Working Waterfront

The plant-based food masquerade

If it ever lived—moved, breathed, ate, drank, grew from within—it is probably plant-based. My house has a plant-based structure, filled with plant-based things to sit on, sleep on, dine and write at, and filled with plant-based creatures, humans and a cat, who are covered, as much as possible, with plant-based… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Alive in the time of herons

On an overcast August day, my teammates and I set off on a training swim down the Millstream. We were building up mileage ahead of our 5K fundraiser for LifeFlight of Maine, our fourth such venture in as many years. As we passed the waterfront house that serves as our… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Getting serious about the heat

The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet By Jeff Goodell, Little, Brown and Company (2023) Spare me, you're thinking. Please, not another book on climate change. Greenland’s last iceberg hasn't even calved, and already we're awash in Doomsday books about climate. Not one more.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The fate of frogs on Oxbow Island

Oxbow Island Gang: Leap Frog By Rae Chalmers, Maine Author Publishing (2023) It’s April break from school and Berend Houtman—known to his family and friends as Bear—can’t wait to visit his grandmother, Sally Parker, on Peaks Island. He has to jump onto the ferry at the last minute—the first of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Tragedy and hope in debut novel

The Road to Dalton By Shannon Bowring (Europa Editions, 2023) Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton, has earned high praise from some Maine all-star authors. Richard Russo has a rave on the front, as does Morgan Talty; Susan Conley’s is on the book’s back cover. But apart from… SEE MORE

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

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