Wilson Museum Book Discussion – The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
2025-05-20 16:00 - 17:30 UTC
Location: Hutchins Education Center 112 Perkins Street / Castine, Maine
Register for this book discussion here.
This month’s book: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.
A Wilson Museum-inspired book discussion series.
There are all sorts of great books out there that can be connected to our museum and mission in some way – from how we think about museums, to encountering more about the cultures and objects we share through our exhibits, to fun ways to explore history. And rather than just read and think about these on her own, Executive Director Julia Gray wants to invite you all to read and talk about some of these books with her! The discussions will be offered both in-person and on Zoom.
Our 2025 book discussion series will contain three books:

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer | Tuesday, May 20

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters | Tuesday, September 16

Tangleroot by Kalela Williams | Tuesday, November 18

Participation in all three is not required. Join whichever discussion piques your interest!

Pokemon
2025-05-19 14:15 - 15:15, 2025-05-12 14:15 - 15:15, 2025-05-05 14:15 - 15:15
At Witherle Library / 41 School Street. With Silas Sewell with assistance from Colin Powell. Bring your own deck if you have one or one will be provided. If you do not know how to play there will be a training session.
Ages 7 and older.

Affordable Housing 5K
2025-05-17 09:00 - 10:30
In support of our local community.
An Out-and-Back route starting at the Blue Hill Fire Station (42 Water Street), going up Water Street to Main Street, then down Parker Point Road.
Click here for more information, including past recipients of support, and to register.
Presented by Acadia Council of the Mid-Coast Board of REALTORS & Blue Hill Family YMCA

D&D Adult Group
2025-05-16 18:00 - 21:00, 2025-05-02 18:00 - 21:00
At Witherle Library, 41 School Street. For more information, contact Nick Berry (nick@witherlelibrary.net).

Castine Community Forum: Town Dock Waterfront Project
2025-05-15 18:00 - 20:30
At Emerson Hall, 67 Court Street / Castine, Maine.
Please join us for a second forum on May 15, 2025 to discuss the Castine Town Dock Waterfront Project.
The meeting will involve:
– Update on Town Dock Project
– Interactive and Hands-on Mapping and Planning Session
– Question and Answer Period

D&D Student Group 2
2025-05-15 14:00 - 17:00

Stone Fox Creamery Opens for the Season
2025-05-15

Surveying Archaeological Sites around the Globe with Brian Norris
2025-05-14 18:00 - 19:00
Known around Castine as the publisher of Stroll Castine (Castine Living) magazine, throughout his surveying engineering career, Brian Norris has participated in a multitude of archaeological assignments around the globe. This talk will focus on a few select archaeological sites in the rain forests of Central America, in the desert of Central Turkey, and aboard a hydrographic surveying ship in the Pacific Ocean. Brian will summarize his project involvement, including the conditions faced, along with some observations about the surrounding archaeological environs.
This presentation is at 112 Perkins Street in Castine, and is free of charge. To attend virtually, register using the button here. No registration is needed for in-person attendance.
This program is part of the Wilson Museum’s program series Connecting to Collections: Curiosity, Culture, Climate made possible through the generous support of Bangor Savings Bank.

Crafty Wednesdays
2025-05-14 14:15 - 15:15, 2025-05-07 14:15 - 15:15
At Witherle Library / 41 School Street. Ms Orado will present a new craft every Wednesday in May. Join your friends and express your creative selves! All supplies provided. Ages 7 and older.
Crafty Wednesday will take a break in June and return in July as a part of Summer Reading.

Wings, Waves, and Woods
2025-05-14 - 2025-05-18
Island Heritage Trust’s Annual Wings, Waves, & Woods Festival is a volunteer-run, non-profit event that makes birding accessible to all. The Festival offers a mix of activities surrounding birding, boating, nature, history, and creativity. The popular boat trip to Seal Island offers sightings of Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, Northern Gannets, and others. Up to two dozen species of warblers can be seen on the various guided walks on Island Heritage Trust’s preserves, as well as shorebirds nesting and breeding along our extensive shoreline. Attend just one activity, or enjoy the full five days of experiencing the vibrant lands and working waterfront of Deer Isle – Stonington Maine. Visit here for more information and to register.

Mahjong at Witherle Library
2025-05-13 16:00 - 18:00, 2025-05-06 16:00 - 18:00
Mahjong returns for a spring session. If you would like to play, please email admin@witherlelibrary.net. The group will return this summer. Stay tuned.

Bike Tune-up Day
2025-05-12 09:45 - 14:00
Witherle Memorial Library will host a Bike Check-Up Day on Tuesday, May 12 for Adams School students, thanks to the efforts of Bill Corbett, Barbara Fleck and Taggart Chung. The Check-Up is sponsored by the Friends of Witherle Library.
During PE classes the children will be riding at Adams School and getting their bikes “tuned up” in preparation for the School’s annual bike rodeo.

Mother's Day Brunch at the Pentagöet
2025-05-11 11:00 - 15:00
A delightful celebration at the beautiful Pentagöet. Contact 207.326.8616 for reservations.

Motherhood in a Flash: Spring Writing Workshop
2025-05-10 13:00 - 16:00
Word invites mothers and caregivers to spend an afternoon at the Blue Hill Inn (40 Union Street) harnessing their creativity in a new way—writing in the compact, powerful “flash” form.
Guiding the writers will be novelist and nonfiction author Kate Moses, whose four acclaimed books explore the experience of motherhood.
The workshop will be held at the inn Saturday, May 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. Refreshments will be provided. Enrollment is limited, so early registration is advised, and Mother’s Day gift registrations are welcome. Register here.
“Unlike the long haul of growing humans into adults,” Moses writes, “flash writings are intended to be brief (100 to 1,500 words), making their gestation more likely to fit into the hectic lives of their creators.”
Workshop participants will explore the craft techniques that give flash writings their intensity and focus, reading examples from across the genre. Writers will generate flashes from their own material, then will have the opportunity to share their work and receive revision tips.

Writing a Food Essay with Deborah Joy Corey
2025-05-10 10:00 - 14:00
This writing workshop with author Deborah Joy Corey will serve as a starting point for each participant to shape a particular food story or memory. Through reading, prompts, and discussion, Deborah will guide each participant in finding their true voice for telling their story. On completion of the workshop, each writer will have a solid beginning with tips for completion. Both new and experienced writers are welcome.
Registration required and space is limited. Workshop registration is $40 per person. Click here to register.
Deborah Joy Corey is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, Losing Eddie and The Skating Pond, and a memoir, Settling Twice. Most recently, she edited a collection of food essays, Breaking Bread, which won the Maine Writers Anthology and the John D. Cole Prize for Nonfiction.
This program is part of the Wilson Museum’s program series Connecting to Collections: Curiosity, Culture, Climate made possible through the generous support of Bangor Savings Bank.

Wine Tasting
2025-05-09 16:00 - 17:30
A complimentary wine tasting at Windmill Hill Provisions (5 Castine Road). The tasting on May 9th will feature wines from Greece and Portugal, with craft mocktails also on offer for those interested. We look forward to seeing everyone!

Understanding Your Land: A Site Assessment Workshop
2025-05-08 15:00 - 17:30
Learn how to assess a landscape before making significant design or structural changes. In this hands-on session, participants will explore a residential site and learn to assess key elements such as vegetation, soil conditions, drainage, topography, circulation and access, zoning regulations, and more. Leave with the tools and principles to evaluate your own property—or a client’s—when planning a landscape design.
The workshop takes place in central Blue Hill on a site with sloped terrain, wooded areas, and some muddy ground. Please dress appropriately for outdoor conditions. Address and other details will be provided after registration.
Workshop leader Charlene Spindler Gray has worked as a landscape designer in Maine for 14 years and has taught ecological landscape design courses for undergraduate students at the University of Maine.
The sliding scale fee is intended to keep our workshops accessible while covering administrative costs and a stipend for leaders’ expertise. Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. Email info@ngbh.org with any questions.
For more information, visit the registration page.
RAIN DATE: MAY 9, 2025

Views From Great Pond Mountain with Ethan Tapper
2025-05-07 18:00 - 20:00
The Alamo Theatre, 85 Main Street / Bucksport, Maine
Conversations about the Maine Woods
Ethan Tapper is a nationally-recognized forester, bestselling author, and content creator from Vermont.
Only those who love trees should cut them, writes forester Ethan Tapper. In How to Love a Forest, he asks: what does it mean to live in a time in which ecosystems are in retreat and extinctions rattle the bones of the earth?
Purchase tickets here.
Presented By Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BLUE HILL HERITAGE TRUST & MAINE WOODLAND OWNERS

Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
2025-05-07 17:00 - 18:00
The topic is “The Rising Challenge to Territorial Integrity”. Moderated by Barbara Griffiths. All are welcome. We meet over Zoom.
Go to readings and how to register

Witherle Library Board of Trustees Meeting
2025-05-07 09:00 - 10:00
All are welcome. In person in the Downstairs Community Room and over Zoom.
Go to the Agenda.
Request the Zoom link

D&D Student Group 1
2025-05-06 15:00 - 18:00

Blue Hill Historic Walking Tour
2025-05-05 08:00 - 17:00
Join us for a free walking tour of historic Union Street in Blue Hill, part of Maine Preservation’s Jane’s Walk series!
Starting at Town Hall (18 Union Street), we’ll explore the stories of ship captains, artists, doctors, and leaders who shaped the town—featuring highlights like Jonathan Fisher, Blue Hill’s first settled minister and Renaissance man.
Co-sponsored by the Jonathan Fisher House and Blue Hill Historical Society, this engaging tour brings local history to life with photos, anecdotes, and community spirit. Wear comfy shoes and come curious!

Salsa Shack Food Truck
2025-05-04, 2025-05-03
On the town dock, celebrating MMA graduation weekend

Jane's Walk - Echoes in the Landscape: Uncovering Sites in Castine’s African & African American History
2025-05-03 16:00 - 17:30
How do we honor what we cannot see? How can the experience of history-in-place change our perspectives on the past?
Castine Waterfront, Sea Street / Castine, Maine

Join Georgia Zildjian, Manager of Museum Learning at the Wilson Museum, and Lisa Simpson-Lutts, former director of the Castine Historical Society, for Castine History Partner’s fourth Jane’s Walk. This walk-and-talk style exploration will immerse participants in the stories of Castine’s historic African and African American communities.

Attendees will wend their way through invisible homesites, unmarked graves, and docks long lost to the sea as they consider together the social and cultural implications of “invisible” history in Castine’s landscape and beyond. Facilitated conversation, newly recovered history, and guided imagination will all play a role in this communal exploration.
Participants should plan for a lengthy walk and varied, sometimes uneven terrain. We suggest comfortable clothing layers, good walking shoes, and a personal water bottle for this experience.
For more information, click here.
