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Down East Magazine, July 2025
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Virginia M. Wright
Joined12.23.13
Articles261
Virginia M. Wright is a Down East contributing editor and the author of A Town Built by Ski Bums: The Story of Carrabassett Valley, Maine.
a curtain of lilac, mock orange, and sour-cherry blossoms buffers Ellen Jackson's Farmingdale home from a busy roadway
Home + Garden

In Farmingdale, a Verdant Spectacle Plays Out for Passing Motorists

Spring-blooming flowers engulf gardener Ellen Jackson and her mid-century Cape.
asters, black-eyed Susans, lobelias, and mountain fleece crowd a stone path in landscaper James McCain's South Portland backyard
Home + Garden

Tall, Wispy Blooms Create a Meadow-Like Backyard in South Portland

Come September, plants appear ready to bust free of their beds in landscaper James McCain’s garden.
Eckart Preu directing the Portland Symphony Orchestra
Arts & Leisure

100 Years of the Portland Symphony Orchestra

In a century of concert seasons, this year's lineup is one of many high notes.
Eric Darling with his rope art and piles of old lobster-trap rope at his Appleton, Maine, studio
Maine-Made

Eric Darling Untangles How to Turn Old Lobstering Lines into Vivid Landscapes

The midcoast artist's Drift Rope Project is an homage to the working waterfront.
Laura Boyett and landscaper Jason Allerding in Boyett's garden on Augusta's Howard Hill
Home + Garden

In Augusta, This Wooded Backyard Hosts Some of the Most Unusual Plants Around

Laura Boyett likes to shop specialty nurseries for rare varieties of familiar perennials.
Jeremy Frey in his studio, in Eddington. This year, his baskets are traveling to exhibitions from Portland to New York to Paris.
Maine-Made

The Modern Master of Wabanaki Basketry

Jeremy Frey is the subject of the first-ever major retrospective of a Wabanaki artist. Amid the hype, he’s still able to lose himself in the steady rhythm of weaving in his home studio, where he’s forever cognizant of tribal basketmakers’ challenging history and tenuous future.
illustration of ski bums gathering at a bar at the base of Sugarloaf Mountain in Carrabassett Valley
Our Towns

How Ski Bums Bucked State Control and Founded the Town of Carrabassett Valley

A new book paints a lively picture of the Sugarloafers who banded together to carve out a town of their own in the heart of western Maine’s mountains.
Jess Stuart and Josey Bornstein, owners of Cool Girl Collective in Bangor, Maine
Maine-Made

A New Bangor Vintage Shop Stitches Together a Collaborative Approach to Thrifting

Cool Girl Collective sets itself apart by giving consignors more control over inventory and a bigger share of the profits.
a Shannon's Unshelled lobster roll topped with Moxie glaze
Food & Drink

Is This the Maine-iest Bite Ever?

At Shannon’s Unshelled, in Boothbay, customers can savor a lobster roll made with the state's love-it-or-hate-it soda.
Bald Mountain, Camden, Maine
Our Towns

H. Allen Fernald’s Favorite Maine Place

The Down East chairman and former publisher counts Camden’s Bald Mountain as one of his most cherished places.
Erin Clark’s patio garden empha- sizes layered mounds of soft colors and John Davis roses, a hardy climbing variety with delicate pink blossoms and a cascading habit.
Home + Garden

In Hampden, Gardener Erin Clark Has Created a Fantasyland

Her blooming backyard with a gabled cottage is straight out of a storybook.
Swaths of summer bloomers, such as astilbes, coneflowers, heleniums, hydrangeas, and phlox, color Elsie Freeman’s shore-front borders
Home + Garden

Swaths of Summer Bloomers Color This Barters Island Garden

Elsie Freeman’s rambling shore-front borders are filled with astilbes, coneflowers, heleniums, hydrangeas, and phlox.
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