely see people during the odd year of 2020. It was a gathering in the style of a farmer’s market where anyone was welcome to set up a table at… SEE MORE

Artist rendering of floating wind turbines.

Working Waterfront

Wind turbines banned in state waters

Gov. Janet Mills has signed into law LD 1619 which prohibits new offshore wind projects in state waters. The prohibition preserves state waters for recreation and fishing—where up to 75 percent of Maine’s commercial lobster harvesting occurs—and cements into law its priority of locating wind projects in federal waters in the Gulf of Maine. SEE MORE

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We’re stronger when we show up for each other

“Are we doing hugs?” she asked as she approached me with her eyes sparkling. It had been nearly four years since we had seen each other in person and now, here we were, on Rockland’s Main Street, trying to figure out how to greet each other in the new normal.… SEE MORE

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The magic of dishwashing…

When my summer helper, Brynn, tackles the pile of dirty dishes that a household of four or five people can generate, I don’t think of it as particularly magical. But Brynn says, “There is magic in the mundane,” and there’s probably nothing quite as mundane as dishwashing. For Brynn, plunging… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The richness of found fruit

When I was young, I had the privilege of growing up on 13 acres of secondary-growth forest in central Maine, between Farmington and Augusta. Our land had a stream and frog pond, a field full of wild strawberries, a thicket of blackberries, an apple tree whose fruit was always harder… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

My own hand-made oatcake invention

In early July I was shopping on the mainland at a local health food store when a friend handed me a square orange and yellow cardboard box labeled Effie’s Handmade Oatcakes. “Have you ever had these? They’re really good!” Nope, but I bought a box, stashed it in my cupboard… SEE MORE