Pauline Inman's “Fisherman’s Boots,” 1943, wood engraving, edition eight of 40. COURTESY TIDES INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM OF ART, EASTPORT

Working Waterfront

Pauline Inman engraves Downeast shore

Inman belongs to a diverse and exceptional line of printmakers who have found inspiration in Maine, from Frank Benson, Ernest Haskell, Rockwell Kent, Stow Wengenroth, Carroll Thayer Berry, and Peggy Bacon to Thomas Cornell, Marvin Bileck, Holly Meade, Alison Hildreth, Susan Groce, and Siri Beckman—to name (quite) a few. SEE MORE

A boat arrives at the Monhegan pier. FILE PHOTO: TOM GROENING

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Building higher on Monhegan

Facing the community now is the decision of how to move forward—forward toward a response to the increasingly powerful winter storms and the growing summer traffic. The main thing I am considering is how the changes will last for generations and affect the function of the island in every season. SEE MORE

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A poor report card from Maine’s ocean

Arctic warming and accelerating ice melt are leading to changes in global ocean circulation. With a northward shift of the Gulf Stream and a retreat of the Labrador Current, more warm, salty, low-nutrient Gulf Stream water is entering the Gulf of Maine. SEE MORE

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Remembering trees

It began with my younger brother stumbling across a photograph of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree—stunning in fact. It was taken in 1954 but was entirely typical of the many nearly identical and similarly breath-taking trees I’d enjoyed by then for ten Christmases and he for eight and our still… SEE MORE

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Winter’s highs and lows

“What is winter like on the island?” We’re back at that time of year that summer visitors ask about the most. My standard answer is, “Pretty quiet. We often get rain when the mainland is getting snow. It can get pretty windy, causing boat cancelations and power outages.” I don’t… SEE MORE

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The recipe is just part of the story

It’s a terrible job writing recipes. I know this because during the past 40 or so years, I’ve written around 1,400 of the little stinkers. The biggest chunk of those were recruited from friends, neighbors, and readers which I tried out, reworked a little, and published for a weekly column… SEE MORE

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Life prepares for spring

Last year, I got myself a Chanukah present, a little thank-you for making it through the year. It was a vertical grow light array, two shelves and four lights. It's next to my desk as I write this column, and on the top shelf I have a tray of just-sprouted… SEE MORE

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Climbing class cliffs is complicated

The Cliffs starts out with a gothic feel, then steadily shifts its footing to a fairly typical contemporary depiction of the main character’s chaotic emotional life. The plot moves along pretty well overall, the characters are mainly well-drawn... SEE MORE

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Beware of explaining islands to islanders

A central conflict of the novel is Mari’s desire to farm a few acres of Harry’s family's land, something his lawyer sister dismisses as not right for the island. SEE MORE

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Susan Webster and Stuart Kestenbaum harmonize

Kestenbaum has noted a sense of mortality in some of these poems. Two pieces titled “Eternity” address the end of life, “some pa/rt of me adrift/gone floating o/ver this sweet/and sad world." SEE MORE