BROOKLIN — The Oddfellows Hall, with its mansard roof and gabled dormers, stands tall at the corner of Reach and Center Harbor roads. The towering landmark is in good hands and on secure footing now thanks to several civic-minded collaborators in town. Robert A. Baird, whose Utah family’s business Historical Arts & Casting Inc. …
In youth, you look for mentors to get you going down a path. Later on, you look to them for a glimpse of where the path eventually leads. As a beginning gardener, I exploded with questions about seeds, soil chemistry or how to predict frost. In midlife, I looked at old gardeners and wondered …
A drizzle of cream. A dab of butter. A slice of cheese. What could possibly be wrong with pleasures like those? And yet, to the fat-fearful, they might as well be arsenic — especially heavy cream, which seems to occupy its own circle of dietary damnation. Granted there are some folks whose systems don’t react …
BAR HARBOR — After Steve and Kirsten Henry closed on Bay Meadow Cottages in Bar Harbor’s Salisbury Cove village in 2017, they asked three trusted contractors for their opinions: could the roughly 1,300-square-foot barn, with its massive, hand-hewn roof timbers and floorboards scarred with hoof prints, be saved? “Two of them said ‘tear it …
Tucked away on a 7-acre wooded lot, this modern farmhouse-style home is a nature-lover’s paradise. The property was put up for sale last fall by owners Carolyn and Dave Hollenbeck. The couple had the house built in 2002. “Unless you drive up the driveway, you don’t know this is here,” said Carolyn. “It’s very private. …
BLUE HILL — Part of the charm of this seaside town is its U.S. post office bursting with blooms, cultivated and tended by Peter Clapp. Perennials and annuals grace either side of the post office steps as well as the roadside entrance to 104 Main St. Clapp owns the post office property. Six years ago, …
When spring is in progress, gardeners converse in Fahrenheit. They cheer when the thermometer hits 50, crow when a sunny day breaks 60, commiserate over a drop to 40. But the number that should be on all lips is the temperature of the soil. Soil heat rises steadily in spring, but its progress lags behind …
On the first day of asparagus, those freshly picked spears are a welcome gift after a long winter. Elsewhere in the garden, early spring planting takes a while to show results, as potato stems break the soil surface, pea tendrils grasp their trellis netting, and the green fuzz of newly sown carrots appears in rows. …
Disconsolate, my friend trudged from one garden center to another. Not a parsnip seed to be found. I am sure he was able to order some from a catalog — half of those in my own stack offer a variety or two. But it is sad to see a stalwart old vegetable sink to obscurity, …
When I was growing up in New York City, we would often see apologetic signs in the middle of the street that read “Dig we must for a better New York.” Everyone knew that beneath the traffic lay an intricate network of phone lines, gas lines, water lines, electric lines and the great tubes of …
The slug, in theory, is a friend. It belongs to a class of animals, called detritovores, that feed on the detritus of the living world so that it does not pile up endlessly around us. Vegetation that is decaying, or has at least begun its downward descent from the prime of life is a slug’s …
ELLSWORTH — The Hancock County Soil and Water Conservation District has announced the return of the spring plant sale with 18 specially selected species. Discount pricing is being offered on pre-orders before March 17. After March 17, customers may still order at regular price while supplies last. Pick-up for all orders is Saturday, May 18, …
