Here Comes the Sun

Stonington_walk2_Jan2014Just when you think you can’t stand more rain and fog on the coast of Maine, the sun comes out. It’s beautiful in the summer. It’s dazzling in winter. Here are a few photos from our walk yesterday along Sunshine Road on Deer Isle. The ice is starting to melt and you can see tidal heaving on the shore. At 40 degrees Fahrenheit it was surprisingly warm.

Stonington_SunshineRd_Jan2014Surely there are poems about heaving winter ice on the coast of Maine. I can’t put a finger on them but I’ll keep looking. There are lots of poems about winter but they’re usually about the stillness of snow falling or the glitter of tree branches.

Maine poet Stuart Kestenbaum is superb. I wrote last summer about a poetry reading at Stonington’s Opera House and his poem Starting the Subaru at Five Below.

Stonington_walk3_Jan2014 Travel writer Paul Theroux writes about The Wicked Coast and how Maine is “a joy in summer but even more captivating in winter.” Not every day is diamond-bright (to use Theroux’s words). But when the sun comes out, it’s a gift.

 

 

 

Stonington, ME on the map

If you’re wondering what I mean by “remote,” here is where Stonington is (the red A marker). It’s about halfway along the coast between Portland and Canada. The drive from Portland is three and a half hours. The drive to Bangor (the airport we generally fly in and out of) takes about an hour-and-a-half.

Google_Map_Stonington

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