Life seems to come in two chapters: a time when we are young, looking forward to the future; and that time when we are older— glancing back, remembering, trying to stave off tomorrow’s arrival. In Deborah Gould’s novel,The Eastern: Later On, we find a story that is woven from the fabric of both young and […]
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 […]
Pack the parka and the snowshoes and throw in a six-pack for good measure as we travel to Canada, a place many call the “Great White North” because of its vast expanse of snow and wilderness. The term was also used as the title for a Canadian comedy sketch about living in Canada in the […]
His words were whispered. Caressed by the waves, words tumbled and folded upon themselves. With each word spoken, I imagine a memory came back to him, a lost orphan searching for home on the crest of a wave. I slowly moved closer, listening, hoping he would repeat the words. The rock-bound coast of Maine is […]
Not until I moved Downeast did I realize the spectacle of a night sky. In all of the previous places I lived, a true appreciation of a sky at night was difficult because of the man-made light pollution. But here in Maine it is quite different. A testament to this fact are two, now very […]
What is it like to be among boats during the process of their birth? To walk upon the wood shavings, to work with hand tools along-side mentors of an old craft, to become one with the wood, glass and other materials that give life to an idea, to a design, is a dream realized by […]
One of the first books I discovered while vacationing in Maine many years ago was One Man’s Meat by E.B. White. I was certainly aware of his children’s books, like Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, but I never knew about his vast output of essays forThe New Yorker. Nor was I aware of his finely crafted musings […]
“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation. Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.” — Richard Bach Seagulls are ubiquitous to the coast of Maine. As a boy, seagulls always made me uneasy. I am not sure as to […]
“Working with wood helps me make sense of the world,” says Erik Squire, who loves wood and surrounds himself with it every single day. The Connecticut-born woodworker has been hard at work since 1997, fashioning useful and beautiful wood moldings, windows, doors, and just about anything else found on a building. Squire lives in Cutler […]
