Three friends make the most of winter at the rink in Dixfield.
submitted by Tia Dakin

Ben, skiing behind our house in Peru. He's oblivious to my camera, or maybe just used to me constantly shooting. He loves this shot, too.

submitted by Rachel Buck

Dixfield, circa 1895. Photographer unknown. Courtesy Dixfield Historical Society.

These are from when I went for a joy ride solo on my snowsled the day before I turned sixteen. I rushed out of my house after I got home from school so I could catch the sun setting.

Submitted by Jill Schnorr

Playin' in the snow on a February afternoon. On Webb Lake in Weld.

Submitted by Karolyn Buotte

Icefishing in Washington County. Nothing finer.
Submitted by Paul Beane

Slower than snowmobiling yet quicker than your average stroll, strapping on the cross country skis is a great way to get a workout and a breath of fresh air. This shot was taken last winter in West Farmington on a bridge that use to carry trains but now facilitates skiers and sledders. These petrified tracks serve as the approach to the sweet trails of Titcomb Hill.

Like a gymnast or a champion jockey (or even a mediocre jockey) I do not have the body type to be a professional cross country skier. But that is fine. My body type suits me just fine for teaching and creating art, as well as playing sloppy, awkward pickup basketball games with other sloppy and awkward people. A few minutes into the ski trip it is apparent why cross country skiers are so fit.

Also, when you go at a slow pace you really soak up the pristine Maine woods. You notice the snow hanging on for dear life onto branches and meandering of small animal tracks through the trees. We live in a beautiful place, but even when the weather tries to beat you back it is still important to get out there and realize the beauty.
submitted by Joe McLaughlin

February Theme: Winter Recreation

Mainers have to get out in the winter to ward off cabin fever, to get fresh air, and of course to enjoy the crystalline days of sun shining through icicles in the pines, and diamonds glinting on a field of fresh snow begging for tracks. Anyone who has skiied fresh powder, snow-machined across a frozen bog, skated on a still pond (better by moonlight!), or caught a fish through a hole in the ice knows the thrill of winter recreation. There are many types of winter rec, so put your thinking caps on and send along your favorite shots!

Submit your photos, poems, essays to me at amity.beane@gmail.com. Put "This is Maine" in the subject and be sure to include the location of your winter recreation.

Our House

I remember how we came

with the excitement of explorers,

the wild high pitch of our elation

echoing through each empty room.

There were spaces we could fill:

the root cellar, the attic’s secret passage,

the upstairs closets,

narrow and useless as they were.

It has no secrets left to yield, this house

we once inhabited. Now abandoned,

chilled walls cracked,

penetrated by silent frost.

Outside, blank windowpanes reflect

the sky’s striations.

The frozen fingers of the lilacs reach,

expecting nothing.




Carla Ganiel

Not only does this abandoned house have an abandoned boat in the front yard, so too does it have the small, graphite colored satellite dish perched on the roof of the barn. Peru.


submitted by Karolyn Buotte

After the atomic bomb exploded at a test site just outside Talmadge, Maine military scientists in charge of examining the remains of the various structures found near total devastation and destruction of the area. Appliances evaporated into thin air, the trees outside stood like frail blackened skeletons, and the porcelain bathtub was reduced to a pile of fine grain powder on the bathroom floor. All that remained intact was the family television. Kill your television? Good luck.


photo by Joe McLaughlin

As I was going for a "run" late fall 2008, I stopped to look at this barn that has always been a few hundred feet from my house. I decided to investigate. It wasn't as raggedy as I expected, but the boards on the outside are beginning to become inutile. This moment went from a run to get back into shape into a Maine wilderness adventure.


Submitted by Jill Schnorr

This one is at least 100 years old and located in North Bridgton. Abandoned? Well, sort of, for seven months of the year. The rest of the year (June-October) we are delighted to be in residence.
Photo submitted by Peter McClelland

This 1880s picture is of the "Stone Farm" site in Andover, Maine, one mile or so up the road to the right of the Ethan Allen mill. The Poor family is shown with Lister Poor sitting in the chair. The house seems to have been built on the site of a barn, given the heavy granite slabs sloping up under the porch. One of Poor's ancestors helped bring the railroads to Maine and another became the "Poor" in Standard and Poor's. His descendants were guides in the Rangeley Lakes during the heyday of the out-of-state "Sports" trekking to Maine for some of the world's best fishing. The appellation "Stone Farm" was given to a successor house on this same site, made of granite, still standing today.
photo submitted by Peter Stowell, courtesy of Archer Poor, Jr., Andover, Maine.

empty

The house is empty. It has a lot of life left in it, it looks like someone loved it and kept it.
There is a cord of wood stacked behind the house. Someone plows it out.
But it is empty for sure.
Byron.

the attic window

Winter at the historical society. This was the attic, where I could see my breath. Everything was as still as a Wyeth painting.
Everything in this house was old.
Dixfield.

litte red house

Once upon a time a very tidy red house in a very tidy little town.
Used as a shed or a playhouse maybe.
Obvious needing new paint.
Dixfield.

this is me

My name is A. and I started this site because everyone seems to have their own Maine.

My take on the state varies from jaw-dropping natural beauty to heart-aching poverty. There is fun and work to be had in the woods, in the fields, on the lakes and streams and mountains, and on the coast.

Maine has it all. It can be tacky,it can be elegant, it can be old-fashioned, it can be cutting edge, it can be damn Yankee frugal and crafty and hand-made. It has agriculture and regular culture. It has immigrants, it has the ancient ones, it has native plants and rocks and soil.

Maine is a wonderful place to live and visit and everyone is welcome to submit their "This is Maine" photo and essay. Or poem!