For anyone who likes snow and winter weather, the state of Maine provides a perfect vacation spot, especially northern areas like Aroostook County with towns like Caribou, Limestone, and Presque Isle hidden beyond large cities and heavily populated areas. A visit in winter results in a different perspective than one during summer.

Of the four seasons, winter most evokes extreme emotions. Some people hate winter, the whole season: the wind and the cold, the coats and the boots, the gray skies and the snow. Others come alive in winter: the brisk air and fresh breezes, the bright snow and warm fires, the skiing and the skating. Winter attacks some places with more anger than others. Some places have sunshine glittering on a snow-covered landscape; others have harsh winds and blowing dirt. A Maine winter brings harsh wind, bitter cold, gray threatening skies, bright sunny days, and a Christmas card beauty of ice and snow.

Bundled in woolen clothes, coats, caps, mittens, and mufflers, school children stand huddled in doorways as they await the school bus. The wind hurls the biting cold through the strongest of materials. People rush from warm buildings into vehicles and back into warm buildings as quickly as possible. Eyes water; noses turn red; toes become numb. Misery runs rampant as the temperature drops lower and lower; the wind, strong and vicious, makes the cold penetrate into the innermost core of a person.

Low, gray skies depress and press upon spirits as people attempt their business of living, many wishing to hibernate the winter away. Yet, many days glitter and glisten as the sun's rays upon the snow shoots sparks of light into eyes, causing an illusion of heat on faces.

However harsh a Maine winter may be, no one can deny the beauty once snow covers any barrenness and ugliness. Tall majestic fir and pine stand under their mantles. Crystallized birches appear at attention. Hill, vale, and garbage heap sleep under a blanket of white which softens and hides defects.

Thus a Maine winter reveals a great beauty to rest the eyes, cold and wind to battle, dark skies and bright sun to play havoc with spirits. Yet, harsh cold and biting winds, sunshine and depressing gray days create the whole, making the beauty all the more unique.

Vivian Gilbert Zabel

After a career in the business world and then twenty-five years teaching, Vivian Gilbert Zabel retired to devote her time to writing. A wife for over forty-four years, a mother of three living children, a grandmother of ten, and a great-grandmother of two and another on the way, she uses family and life experiences in her writing.