Phil Crossman has a new book out called Observations: A Maine Island, a Century of Newsletters and the Stories Found Between the Lines.

On Oct. 24, voters will be asked at a special town meeting to authorize selectmen to negotiate with individuals or entities to provide ferry service from Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor to Great Cranberry Island, Little Cranberry Island and Sutton Island. If negotiations are successful, a final town vote would follow.

Cranberry Isles voters will decide at a special town meeting on Oct. 24 whether to authorize selectmen to negotiate with "individuals or entities to appropriate or secure ferry transportation service from Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor to Great Cranberry Island, Little Cranberry Island, and Sutton Island,

Despite the desperate situation, we train for just such things. No matter how bad a situation at sea becomes, hope for survival always remains strong.

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

He is awed by the humbling power of nature, whether a rip-roaring gale tearing shingles off roofs or the miracle that earth doesn’t spin out into the abyss…

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.

I have mixed feelings about summer.

I’ve always loved little spaces I could make my own. When I was a kid, maybe 13 or so, I lived for a while in a box a refrigerator had come in. I