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Yesterday, I woke up to a sunny Portland, just a dusting of snow on the tops of cars.

My first stop was the Portland Museum of Art. They have a fab new exhibit called Gather up the Fragments, the Andrews Shaker Collection. Really well done and organized by the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass. Supposed to be the most comprehensive collection of Shaker materials ever assembled and I believe it. No pictures allowed - sorry. The most interesting things were the "gift pictures." I didn't realize the Shakers had religious visions; they called them gifts and painted them. Totally cool. What I REALLY was there to see though were the Madeleine de Sinety photographs. Really outstanding and if you have the chance, you must go and see them. They are there until December something. This one, First Communion, graces the cover of the program. You can see more here if you like: http://www.madeleinedesinety.com/

So, what a difference a day makes. This is the scene I woke up to this morning in little Jefferson, Maine, and the one I prefer. I turned on the radio to hear the first bars of Handel's Messiah and ran out in the cold to take this picture of the sun on the opposite shore. There was even a loon out front. It doesn't get any better than this.