It was very strange.  Watching the NASCAR race, I had the scanner on in the background and heard the call. Something inside of me said, “This is important” although nothing in the call indicated…

My cup is half full.

I am a victim.

I don’t deserve it.

I’m not good enough.

Do any of these statements resonate with you? Our thoughts are influential.…

The modern abstract painting in front of me draws me into its surreal world … An oval mirror near its center draws me in. I see a figure of a woman inside it. I cannot tell if she is standing or…

Before getting new glasses this winter, I’d forgotten what it was like to see distant objects in sharp relief. 

The glasses improved my vision but far-off vistas remained hazy – until the…

I guess that since I write here and I’ve written other places and written a book, that makes me a writer.  I’ve never considered myself one.…

Have those of you who are getting on in years, as I am,  thought lately about how much we elders owe to the younger people who have sacrificed so much to save us from the dreaded virus? And about…

Haven’t heard from me in a while.  Some people are probably cheering and others might have missed me.  To tell…

Like many, I’ve been spending most of my time for the past couple of months at home. Between Zoom meetings and baking cookies, I’ve tried to get outside as much as possible, even if that means…

There used to be a story for children about Little Toot. It has been a long time since I heard it, but I believe it was about a little train trying to make a big hill. So it…

In its day, it was a sturdy looking one-room post and beam cabin, similar to the looks of Henry Thoreau’s cottage on Walden Pond, Massachusetts. Years have gone by and tenants have come and gone.…

The home gardening boom underway is “totally unprecedented” in the eyes of Frank Wertheim, who for 33 years has helped farmers and gardeners as an educator with University of Maine Cooperative…

Back in my youth, it was pretty exciting when Leadbetter’s started selling motorcycles.  A bunch of us were friends with Bob, so we hung out at the shop…

I am OK... except for the fact that this “Stay at Home” thing is wearing me down to a frazzle... and the decisions I make to deal with the Gaping Alone make me wonder.

Yesterday for…

This is the time of year when we become so desperate for signs of spring that we go on long drives to find them. One of our favorite spring drives, when not following a stay-at-home order, of…

Last week’s storm decimated the trees in our yard, exposing raw tissue where limbs severed. Branches, graced by buds that will never open, lay scattered on the killing snow.

Taking in the…

Anybody, these days, might understandably feel conflicted. A resourceful and resilient citizen cheerfully looking for silver linings to the crisis one minute, singing with others on the computer…

The last time I sat down to pen a column piece amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I emphasized how we will get through not only the turbulent times the pandemic has brought — the record unemployment…

What are groupies? According to Google, groupies are people, especially young women, who follow music groups in hopes of getting to know them. Well, we certainly heard about them in the different…

Pen Bay Medical Center, Waldo County General Hospital CEO Mark Fourre sent the following April 8: : At Coastal Healthcare Alliance, we continue to prepare for the worst and hope for the…

“Does this count as school?”  

That question, now a wise-aleck remark uttered with rolled eyes or a wink, is a Murray family one-liner.

…

For many of us, the days since COVID-19 entered Maine have felt like an alternate reality. As with any transition in life, it’s important that we take some time to reflect on what’s changed, and…

Wow! This whole coronavirus, COVID-19, thing is really something, isn’t it? The unknown is troubling to a large portion of the population. Some people, like firefighters, cops, and EMS people live…

Today I have a yarn to spin, one that beats any previously created tangled web.

It all began several weeks ago, when, as a knitter, I was making winters hats for children. I, personally…

I picked up the phone and heard the fear in Sara’s voice. Her pitch was high and she spoke quickly. 

“I’m not going back to work. My boss has been in contact with a nurse who tested…

Under extraordinary circumstances, leaders of the Maine State Legislature came together working tirelessly throughout the March 14-15 weekend and reached agreement on a package of new laws to…

Among the boundless concerns provoked by COVID-19, food supplies are top of mind for many Maine residents. The fear for consumers can be visceral: With store shelves emptying quickly, will there…

Saw an ad a few days ago about some drug that deals with cholesterol, and it got me thinking what a big deal that used to be, but we rarely hear about anymore.…

In honor of Maine’s 200th anniversary as a state this month, I offer up something a little different than my usual natural history, mixing it up a bit with Maine’s literary history.

In…

This is the time of year when many of us tackle our big scary household jobs. In these winter months, while the summer people think we have nothing to do, the DIY-ers among us (meaning most…

If you are a regular reader of the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper, chances are you’re reading this online and not in the print edition of the newspapers. This isn’t surprising, more and…

I received - at the age of 72 - an MFA in fiction from Spalding University. I decided to go to graduate school because I had been working on a novel for years and thought the pressure of the MFA…

Natives and newcomers alike are all familiar with Hosmer Pond. It became more known about 1934, when the Snow Bowl was built and the winter carnivals were held there, as a notable event. That body…

On the road to all-renewable power, Maine is moving like a car near the base of a long, snowy hill. It’s accelerating now, knowing it may lose momentum and traction in the ascent. One icy patch…

I went for a walk and wore the wrong pair of gloves. They were blue rubber gloves, the kind that you might wash dishes with except heavier perhaps to wash off snow from your car. For some reason,…

Maine communities stand to lose a lot with the arrival of emerald ash borer (EAB), an Asian parasite that attacks white, green and brown ash (Fraxinus spp.) — killing most trees within a…

I’ve been casually following the recent demand from young people that we “older” folks should get it together when it comes to the environment and be ashamed of the state of the planet we are…

Up until about 20 years ago, I never gave water much thought. There was plenty to swim in, both fresh and salt. It came right out of the tap at the house. …

It’s a chilly winter dusk as the last mauve shades of sunset fade from the sky. Overhead, a pair of birds flits quickly past, headed together to roost, a poignant sight in the dying light. From…

With new cases of tick-borne disease being reported, more stories of suffering and misdiagnosis are coming to the surface and the common denominator is this ~ ticks do not discriminate. They have…

It is interesting to look back on changes in Camden at what seems to be just a few years ago. A great source is the Camden Herald which was first published in 1869, and when we lost it one year…

If 2019 has taught me anything its that change is inevitable. No matter how much you fight for or against something, at some point, something is going to shift, to give way and change will occur.…

I was nine, wearing baggy jeans that sat low on my hips, the bottoms frayed, and I could see the scuff mark around the toes of my clear jelly buckle sandals. We were walking down a sloping hill…

When we visit Navy son in Virginia, we usually drive right through the 800 miles or fly.  Flying has been the choice for several years, but this year we…

My desire is to tell you a story, and you probably won't believe it. I guess I am a story teller, but I always tell the truth. This article is about my Great Aunt Mary Christmas. Yes, it is a true…

Back around Thanksgiving, if you recall, the news was filled with reports of the “busiest travel days of the year.” By airliner and by car--occasionally tossing in “by train” for good measure--…

During Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Hoboken, New Jersey “literally became an island,” recalled its mayor at the time, Dawn Zimmer, during a recent talk she gave in Maine. The city was 80 percent…

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot,” Leonardo da Vinci is said to have observed roughly five centuries ago. Sadly, that statement still holds,…

Fred is in the news these days.  Mister Fred Rogers that is.  I knew Fred many years ago. When I tell people…

You may have seen a recent report that bird populations have declined by over 3 billion birds, or by almost 30%, in the past fifty years. It’s not surprising: Birds run a daily gauntlet that…