* Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoys their holiday celebrations and rings in the new year with a bang. Take the time to look back on this last year of your life. Think about all that you've achieved and what you've learned. Be grateful and thankful, love your family and friends. You're happy, healthy, and alive. Breathe and smile. Just think how amazing this next year 2012 will be.... !

Snow dusted buoys and chairs at my little house on Peaks Island, Maine.


If you look hard enough, you can actually see how delicately designed each snowflake is.


Half moon peaking over the top of a building along the waterfront in Portland, Maine's Old Port.


Casco Bay pilings and a little sea smoke on a crisp, sunny morning towards the East End of Portland, Maine.


A worker and wharf cat at Harbor Fish Market seek the sun on a chilly winter morning in Portland, Maine.


A bench buried in snow along the tree-lined Eastern Prom in Portland, Maine.

* Morse Mountain in Phippsburg, Maine

Can you believe it is December, only days away from Christmas?! I am craving snow and winter hiking like this during a storm at Morse Mountain in Phippsburg, Maine. The trail ends at the beautiful Seawall Beach, though breeds some killer horse flies! At low tide you can attempt to wade across the river to Popham Beach State Park, just to the northeast. "

"The Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area is a nature preserve managed by Bates College for environmental research and education. The 500+ acre conservation area fronts over a mile of stunningly beautiful beach and dunes."