Yarrow & Cleat aims to be a chronicle of hope, healing, and humanity; few communities reflect these ideals as fully as those on our peninsula.

We know Boothbay: we have friends who live here, and we pay attention to what goes on. In what we see—in our local friends’ everyday caring for one another no matter oddness or idiosyncrasy—we see such inspiration. Our neighbors encourage us each day.

We are grateful for all of those among us ready to help those hurting and experiencing hardship, no matter who they are.

No matter who they are. And for that, we are most thankful.

The post The Helpers appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

Our launch of new content on Saturday, July 25, 2020, marks the 10th issue of Yarrow & Cleat. We have you—as reader, contributor, advisor, or supporter—to thank for getting us to this point.

Yarrow & Cleat has up to now been produced as a volunteer effort. We have spent
countless hours researching, drafting, editing, and illustrating 60 articles so far—all
without monetary compensation (we have received generous donations, and they have
gone toward production costs).

That is not to say we have not seen returns from Yarrow & Cleat—we have. The reward for our work has been the encouragement, positive feedback, and general positive energy we have felt from all of you, our stakeholders. We have been part of building community (the founding intention and central purpose of this publication), and for that we thank you.

At this stage we seek to expand our circle of stakeholders: If you or anyone you know might be interested in financially supporting Yarrow & Cleat (either individually or through a foundation or grant-making organization), we welcome that conversation.

Though our future is uncertain (we can’t continue forever without income), our blessings have been many. We look forward to more, and count on you to help us get there, as you have helped us get here.

The post Our Community appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

Most of Yarrow & Cleat’s stories are produced in-house, but not Corner Table, for which we turn to invited guests. Without them, Yarrow & Cleat would be less varied and rich.

Thus, to our Corner Table guest writers, we wish to express our gratitude.

It began with a word on Merry Barn from Stephanie McSherry, who at the time was coming up with ways to get books into young readers’ hands despite the onset of the pandemic. That was followed with a piece by  Jen Britton on the long walks she took in the early days of things shutting down. We then had a prose poem from Marion Coleman, followed by Tom Dewey on the value of keeping a sense of humor, followed by a poignant piece by Holly Stover on missing human connection. Larissa Vigue Picard then sang the praises of books and Ann Bracken the comfort of poetry—these two just before Leigh Perkins weighed in on what neighborliness means to her. And now, this week, an impressionistic set of vignettes by Patricia McHold.

Such a wealth of warmth and perspective. So much generosity in each of these folks taking the time to draft their pieces and work with us in the editorial process.

We are grateful for their words, their insights, and their open-hearted willingness to share of themselves, making what we do at Yarrow & Cleat broader and better.

If you know any of these folks personally, be sure to pass along the thanks!

The post Corner Table Writers appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

We know Yarrow & Cleat matters to you—we would not have had over 12,000 page views in our 10 weeks of existence were it not so. And though the website visits are gratifying, we do like our coffee.

Metaphorically speaking, that is.

At the bottom of our website is an image of a coffee cup and the phrase, “Buy me a coffee.” Click that link and you come to a page inviting you to “buy a coffee for” (make a small donation to) Yarrow & Cleat. Early on, a number of folks “bought coffees” for us. We’ve not drawn attention to this way of showing your support for a while, so we’re doing so now.

We are grateful for you—our readers—always, and if you value the varied and intimate view of the region Yarrow & Cleat provides and want us to keep it up (since this has been a voluntary effort so far, though we hope to change that), please consider “buying us a cup of coffee.”

We will be that much more grateful than we already are!

The post Our Readers appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

Robert Humphreville is exactly who this issue of Yarrow & Cleat needed.

Rob is a freelance pianist, organist and composer. For the past 35 years, among many other things, he has accompanied silent movies on piano and organ all over New England; the Boston Globe has praised him for his inventive improvisations.

And lucky for us, he is a follower of Yarrow & Cleat.

“If you ever need a snippet of piano music behind a video, please let me know,” he wrote us after the last issue.

We jumped at the chance.

In this issue, we include two videos in the Neighbor Tales section—one featuring Skip Simonds talking about problem solving, the other focused on Doreen sharing what she affectionately calls “the Rock Property,” an extraordinary piece of land she and her family own. Though Rob lends his nuanced musical touch to both videos, it is this second one that particularly gains from it.

We invite you to watch both videos, and are sure you will feel as we do afterwards: that Rob has brought what we produce to a whole new level of artistry, and for that we are ever so grateful.

The post Robert Humphreville appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

“I’ve learned to open myself to receiving—receiving expressions of love and gratitude and sharing myself in the messiness of my tears.”

So wrote Peter Ilgenfritz on December 29, 2018, in a blog post entitled Setting Sail.

And setting sail was exactly what Peter was doing, then leaving his position as pastor and member of the leadership staff at University Congregational United Church of Christ in Seattle, Washington, where he had served since 1994. It was a time for gratitude to come his way.

A little more than a year after his farewells on the West Coast, Peter landed here, where he now serves as interim pastor for the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor. It has been a trying time, what with the pandemic and everything turning on its head within weeks of his arrival in February (watch Peter Ilgenfritz on Reckoning for more on that).

But Peter is navigating it.

More than that, he is thriving, from the outset acting as a connector and convener within his new community. Yarrow & Cleat has been a particular beneficiary of Peter’s spirit of largesse—in more ways than one.

In some regard, Yarrow & Cleat owes its very existence to Peter, who early on in the pandemic brought folks together simply to explore doing something. Out of those early conversations, Yarrow & Cleat came to be—the fruit of Peter as convener. Additionally, as a member of our advisory team Peter has introduced us to numerous folks who have graced these pages as subjects of articles—Peter as connector.

And now we have reason for further gratitude toward this modest man, for it is Peter who stepped forward as the first individual from the Boothbay Region to sponsor an issue of Yarrow & Cleat (this issue) with a generous donation to support our ongoing viability.

In that same Setting Sail blog post, Peter wrote: “As I have felt myself emptying from my place in this ministry I found myself already being refashioned into the new man and pastor I will be in the next season of my life.”

We in Boothbay Harbor are the lucky ones to have this refashioned man in our midst, for he has already brought and continues to bring so much.

And lest you wonder, the only reason Peter is allowing Yarrow & Cleat to share publicly our gratitude for his gift is because he hopes his example may open other doors of support—he neither wants nor needs this public accolade.

So thank you, Peter.

The post Peter Ilgenfritz appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

Yarrow & Cleat could not possibly exist without its Advisory Team. A group of individuals with varied roots in the Boothbay Region, this all-volunteer team offers weekly input on the stories before they go live, comes up with leads and ideas for stories, and generally works in whatever ways it can to boost Yarrow & Cleat in our community. The team is:

Keith Arvanitis, the Director of Amistad Midcoast Recovery Services, including the Harbor Peer & Wellness Center in Boothbay Harbor; Kip Azzoni, a writer, entrepreneur, inventor, and activist on behalf of veteran causes whose family has summered in the Boothbay Region for generations; Jen Britton, an independent school educator who had been a 25-year summer resident in Southport before becoming a year-round resident in 2019; Breanna Davis, a native Texan who now is Operations Coordinator for The Boothbay Region Community Resource Council; Peter Ilgenfritz, Interim Pastor at the Congregational Church of Boothbay Harbor and a writer and artist in his own right;  Stephanie Noyes McSherry, the owner and lead learner at Merry Barn Writers’ Retreat in Edgecomb; and Holly Stover, born and raised in the Boothbay Region and serving now her first term in the Maine House of Representatives.

Yarrow & Cleat is grateful not only for their work, but for their stories too, many of which have graced our early issues. Have a look through Corner Table and Neighbor Tales to see for yourself!

The post The Advisory Team appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

But rather than do that, it re-invented itself in 2002.

Fractured Atlas has since gone on to serve more than 1,000,000 artists and organizations as “an arts industry leader in the use of technology to address challenges facing the arts community, share information and resources, and empower arts organizations with practical tools for managing their operations,” according to its website.

Yarrow & Cleat is one such entity Fractured Atlas is now serving.

Close readers of our website will have noticed we expressed gratitude to individual donors in our first two issues. The only way these supporters could make gifts to us is through our relationship with Fractured Atlas, functioning as our fiscal sponsor. Put simply, fiscal sponsorship allows financial contributors to have their gifts qualify as tax-deductible. It also allows a project such as Yarrow & Cleat to apply for grants it otherwise would not qualify for.

What we share with Fractured Atlas is a founding at a moment of crisis. Ironically, the small percentage it retains from donations it processes on our behalf is helping the organization stay in business—thus we have two undertakings born in crisis helping one another sustain themselves.

We are glad to be a partner with Fractured Atlas in this way, and are grateful for its presence.

The post Fractured Atlas appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

Yarrow & Cleat began as a side project and has, remarkably, turned into a full-time job. In order to keep it up, we need ways to pay our basic costs

At the footer of our website and newsletter is an image of a coffee cup and the phrase, “Buy me a coffee.” Click that link and you come to a page inviting you to “buy a coffee for” (make a small donation to) Yarrow & Cleat. A number of folks have already “bought coffees” for us, and we are grateful for both the monetary support and the wonderful positive feedback. Both of those things will help us thrive!

So please, if you like what you read and if you want us to keep it up, consider “buying us a cup of coffee” (or three).

We will be so grateful!

The post Buy Us a Coffee? appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.

As a child, Eleanor Hall spent summers with her great aunt, Letitia Latrobe Howell, in Maine’s Southwest Harbor. “Aunt Tetty taught me to love gardening,” says Eleanor, who now nurses orchids in the garden of her Florida home.

Eleanor and her husband Barry are sponsors for the April 25, 2020, issue of Yarrow & Cleat—we are grateful. They make their gift out of affection for Maine, and because they believe in family (Eleanor and Barry are aunt and uncle to Yarrow & Cleat creator Peter Bruun). “Barry is a big believer in boosting family, as am I,” notes Eleanor.

Yarrow & Cleat is pleased to return the gesture of honoring family. We thank Barry, and shine a light on the legacy of Eleanor’s great aunt—her tending to her gardens, and her care for her beloved great niece in her Southwest Harbor cottage.

The post Eleanor and Barry Hall appeared first on Yarrow & Cleat | A Chronicle for Hope, Healing, and Humanity from Boothbay and Beyond.