The first significant snow or 2026 began on Saturday, the 17th, but it began insignificantly. At first there were a few small, lazy flakes that seemed to have lost their way in a dark, windless sky. They wandered where they liked and clung to what they touched.
But their friends and family kept coming overnight and slowly knitted a thick white blanket that made Sunday’s first first peek out of the bedroom window a pleasant surprise:
It was easy to drive around during the gray day and see what Mother Nature was up to. Plowing the roads and private lanes during and after snowfalls is a major priority here, and public roads also are “sanded and salted” with an environmentally-safe substance.
The death and taxes area of Town was closed, as were the Baptist Church, Library and Morning Moon Cafe, but of course the General Store was open for business and serving a lot of its delicious roasted coffee:
A short distance down Reach Road, the renowned Brooklin Boat Yard at Center Harbor also was closed over the weekend. Old, uninhabited seaside boat yards have their own good spirits, especially with fine snow drifting down:
Center Harbor was still and devoid of the many beautiful sailing and power boats of summer:
A few miles down the coast, the working waterfront at Naskeag Harbor also was vacant and its waters quiet. The sun was trying (unsuccessfully) to break through the clouds. All local fishing vesels apparently were sheltering elsewhere, but the old summer house on Harbor Island was still seemingly keeping watch.
Interesting structures, artifacts and flora become more interesting after a good snowfall, especially those that have a brilliant color to glow through the monochromatics of a snowfall:
Finally, we come to today, Monday, January 19, 2026. It’s a holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the sun is trying (again, unsuccessfully) to break through the overcast while a few gypsy flakes wander in the woods. Here’s an image taken this morning of the same area where we started this post to show the first flakes falling:
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on January 17 through 19, 2025.)