Working Waterfront

My June ‘to do’ list

By Sandy Oliver Plant more lettuce. Plant more spinach. Pick the blossoms off the rhubarb so it will keep sending up leaves. Thin calendula. Plant out the dahlias, for pity's sake. Snap sprouts off the potatoes still in the cellar. These and more are on my June "to do" list.… SEE MORE

Vinalhaven school students and staff start to congregate outside around the trash collage and spend some time considering all the trash they collected.

Working Waterfront

Vinalhaven’s trash collage teaches lessons on litter

By Kris Osgood Small island schools often struggle to match what bigger mainland schools do: fielding sports teams, filling out bands, casting plays. But small island schools offer opportunities that might be out of the question for mainland schools. Last May, the Vinalhaven School participated in one such undertaking. "Why… SEE MORE

A barber trims hair aboard a vessel out of Thomaston

Working Waterfront

Statewide photo album includes Swan’s Island, Monhegan

By Laurie Schreiber On Swan's Island, Mary L. (Mamie) Torrey was an inquisitive and determined soul. Born in 1876, her mother died when she was 9. Unable to attend more than three years of school, she was homeschooled by her father, a mariner who lost a leg in an accident… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Crossing has been essential, symbolic of my experience

Editor's note: Reflections is a monthly column written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, and AmeriCorps. Maddey Gates has been helping with elder care efforts on four islands. To reach an island, you… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The faces of My Island tell their stories

Patrisha McLean's My Island is a celebration of summer and year-round Maine island children, with more than 100 duotone portraits. The 160-page book—five years and countless ferry rides in the making, she says—is distributed by Islandport Press and is a follow-up to Maine Street, the award-winning 2010 book celebrating the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Swan’s Island, Frenchboro face choice between coop and Emera

SWAN'S ISLAND — A straw poll in July could determine the future of the island's ratepayer-owned electric cooperative. The approximately 450 ratepayers in the Swan's Island Electric Cooperative will choose between maintaining an island-based grid, which allows a certain amount of local control in responding to outages and bill collection,… SEE MORE

Jon Bolduc votes at Islesboro's annual town meeting on Saturday

Working Waterfront

Islesboro approves step toward building broadband

An earlier version of this story included a wrong first name. ISLESBORO — At their annual town meeting on Saturday, May 30, residents overwhelmingly approved raising and spending $206,830 to begin the process of building a town-owned broadband Internet network. The money will cover the first steps of the project,… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Those Cranberry connections, far and wide

Bruce Fernald recently traveled to the Napa Valley to attend the 17th Annual Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival at the Culinary Institute of America. He participated in a seminar with Sam Hayward and Cara Stadler, two Maine chefs, who were cooking lobster in various forms. Bruce was there… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

A perfectly planned memorial

Judy Coffin perfectly, and cheerfully, planned her memorial service and the reception that followed it. All that we her grieving neighbors, friends and family had to do was follow instructions. As she entered hospice, she announced to her husband Jack, "We are going to be happy," and she set the… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Majestic eagle caught in awkward moment

Editor's note: This month's Observer is a reprise of an earlier published column. I'm not a bird watcher but I did notice, last week, an Eastern Phoebe light on a weatherstick outside my window. The stick was tiny and delicate but the Phoebe was even more so and the stick's… SEE MORE