“Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw / The torch; be yours to hold it high.” These lines are from the poem “In Flanders Fields,” written by Canadian physician Lt. Col. John McCrae in 1915. The poem was part of a two-hour ceremony performed by students from the […]
“It just takes an idea to build something upon,” says Marcia Hayward, town clerk for the Machiasport. Her sentiment is the foundation of a plan to convert 27 acres of land, located behind the town office and fire department, into a recreational space affording activities for young and old in Machiasport. “We are just beginning, […]
It’s a rare day when traffic comes to a standstill Downeast, but it happened October 21 when a 50-foot-long barge was being transported from Bucks Harbor en route to Florida. The barge, which had been hoisted by crane onto on a trailer earlier in the day in Bucks Harbor, came to a stop when the […]
“I am wanting to go and find Frog Rock,” my friend said with a sly smile. I waited to see if he was serious. He was. Now having spent five years living here, there are few things that surprise me. But going to see a rock shaped over time and eventually named “frog” seemed intriguing, […]
I have a deep admiration for clammers. It began when I apprehensively ventured out onto the clamflats to try capturing a few of these mollusks. That experience fostered an appreciation for this ancestral food gathering skill and for those that spend their days moving mud. Trust me, clamming is hard work. By definition a clammer […]
When you were young did you have a special tree? I did. Maybe you still do, and together, you and the tree continue making stories. Living here in Maine, it is easy to love the landscape. The rocky shoreline runs for some 3,000 miles through nooks and crannies of inlets, harbors and channels— its goodness […]
On a morning crisp in its chill, the autumnal clock stirs as colors flow through the veins of leaves in tall stands of trees, saturating them with a last breath of summer. I step outside for a walk behind the house. I can see my breath bend in the cold air and hear the trees’ […]
“We are known for helping each other—across town lines, or whatever it takes. If someone needs help, the help comes quick and in many ways,” says Joe McBrine. A Maine game warden, McBrine sees in his job and in the place he lives that people are the common denominator when it comes to community. “Very […]
Many years ago, fresh out of college and a couple of years into my first job, I read the book First Person Rural, Essays of a Sometime Farmer, written in 1978 by Noel Perrin. After finishing the book I was convinced that one day I would go to Vermont, buy a 10-acre farm, raise chickens, […]
A friend of mine visiting Downeast for the first time mentioned shortly after arriving that he noticed a drastic change in the air and in the light. Paraphrasing, he commented, “The air is tinged with the scent of salt, and the light is brighter. Everything here seems so different, even the shadows appear out of […]
