I guess I am behind the times, but I just discovered the magazine, "Maine Home and Design."

The Portland-based publication is artfully conceived, sympathetically written and offers features that are interesting to read - and look at. The cabin pictured here was not found in the pages of the winter edition. It, of course, is the Franklin County retreat of Your Scribe.

The magazine can be found at www.mainehomedesign.com. I liked the feature on fireplaces, though one rock-ribbed version was so large that the builders must have emptied half a quarry to complete it.

I also was intrigued by a story on a serial home dweller named Dyke Messler. That's right - Dyke.

I have never met another person named Dyke, nor have I run into one in print as I did in this magazine. (An aside: I did meet tennis star Martina Navratilova once when I was a sports writer, and she thought my parents had been nuts to give me such a name).

In years past, I picked up magazines like this with dreams that I would someday have a home like those featured here. I believe that is called escapism. Now I do have a (modest) cabin, and I still think of how to improve it.

It will never look like the gorgeous retreats featured in this magazine . . . but it is mine, and I love it.

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