Whenever I can, I have coffee with a great group of guys. Coffee is really just an excuse to get together and the crowd is awesome.  If you don’t have a…

When we think of springtime, we think of birds returning from southern climes to brighten our trees once more. Of waking to flourishes of birdsong each morning. Of birds pairing up and nesting.…

As we settle into the brunt of winter and the winds feel more biting every day, I think it’s a good time to remember our outdoor neighbors. 

The…

Freezing rain was falling in Augusta as I grabbed my box lunch and boarded a bus, bound for three days in Central and Western Maine. I wasn’…

Last Sunday, I was standing in the kitchen with my husband having just prepared a rather elegant (read: complicated) dinner when I glanced down at my hand and saw the gaping hole. One of the three…

Birding “well out to sea” isn’t just about the puffins.

My mother-in-law always swore that she had once seen a mountain bluebird on Matinicus Island, back when she lived here in the 1970s…

In a recent article, “Importance of Advertising,” I mentioned the steamer that I had not before heard about, and maybe because it was in an article printed in 1899. The booklet was Camden by…

Of course, anyone can tell from this column’s title that I’ve been talking to Siri. She’s (usually) so accommodating, looking up obscure facts for me in seconds. Like how many miles between…

All newspapers and booklets depend on advertising to help pay for the publishing, and they have for many years. I believe that the contents of the newspaper depend upon the amount of advertising…

They were about as unlikely a couple as you could find.  Like pairing Pilsner with pecan pie, or sauerkraut with bourbon.…

Surrendering is not giving up, abandoning or raising the white flag.

Surrendering is not accepting defeat. 

Surrendering is not failure.

Surrendering is letting go when it…

Our kitchen floor is scattered with bits of the woods out back — twigs, fir needles, and the occasional snarl of pale green lichen, usnea I think, “Old Man’s Beard” — or that’s what I’ve…

I’ve been thinking for a while that I should write about intolerance.  It seems that some people are not very tolerant of ideas and beliefs that are not…

These notes begin aboard the ferry bound for Matinicus. I sit in the cab of my 36-foot U-Haul; in front of me, a fisherman’s ton truck laden with a couple of frighteningly unsecured bait boxes,…

Now is the season for lights: strung up on Christmas trees, along our porch eaves, on the holiday wreaths on the town lampposts, in shop windows, on the shrubbery in the front yard. As we approach…

Camden always wanted to be a “tourist town,” after James Richards, the first settler sailed into Camden Harbor in 1791. When the population reached 331, the plantation wanted to be incorporated in…

Throughout my stories, you hear me speak about The Chief.  That’s how I address him to this day and that’s how he addresses me.  It’s a strange bond that has no logical explanation other than the…

Pets were always a must with me. It was important that I had a cat, and I never saw one that was not beautiful, in my view. We had “Snooky” when I was about 3, and lucky enough to have her for 19…

Summer or winter,

Spring and Fall,

Camden, Maine

Enjoys them all.

Our hills and streams,

Lakes and sea

Are sights for all

To come…

As we approach that time of year when things get a little creepy, it seems appropriate to take a closer look at one of Maine's more charismatic plants—a plant…

It’s time for many among us to begin thinking about closing up for the winter. Well—you, maybe; not me. As I write, rocking and rolling on the state ferry vessel Everett Libby Rockland-…

The House of Logan has been a fixture in Boothbay Harbor all my life and for the lives of almost everyone now in town. For decades Logan's has been a destinaton for classic clothing. After my…

As I write this the Pink Panther theme song is still running through my head. Why? Because I’m still trying to figure out where it all went wrong. It should have been a simple heist.

I…

All volunteer departments have certain traditions as do fulltime departments.  How they come about can be very interesting.

At the scene of a chimney fire one night, the Chief and I were…

Some new Camden residents moved into the lower Pearl Street neighborhood this spring, and have distinguished themselves by how noisy they are. But the neighbors aren't complaining. Rather, they're…

People have asked me, ”Do you always tell the truth, when writing your articles?” The answer is “Yes.” But this one is a true historical fiction, that I dreamed up when imagining…

 A few days ago I sat outdoors enjoying the perfect weather on Matinicus. Most of us concur at least roughly on what “perfect” weather for sitting at a picnic table means: warm, bright, dry, and…

No matter how small your town or fire department may be, there are large structures that can burn as large fires and our town was no exception.  In the center of town was the local grocery store…

The biggest issue for any rural volunteer fire department is water, or lack of it. Unlike urban areas, rural departments have few or no hydrants and if they do have hydrants they usually flow very…

I have a tiny summer business, a bakery, where for a couple of months each year I put in long workdays producing sugar-based indulgences, fragrant homemade bread, nostalgia, cholesterol, and…

 While walking the grounds of Plants Unlimited one recent August day, I was surprised to turn a corner and flush a shorebird. Somewhere near the hydrangeas, I came upon it again: a Least Sandpiper…

Kane.  The name conjures different thoughts to different people.  To some Kane is a legendary professional wrestler who dominated the WWF in the late 90s.  To others, Kane is the creator of Batman…

On a summer afternoon, I was working in a neighboring town when their tone went off for a structure fire.  Not hearing a lot of response, which is common in small towns during daylight hours when…

This is one of the more prominent conversations that I have with people every day of every week and there are many variables that play into the answer. The most common variable as to why a…

Our little story begins back last fall, a few weeks into the school year, when our one elementary school teacher fell ill. A gang of assorted responders came to his assistance as is likely to…

Because the Atlantic Engine Company No. 2 is trying to raise money for thermal imaging equipment, maybe it is time to explain the origin of the fire company, old and new. It has a long history…

Fourth of July eve.  Is that really a date or should I just say July 3?  Around 5 or 6 p.m. I get a call on my personal phone from the State Police telling me that a trooper is in a parking lot…

It's easy to feel you've left your everyday life behind on Monhegan Island, located about ten miles offshore and over an hour by boat from Port Clyde. During the long, slow journey to get there…

Summertime is meant for fun, rest and relaxation and enjoying the company of friends and family with all that Maine has to offer. When you go to the beach, you bring sunscreen. You have a plan.…

If you’re the chief officer at a fire, probably the most important thing you want is people who know their jobs. There is complete chaos at most fire scenes and while you’re trying to bring order…

Around this vicinity, there are towns, counties and businesses that have Knox for a name, and it is because of General Henry Knox.

Camden is in Knox county, and many of our first settlers…

I missed apple-blossom time this year. 

Matinicus Island doesn’t have a lot of hardwoods, and admits to offering a mostly over-mature and decidedly scraggly spruce forest, but the…

Okay, this is it. My last column in the Boothbay Register. Kind of a good thing, kind of a sad thing.

I titled it The Last Supper, not for any deep, dark reasons – merely because my first…

Do you order onion rings in restaurants? I don’t, unless I’ve seen some there, and I know they’re freshly made, and prepared and cooked right.

There have been too many times I’ve asked if…

Okay so I’ve written about lobster before, but it’s spring in Maine, and that means lobster season is coming.

It’s not that you can’t eat lobster in the off-season, but it’s usually far…

THEY SAID WHAT?!

“You’re too sick to have chronic Lyme,” “Once you have Lyme, you can’t get it again,” “You didn’t get the bulls-eye so you’re all set,” “You been treated so any residual…

None of us were here in the year 1880, but Camden was. Some things have not changed but many things are quite different today.

Camden did include what is now Rockport ( then called Goose…

I’ve written about tacos in general, but I’m going to get specific here: Haddock tacos. Most restaurant menus list them as simply fish tacos. If they do that, and there’s no description with the…

Slowly the poplar and maple buds begin to unfurl into achingly green new leaves. Ferns uncoil. Slowly wildflowers emerge from the forest floor: trailing arbutus, spring beauties, Canada mayflowers…