The first big storm of the winter season has come and gone leaving many without power for days and a few lucky enough to have survived house fires, fallen trees and slippery everything. 

As the storm ramped up last Thursday, I took it slow wherever I went outside by car or on foot. The slushy ice coating the ground made for some slippery steps, and I hunkered down for the night thankful I didn’t have to travel to Kennebunkport for the selectmen’s meeting. 

I woke Friday, only to angrily press the remote’s power button and receive no satisfaction from a still dark television. The power was out and the trees surrounding my apartment were encased in ice. I stood in my living room contemplating taking a cold shower in the dark corner of my bathroom, I watched a limb fall slowly off the tree behind the house across the street from me. I prayed that when I walked outside, trees near me wouldn’t have the same idea. 

When my coworker called to tell me the office had power, I begrudgingly jumped in the shower then got dressed, and viciously chipped the ice away from the windows on my car. Thankfully, the roads weren’t that bad for driving and the skies were beginning to clear, but ice causing power outages and closed businesses put a damper on my plans to check out local shops for bargain gifts. That was postponed to Sunday.

I left work after only an hour to learn how to run the generator at my parent’s house, where I’d be staying for the weekend to care for the animals as they traveled to Pennsylvania. It stressed me out to hear from my father, the electrician, that it may be days before power was restored, and that no matter how hard I pulled I couldn’t start the generator on my own. 

This could possibly be the longest most stressful weekend of my life, I thought to myself as I waved goodbye to my parents and looked down at the dog, who already was missing daddy. 

The sinking feeling in my stomach thinking of all the things that could go wrong with the house without power and with the generator — including a crocked-up idea that I would flip the wrong switch and blow the house up — I was truly relieved to discover power was back on Saturday morning. 

Aside from relieved, I was stunned as I glanced out the window to see a glistening world. While the majority of Mainers who were put out by damage from the storm were probably cursing the half-inch of ice over every surface, I was in awe. 

I grabbed my camera, packed the dog back in the car and headed down the road looking for frozen photo ops along the way. I screeched to a halt multiple times as I swerved to the side of the road, disturbing the dog in the process. I jumped out, snapped some shots and absorbed the beauty of the sun reflecting off once dull brown trees, faded blades of grass and gray boulders.

I captured great images of ice covered red berries, fields glistening in the sun and branches twice their normal size with a layer of ice. 

Then I swung by Fortunes Rocks Beach to find nearly a dozen surfers catching perfect waves at high tide. The color of the ocean water, icy cold I’m sure, was breathtaking as the waves crashed one by one along the shore. Despite the fact I was shivering in the wind, I could still taste summer in the air. 

It was the beauty of Mother Nature at her best, showing through after a bite of her wintry wrath. 

— Emma Bouthillette