On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
JanieM
Water and reflections, to remind us to breathe. I tried to choose a variety of places, seasons, colors….
This was taken from the parking lot of Café de Bangkok, a great Thai+sushi restaurant with a parking lot perfectly placed for picture-taking in all seasons.
Same place, different season.
Frosty.
Taken from the little town beach.
I love these evenings when the sky is stormy but the sun finds a way through the cloud cover just before it sets, lighting up the trees against the dark sky.
This is the promise of spring where I live. I count ice-out as the day when I can’t see any more ice from this spot, which looks out on the northernmost mile of Maranacook Lake. Every year is different. Ice-out has ranged from March 23 to April 29 in the 33 years I’ve lived here, and it’s very unpredictable from one year to the next. How cold the winter was, how long the winter was, how early the lake froze, how much snow fell, how much sun and wind there are come March and April – all these things play a role. The ice can get to be a couple of feet thick. It’s a playground for snowmobiles (noisy, smelly, and not generally my cup of tea), and trucks drag ice-fishing shacks out onto it. This shot was taken on April 20. The ice was gone by April 24.
A nice spot to find some peace and quiet.
One of my great-nieces holds the sun in the palm of her hand.
Marking Beliefs To Market: What I and Everyone Else Missed Or Ignored
Lapassionara
Lovely and calming. Thank you.
Tom Levenson
Wonderful.
Dagaetch
Lovely images, thanks for sharing.
Mike in Oly
Wonderful.
Aleta
These are fantastic. Thanks.
cope
Lovely pictures, thank you. What a perfect way to end the day with your niece putting the Sun to bed.
SkyBluePink
You have really captured the beauty and peace in these pictures.
J R in WV
So nice. Thanks!!!
ETA: Very calming on an otherwise somewhat upsetting evening. Well chosen indeed!!
MomSense
So nice. I spend time at Maranacook every summer. It’s one of my favorite places.
guachi
My election respite was watching the 1952 serial Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe.
And AMD dropped its new amazing 5000 series CPUs that crush Intel. So I’ve been watching review videos all day.
JanieM
@MomSense: I saw you mention it once — we should meet up sometime. Maybe when socializing makes sense again.
ETA:
@guachi: Did Commando Cody have a magic decoder ring? Oh, wait, that was Tom Terrific I think. ;-)
randy khan
Such wonderful reflections. I love them.
Dan B
And how many BJ’ers will know how to pronounce Ashtabula?
Cute shot! As they all are.
Wag
A great dose of Zen. Thanks very much.
Yutsano
You can mock this as you will, but I don’t care. I’m a water sign. I have identified with water all my life. Seeing water tranquil like this is…so soothing. I greatly appreciate this.
JanieM
@Yutsano: I for one am certainly not going to mock you. I’m a water sign myself.
Mathguy
Wonderful to see photos of such familiar territory my wife and I love. We’ve spent time every summer for the last 22 years at my brother-in-law’s camp on Echo Lake. Always wanted our own place in Maine and were finally able to buy a place in Madrid (a bit of a drive from there) with a breath-taking view of the Saddleback range. Thanks for sharing them.
Mary G
Beautiful and soothing. The reflections in the water are lovely. I would love to be in Mount Vernon village right now!
OT but good news – my housemate’s cousin rowed up the coast of Belize until he got a cell phone signal to check in with the American branch of the family.
Hurricane Eta turned north sooner than expected, so their properties got 15-20 inches of rain, but not enough wind to damage them seriously and no people were injured. Phones and electricity have been out for two days, and probably won’t be restored soon. Nicaragua and Honduras were devastated, so it could’ve been much worse.
The docks at Puerto Barrios to the south were swamped. This means no boats bringing in groceries, gas for generators, drinking water, and all other goods. They’ll have plenty of fish and coconuts in addition to food stocked up in advance, so they won’t starve, but might get bored.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: @JanieM: Burn it all down. Fire!
JanieM
@Mathguy: Echoing Dan B about pronouncing Ashtabula, I wonder how many people who have never been to Maine can pronounce Madrid? Or Calais, or a whole list of ’em. I listened to the audio version of Elizabeth Strout’s “The Burgess Boys,” and the reader didn’t do his homework on how to pronounce several town names, including Bangor.
@Mary G: Glad you got good news. That’s quite a saga — rowing until you get a signal, probably when he didn’t even know how far he’d have to go.
stinger
What a beautiful place to live! I too love the late afternoons when the sky is dark with clouds but then the sun cuts in at a low angle. Great pics! Thanks!
MazeDancer
Beautiful pictures!
trollhattan
Very calming, and way to beat up on the law of thirds. :-)
Enjoying David Byrne’s “American Utopia” at the moment. Quirky and impeccably done, as is his habit. Talking Heads fans will watch more than once
“You may find yourself
Living in a shotgun shack”
Yutsano
Regret, I do not.
Kattails
Lovely photos. Thank you.
@Yutsano: Pisces here, I know what you mean.
Mel
Beautiful photos. The photo of the stormy sky and electric green trees captures that almost unearthly moment between calm and storm. I can remember sitting in a barn loft as a kid, watching a similar treeline, waiting for the first raindrops to sparkle down through the evening sunlight.
Mathguy
@JanieM: Add Vienna to that list. ;)
WaterGirl
Gorgeous! I especially love the water reflections. I am not a water sign, at least I don’t think I am, but I am a water girl.
Torrey
Thank you for these! They’re all lovely, but I particularly like the stormy sky and the partially iced lake, and the way they each catch a moment of transition. I visited Maine last year and left wanting to schedule another trip. After watching Maine’s contribution to the roll call of the states at the DNC this year, I’m even more inspired to pay another visit.
JanieM
@Mathguy: Yes about Vienna. In fact, Vienna was where I spent my first significant weeks in Maine, before deciding to move here. I still have friends there.
@Torrey: I hope you come back!
There go two miscreants
Nice pictures! Mount Vernon village reminds me of some of the model railroad towns I’ve seen pictured. One guy in particular models the Maine narrow-gauge railroads and his villages look like that.