The news, reported by the Mount Desert Islander, that the schedule for cruise ship visits to Bar Harbor for this spring, summer and fall shows "the town on track to set a new record … with 140 scheduled port calls," is an economic indicator of sorts.

Earlier, a hunter had butchered a deer on this spot and left the remains behind…

It is, no doubt unnerving for some of us to observe a friend candidly facing and planning for her own demise.

Bruce Fernald recently traveled to the Napa Valley to attend the 17th Annual Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival at the Culinary Institute of America. He participated in a seminar with Sam Hayward and Cara Stadler, two Maine chefs, who were cooking lobster in various forms.

The key to success "is a single harvester, with fire in the belly, skin in the game and a sense of delayed reward."

There are moments in our communities here on the coast and islands when we local yokels get to have our say on big questions.

This fall, the Frenchboro School studied island history and ecology. As the makeshift social studies and science teacher at the two-student school, I tried to design lessons that would put the kids into the wildness of their island's past.

At the top of Kent's Hill, the one-way road leading into North Haven's downtown, is the community bulletin board.

Over 15,000 miles of often-treacherous coastline were charted with remarkable accuracy...