Merwick Cottage

08/01/2023

What better way to celebrate summer than with a sale? We have some lovely weeks available, now discounted $30 per night for the remainder of our season. Call Cottage Connection of Maine to book, or visit our webpage https://www.cottageconnection.com/property/merwick-cottage

Can you believe it's the end of July already? We can't believe we're nearly halfway through our 30th season!
We're keeping the celebrations going with a special opportunity for all of you! Book any of our homes (that's Nautica in the photo) for a week or longer stay during the 2023 season, and receive $30 the rental rate for each night in your stay!

Want to know more? Call our team at 207-633-6545, or check us out on our website: www.cottageconnection.com!

07/14/2023

According to The Points Guy, Reid State Park is one of the best beaches in the country for summer travel! We love Reid any time of year, and you can't beat the ten-minute commute from Merwick Cottage. Reid State Park has two long sandy beaches and one small secret one, a tidal lagoon with water warmed in the marshes, rocky promontories with views of three lighthouses, and miles of hiking trails. Good pick Points Guy!

The U.S is home to many diverse waterfront landscapes, from breezy sand dunes and rocky cliffside shorelines to cityscape sands and secret beach coves.

06/22/2023

Where the glass is always half full!
These wonderful glasses are available from our friends at Five Islands Farm.

05/29/2023

The beginning of a new summer!

05/27/2023

The yachts are back, the lobstermen are working hard, and it couldn't be a more beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Five Islands. Looking forward to summer 2023!

11/24/2022

We have many things to be thankful for at Merwick Cottage, but today we are especially thankful for our lobstering families who make Five Islands a vibrant working waterfront. Through Diann Longstreet- Photographer's stunning photographs you can get to know the men and women, sons and daughters (and the occasional pooch) aboard the lobster boats that you see motoring out of the harbor each day at dawn.

11/13/2022

The remnants of Hurricane Nicole brought high surf and balmy temperatures to the coast of Maine.

11/02/2022

Balmy afternoon on the porch at Winnegance Bakery with a bowl of chowder and a view of the Kennebec. 🌞

09/20/2022

Dawn at the wharf. We love it that Benjamin Williamson Photography loves Five Islands as much as we do!

Morning Report -

Two Lobstermen engage in conversation while a blazing sunrise fills the sky at Five Islands. It felt like old times yesterday morning as I caught one of the prettiest skies I've seen in a while in one of my favorite places. This composition came together quickly as I moved from one side of the town wharf to the other. I wonder what they were chatting about.

08/30/2022

Five Islands certainly is the Best of Maine, in our (not-so-humble) opinion! Down East Magazine's cover for its September issue features the harbor and Malden Island, which happens to be part of our everyday view from Merwick Cottage. Call Cottage Connection of Maine to book a September week!

See Maine through the lens of mid-century photographer Kosti Ruohomaa, the winners of our 2022 Best of Maine Readers' Choice Poll, and more! Order our September 2022 issue online here. ➡️ shop.downeast.com/product/down-east-magazine-september-2022/

📷 Georgetown’s Malden Island, photographed by Benjamin Williamson Photography

08/05/2022

Autumn sparkle on the water when summer bustle gives way to the serenity of September days. We have some lovely autumn weeks available at Merwick Cottage, call Cottage Connection of Maine to book a week of tranquility on the Maine Coast.
https://www.cottageconnection.com/property/merwick-cottage

07/29/2022

Lovely balsam mini pillows at Thrifts & Gifts, in Georgetown Center. No better way to take a bit of Maine home that these sachets full of fragrant Georgetown balsam needles hand-stitched by the ladies of the Georgetown Working League!

Counted cross-stitch balsam bags . Hand stitched by one of our talented GWL members . There are many more to look at . Get here before your favorite is gone. $12.00 each. Look at those tiny stitches.

07/26/2022

The view from around the corner, from our hard-working neighbors at Five Islands Lobster Co.

07/09/2022

Merwick morning.

04/12/2022

Looking forward to seeing the Pinnace Virginia moored in the Kennebec this summer!

A team of volunteers is building a replica of Virginia, the ship built by the Popham Colony at its settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec River in 1607.

01/11/2022

Sea smoke flowing in the subzero wind this morning.

01/11/2022

With its cover photo taken from the deck at Merwick Cottage by photographer Carl D. Walsh, this article from the National Audubon Society details the journey of the rare Steller's sea eagle.

The journey of the lost Asian bird started more than a year ago. Follow along as birders gather in awe and speculate on its next moves.

01/01/2022

The very first sighting of the rare Steller's Sea Eagle in the State of Maine was made from Merwick Cottage. Here is our first-hand account.

On Thursday afternoon the loon in front of our house in Five Islands, Maine started calling a distress cry, which means there’s a raptor about. I scanned the treeline of the island across the way and didn’t see anything, but did see something the size of a seal sitting on a seaweed-covered rock just a few feet above the waves.

A closer look through binoculars showed it was the Steller’s sea eagle that has been in the news. They are native to the Kamchatka Peninsula of the Russian Far East, and there are only about 4,000 left in the wild. One has been flying around the US, wildly out of its range, making headlines wherever it is spotted. I took some blurry pictures with my phone and sent them to Maine Audubon. They confirmed my i.d. and said I’m the first person to see this species in the State of Maine. Then they put it out on social media and it blew up.

In less than an hour there was a man at the door, coming to our tiny dead-end road as a delegate from the other 20 cars that were already at the town wharf. In less than an hour, and we don’t live that close to anything – it’s a 20-minute ride into town! This was my introduction to the world of birders. Their passion for birding is astonishing.

Next morning (yesterday) a photographer from the Portland Press Herald appeared at the door, and said there were already 200 people chasing the bird around the shoreline of the village. And it’s a small village, at the very end of a long road that ends in a loop.
The eagle happened to be on the island across the way from us so he got some great pictures from our deck. It sits in a tree and the bald eagles come around and start to challenge it, then retreat. Smart because the Steller’s sea eagle is way bigger than the baldies.

At lunchtime we drove out through the village and found it jammed from end-to-end with cars, and hundreds of people on the wharf. The report on the six-o’clock news included a woman who had started driving at 3AM from Philly to see the bird. The speed with which this all happened still astonishes me. The article in the Portland Press Herald says people from NY and NJ will be arriving today. And the star of it all is oblivious to its celebrity of course. Really it’s a bit melancholy that this magnificent eagle is wandering North America from Texas to the Maritimes, thousands of miles from its home.

The eagle, one of only about 4,000 worldwide, is thousands of miles from its usual territory in Asia and Russia.

12/24/2021

A special visitor to Five Islands Lobster Co. Wishing everyone warm, happy and healthy holidays!

11/25/2021

Thankful for each and every day. Wishing all the best to our friends this Thanksgiving Day.

07/23/2021

Double rainbow yesterday! From our neighbors at Five I Fuel & Harborside General Store.

What a great start to our long weekend! Stop by to see the great new items in-store, listen to great local music and slurp some delicious local oysters! We’re open Thu-Mon, 10-6 with our Oyster Almost Happy Hour on Friday 4-6pm (that’s tomorrow!) 🌈📷 Alison Bonney

07/15/2021

The July "Classic Maine" issue of Down East magazine features a photograph of Five Islands Harbor by Benjamin Wlliamson. Just down the road from Merwick Cottage!

Maine’s former military forts, our favorite downtowns, how Maine towns got their names, and more. Order our July issue online here. ➡️ shop.downeast.com/product/down-east-magazine-july-2021/

📷 Five Islands harbor, in Georgetown, by Down East staff photographer Benjamin Williamson.

06/19/2021

Bath, Maine is one of Smithsonian Magazine's "15 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2021."

From Alabama's music capital to the self-proclaimed 'center of the universe,' these American towns are calling your name

06/11/2021

We've been working hard to prepare Merwick Cottage for our summer guests, but sometimes we stop and smell the (rugosa) roses and all the other flowers!

05/20/2021

You would think, from his look, that he caught that big fish himself. But in fact he stole it from the osprey and took shelter in the tree just off our deck. The osprey circled overhead screeching but couldn't take a proper dive at the eagle where he was sitting sheltered under the leaves.