Countering the Culture of Convenience
We are consumers of convenience. Offer us a faster, easier, wrinkle-free, nonstick option, and we’re sold. We need no convincing that convenience is an inherent good; a lifetime of ads has done that...
Category: Slower Living
This Year’s Silver Lining
It is the eve of Winter Solstice, the nadir of a harrowing year. Ordinarily, holiday gatherings would buoy our spirits and tide us through this season of brittleness, when hope itself can seem dormant....
Making Way for Ducks
As loveable as ducks are, they are – undeniably – fowl, exuberant in start-to-finish mess-making. Domesticated ducks routinely splash into full bowls of food or water, and – if the spirit moves them –...
Driving Seemed Inescapable until It Wasn’t
Ask experts about cutting vehicular emissions — the largest source of Maine’s greenhouse gas pollution — and you’re apt to hear how complex the task is. Finding ways to equitably transition from gas-powered to...
Growing an Enduring Culture of Gardening
The current gardening boom has parallels to the widespread “War Gardens” and “Victory Gardens” grown during and after WWI, when the nation struggled with food shortages and the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more...
For the Birds: Gardening for Wildlife
With six decades of gardening experience, Sharon Turner is a resource for many residents of the midcoast who seek to create more wildlife-friendly landscapes. Photo by Marina Schauffler. If you look the right way,...
Field-grown Perennials?
Shopping didn’t used to require a glossary. But now there’s a profusion of labels like “pasture butter” and “field-grown perennial” that require translation. Consider the latter term: what portion of the plant’s life is...
Sharing a Sense of Wonder
With all its fits and starts – unexpected April snows and fierce Nor’easters, spring has finally sprung. For southerly locales, the March equinox may herald the season’s arrival. But here, at least this year,...
