Here’s the best of our photographs that record the spirit of December 2024 along the Maine coast. She was a well-tempered month, bringing us some brilliant sun and needed rain and a few decorative snowstorms. They were all delivered during some bitterly cold and some unseasonably warm days, with a few epic fog days thrown in as a change of pace.
Of course, December is the month of holiday spirit here. The most memorable of many, wide-ranging examples of this spirit were night scenes of Brooklin’s annual lobster trap tree and its welcoming General Store, as contrasted with a sunny view of Deer Isle’s huge wish for peace on earth featuring an ironic mix of soldiers (albeit toy soldiers) and heavenly angels congregating in a memorial traffic splitter:
As you may know, our monthly Postcards always include record views of four iconic scenes for long-term comparison: Mount Desert Island, as viewed from Brooklin; the Harbor Island house in Brooklin; and, in Blue Hill, the near-mountain called Blue Hill, and the red boat house at Conary Cove:
Here’s a bonus showing more of Conary Cove’s serenity on a still, cold day:
December’s snow falls this year were manageable and often gave the landscape a rejuvenating facelift:
Sheds of all sorts, including stand-alone garages that are full of things other than vehicles, became obvious in December. That’s when their utility is most needed to protect boats, equipment, workshops, and wood, although sometimes there was an overflow:
Similarly, country lanes, roads, and highways took on new identities after December’s snows and in the month’s clear sunlight when the snow had melted:
Indoors, tropical poinsettias and wood stoves warmed many households here during December’s frigid days:
Yet, there are those who don’t shelter on cold and windy days. On the working waterfront, December is the month when coastal lobster fishing ends here and the traps and buoys are brought ashore for storing. Some of the lobster boats then don masts and booms to drag for Atlantic sea scallops with iron-and rope-net “drags” (dredges):
Fishermen are not the only ones who brave December’s wind and cold when icicles are forming. There are some who enjoy frigid recreation:
In the December skies, sometimes the sun shone through snowfalls:
Not to be outdone, the moon went through its phases until it became — appropriately — what is known as the Cold Full Moon, after which it became a waning gibbous morning moon in the early blue sky:
Near the end of December, former President Jimmy Carter died at the age of 100. President Biden and Maine Governor Mills ordered that federal and state flags be flown at half-mast for 30 days to honor him.
Finally, and on a more optimistic note, December’s southerly view of the sun provided some of the greatest sunsets and afterglows of the year to usher in 2025:
(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during December of 2024.)