I owe whatever success I’ve had becoming more human to dogs. I got my first dog after college while working in the foothills of the Sierras. Of course, back then, everyone in California had a dog. But that’s beside the point. As a kid our family had quite a few dogs for pets, but they
We stay for the history
I’d like to warn people about the potential dangers of studying history. I’m talking worse than paper cuts and eyestrain. We are shaped more than we realize by the past—events that happened long before we were even twinkles in our parents’ eyes. Once you start thinking about how things got to be the way they
Let’s make time to talk, not hide behind bags
My husband Bruce and I often take walks together in the late afternoon. It gives us time to catch up with each other and a chance to stretch our legs after work. On one afternoon in August, Bruce went for the walk but I opted to ride my bike to the town dock to see
Good food, safe passage and a yearning
A few years ago I jumped at the chance to join three other guys in sailing a catamaran across the Atlantic. The boat was owned and the invitation extended by a friend for whom I’d built a house here on Vinalhaven 30 years earlier. While building the house he’d nearly killed me by buzzing the
Clean, safe food shouldn’t be a privilege
Take a bowl and put some yogurt into it, and then a scoop of granola (homemade) and then wander out to the garden, where just inside the gate there is a row of fraise des bois, or Alpine strawberries, and pick the softest, ripest, most aromatic ones and drop them into the bowl. Eat. Tender,
Deep roots on land and water on Swan’s Island
SWAN’S ISLAND — To an outsider, it might seem odd that an educated, active, bubbly 29-year-old would happily embrace the dream of living the rest of her life on an island. But spend some time with Leah Joy Staples and her husband Eric, and you begin to see it through her eyes. And it looks
Easy choices in Washington County
The best moment of my Island Fellowship to date happened in a trip-equipped turquoise minibus on a dirt road in Township 25 in Washington County. We had just cranked up the radio as we were driving across the blueberry barrens. We were headed to Tunk Mountain, leaving the campsite for the first time since we
Counting the working waterfronts
How many working waterfronts does it take to keep a coast vital? It’s not a riddle or a joke, but rather an important first step. That’s what a story in the Chesapeake region’s Bay Journal reports. With funding from Virginia’s Sea Grant, NOAA and Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources, a pilot program has undertaken an
Gasoline on the ferry — training ensures safety
ROCKLAND — John Anders had barely organized his desk after taking over in mid-June as chief of the Maine State Ferry Service when an explosive problem landed on it—transporting gasoline in large quantities. It began with a routine U.S. Coast Guard inspection of the Capt. Henry Lee, the state ferry that runs from Bass Harbor
At the UN, she made sure children counted
CHEBEAGUE ISLAND — She’s been all over the world in her work with the United Nations, grew up in the shadow of Princeton University in New Jersey where her father was a professor, but it is on this Casco Bay island that Leila Bisharat’s roots are deepest. In a relaxed conversation in the yard of