Just about every year, in Ogunquit, right near the end of October, we inevitably witness our first winterly storm of the year. Often there is high wind. Sometimes there are power outages. In 2020, there was a dusting of snow. (continue reading below to view the video)
For all of the life-altering differences this, oftentimes, lost year has forced upon us; seeing that first breath of winter slowly treading across the television-screen weather updates, watching the predictions of autumn snow brushing closer on the Weather Channel app’s hourly forecast — something about it felt familiar. Normal.
We slept with the bedroom window open last night. To listen to the pelt of raindrops against the roof of an historic home. To drift asleep to the ceaseless and soft, snare drum rhythm of raindrops striking dry and falling autumn leaves. Perchance to happen awake as the final fall storm morphed towards the earliest winter snow in the early morning hours.
Warm in the cold coastal air, snuggled beneath our LL Bean flannel sheets, we did see some of the first few snowflakes of the year appear in the pre-dawn darkness. Time to close the window and catch a few hours of early AM sleep, satisfied in having been present to mindfully observe the changing of yet another microseason in Ogunquit – even as the snow sputtered, failing to accumulate, failing to even continue falling.
I woke to dreary daylight. A cold morning. Every corner of every nearby yard accented with the saturated colors of late fall. Yellow through brown earth tones. Flourishes of bright reds. Improbable pops of “still green” against a backdrop of bare gray branches scratching at an almost white sky.
But just a slight dusting of snow on the windshields of cars and the cracks in the sidewalk. Less than the inch or so of the week’s most enthusiastic forecasts.
Out of the house for morning chores. “Lay It Down” by Ratt blasting from Hair Nation on SiriusXM as I drive down an eerily quiet, but loudly colored, Shore Road on my way towards Village Food Market. Part dreary winter, part fiery fall. Both kindling the nostalgia of holiday seasons past.
Easy parking. Quiet store and a quick hello with Trip, the proprietor, as I round up the few sundries that necessitated my visit.
As I leave the store, the wind whips into a frenzy and a snow squall settles over the town.
Click Play Below To View Video of the First Snow in Ogunquit, Maine for 2020
On the way back home, I take a left by Calluna Fine Flowers onto Israel Head Road to see how the wave action is down by the Lobster Point Lighthouse. Seeing the tide is high, and the swells are growing in the light snow, I park the car on Stearns Road and head out on foot.
The video above documents pieces of my next hour along The Marginal Way towards Perkins Cove where I stood in the shadow of the Charles H. Woodbury studio, wearing a COVID-19 mask and enjoying the experience of the first snow of 2020 falling upon these familiar Ogunquit Art Colony vistas on Halloween Eve…
10/30/20 – Eric J Taubert
RELATED: Have you seen some of the AMAZING work and Ogunquit Art Colony history being shared at our Ogunquit Art Colony Facebook Group?
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