In September, Tarah Waters began work in Eastport as an Island Fellow through the Island Institute (publisher of The Working Waterfront). Waters is a Colorado native and graduate of Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I. with a B.A. in international studies.

Roger Pielke had come to Maine to speak at the University of Maine's Mitchell Center for Sustainability, traveling to the state from Colorado, where he is director of the University of Colorado's Center for Science. After speaking, he hoped to head to Bar Harbor to see Acadia National Park and dine at one of the seaside town's restaurants. But which restaurant?

The award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Ashley Bryan from Islesford (Little Cranberry Island) often concludes his storytelling performances with a remarkable recitation of Langston Hughes’s poem “My People,” asking his audience to repeat the lines after him.

The obstacles and challenges that come with being the principal of two island elementary schools are many. But those jobs also come with something educators like Heather Webster long for—deep community support.

It was suggested that "golf croquet" might be appropriate for her school, a sport that can be enjoyed and played by students of all ages and athletic abilities. Within ten days she had discussed the potential for a program with Heather Webster, the principal of both Islesford and Swan's Island, and they were ready to get the croquet balls rolling.

For nearly 20 years, North Haven Community School's high school students have ventured into the woods for a week each year, usually in the fall. They canoe, hike or occasionally bike, most often breaking and making camp each day in a new spot.

They worked, smart phones at their sides, talked with each other incessantly, laughing. I loved it.

There's one more day of summer showing on the calendar as this column is being written, but the signs of autumn are everywhere on the coast of Maine.

There is a particularly odious saying that gets bandied about from time to time: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." Rather than get my hackles up, I let it goad me into action.