Features
Green Escapes
When Maine’s gardeners want to disappear, where do they go? Not to London, or Paris, but to their own backyards, where irresistible hideaways range from the clever to the romantic.
- By: Rebecca Sawyer-Fay
- Photography by: Lynn Karlin
The Sea Nurse
Sharon Daley is the only health-care provider caring regularly for residents of Maine’s most remote offshore islands.
- By: Amy Sutherland
- Photography by: Herb Swanson
The House of His Dreams
A radical lakeside home uses technology and bold design to reinvent the Maine camp experience.
- By: Joshua F. Moore
Finishing Touches
Details, details: handcrafted elements lend any home a custom look.
- By: Virginia Wright
Fuzzy & Fierce
Contrary to popular belief, the pussy willow is one of the toughest plants in existence.
- By: Richard Grant
- Photography by: Jennifer Smith-Mayo
Fire of Patriotism
While the north won the Civil War, Maine lost far more than we often realize. On the war’s 150th anniversary, we look back at its bitter legacy.
- By: Colin Woodard
Ask an Architect
How to plan your dream home for a Maine retirement.
- By: Edgar Allen Beem
- Photography by: Rusty Ward
Every Mainer’s Kitchen
Remodeling a 1949 cook space in Eastport became a history lesson for both the designers and the homeowner.
- By: Virginia Wright
Departments
Where in Maine?
Have you ever checked out this underground library?
- Photography by: Amy Wilton
Maven in Maine
Black Friday — the popular name for the Friday after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year — couldn’t have come soon enough for fans of the shopping blog Maine Maven. That’s the day blogger and former Bangor Daily Newsshopping guru Kristen Lainsbury, and her husband, Jason, opened their new retail store, also called Maine Maven, in Orono (31 Mill St., 207-866-3557, www.mainemaven.com). This isn’t your average Maine products store.
North by East
An all-season Santa in West Gardiner, Winslow Homer, fashion plate, and more.
The Tax Man Runneth
How my grandmother won a skirmish with the IRS.
A Plague of Pills
How prescription drugs became Mainers’ contraband of choice.
- By: Virginia Wright
Hipster in a Strange Land
Crash Barry’s unexpurgated tale of love and poverty Down East.
- By: Richard Grant
Sweet Smell of Spring
Spice up your spring with a new perfume made right in Portland. 2 note Perfumery (10 Moulton St., 207-838-2815, www.2noteperfumery.com) has an assortment of fifteen distinct scents. Made from pure botanical essences, these all-natural perfumes are named after musical terms, a nod to the professional music careers of co-owners Darcy Doniger and Carolyn Mix, who play cello and violin respectively.
Editor’s Note
One hundred and fifty years ago, Confederate batteries opened fire on U.S. Army forces stationed at Fort Sumter, at the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The date — April 12, 1861 — is widely recognized as the beginning of the American Civil War. This month, Down East marks the war’s sesquicentennial with a special report (page 56) by contributing editor and award-winning historian Colin Woodard, author of The Lobster Coast and The Republic of Pirates.
- By: Paul Doiron
Letters to the Editor
Read what our readers have to say about Maine.
Wonderfully Horrible
A Portland parade offered the chance to lighten up back in 1920.
- By: Joshua F. Moore
An Asian Oasis
Asian food shines at the midcoast’s newest dining mecca.
- By: Kathleen Fleury
- Photography by: Amy Wilton
Briefly Noted
Sarah Graves’ “Home Repair is Homicide” series continues this month with the release of her newest mystery, Knockdown (Bantam, New York, NY; hardcover; 288 pages; $25). Heroine Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree becomes the one in peril as her past as a financial manager puts her in harms way when a former client’s son seeks vengeance. And, of course, there’s the home repair, too, based on Graves’ real-life 1823 Federal-style home in Eastport.