January gets a bad rap. After that first day, the general feeling seems to be one of resignation — just get through until the next holiday season, when the Dark Days of Winter are Bright and Merry, thanks to copious amounts of artificial lighting. Poor, January. Dark, dank, and dreary January, when the white Christmas […]
Courier Opinion
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Kennebunk Post, Southern Maine Weeklies
From Augusta – Another year gone by
When I sat down the other day to think about the past year, I found myself thinking of some words from “The Little Prince.” “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” These words […]
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Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
Ruralist Lament: A cold reality
Many of the nation’s Framers were students not only of the classics and historical experiments in republican government but also of agriculture. In a country where well into the 20th century most people lived outside of cities and were raised on farms there was a certain (though limited) independence in a people that could — […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
Celebrate the holidays by shopping local
The holiday season is for being with family and friends, celebrating community, eating good food, giving back when you have little extra to spare and, of course, shopping. While some big box retail giants could pay to charter their own private cargo ships to import goods into the United States, I’m hoping that we don’t […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
Another festival to remember at Saco Museum
It hardly seems possible to me, but Christmas is just around the corner, and once again, we are hosting a Festival of Trees to remember. This year’s theme is “A Little Holiday Music.” It’s our 175h year, believe it or not! Most of you are familiar with this holiday event: You enter the Saco Museum […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Kennebunk Post, Southern Maine Weeklies
Don’t wait, get covered now!
Whether it’s a pandemic-related illness, general health and wellbeing, or a medical emergency, everyone needs to have access to health care to live full and sustaining lives. When we are healthy and taken care of, we can go to work, raise our children, support our families and have some fun – when time allows for […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
Ruralist Lament: COP Out 26
“The essential problem is not that we are tapping the wrong energy sources (though we are), or that we are wasteful and inefficient (though we are), but that we are overpowered and we are overpowering nature.” Richard Heinberg “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare/ The lone and level […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
The little rose that could
Nature often works in wondrous ways, sometimes even going so far as defying her own principles or breaking one of her own rules, or so it might seem to us at the time. But how do we really know what Nature is thinking, because she isn’t talking, or at least not in our language. That […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
Recognizing Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Month
For over two decades, my husband Lance – unknowingly, until the very end – battled carcinoid cancer. Like many who eventually discover their real condition, a diagnosis remained frustratingly elusive: Doctors, at different times, thought that Lance had food allergies, anxiety or depression, colon cancer, or liver cancer. Meanwhile, a good friend of mine and […]
Posted inBiddeford-Saco-OOB Courier, Southern Maine Weeklies
Ruralist Lament: The ghost (and) the machine
Like the few families that have lived on this place since 1780, my wife and I have farmed the sandy loam, using the tools at hand. Mostly, the tillage and soil amendment spreading have been powered by old tractors and equipment from the 1940s and ‘50s when New Deal farm policies allowed people who farmed […]