As long as I’ve lived in Maine (6 consecutive winters now), winters can be defined as “snowy” or “cold,” but rarely are they both. This year is an exception. We’ve had lots of  sub-zero and near-zero days and lots of the white stuff, not to mention plenty of ice too. Lucky us! It’s always about this time when people start frantically searching for cheap airfares to tropical locales (California, here we come), taking up new hobbies (knitting anyone?), and searching for anything that will punctuate the dreariness (Allen’s Coffee Flavored Brandy is the fave in these parts). In a normal year, nordic skiing would make the season much more enjoyable for me, but as I’m still hesitant to do anything too rigorous after ankle surgery in December, I’m opting for snowshoe excursions instead.

This past Saturday, I got up early and drove out to Crescent Beach in Cape Elizabeth. As an orange orb ascended over the horizon, I snowshoed down a trail that led to the ocean.

I love the feeling of being in a place where no one else is early in the morning. I felt my self being restored, a sort of equilibrium regained as I stood in one place for minutes at a time taking long exposures of the sky, water and snow. (These images are on that ancient thing called “film” so when they get processed and scanned some time in the next year, I’ll post them if they’re interesting.) Watching the sky change from dramatic clouds, to a pink streak on the horizon, to a soft golden glow over a space of hours was heavenly.

Except for the cold, I felt like I could have sat in a lawn chair on that bluff overlooking the sea and watched the changing atmosphere all day and been perfectly content. I’m still California dreamin’, but until that March trip, I’ll be getting recharged by trekking into nature as often as possible (with a flask of Allen’s if need be!).