This past Sunday, most of us were busy cleaning up the snow that Mother Nature gifted us over the weekend. While we were grumbling about the ice, the staff at Wiscasset Ford had already cleaned up their own driveways, and started in at the parking lot at their work, to prepare for their first annual food pantry.

If you ask a reporter to name some of their favorite parts of the jobs, the people they meet will be on the list nine times out of 10.

Cranberries appear in stores around this time of the year, and we take them for granted as accompaniment to turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas. This tart and colorful berry deserves additional exploration not only for its health benefits as a superfood to match blueberries due to its high antioxidant content, but also for a delicious addition to our seasonal cooking.

The picture depicts that Round Pond has its quiet harbor back. Not a mast or a pleasure craft in sight. It looks much like it did in the 60s. Back then, most knew the name and the owner and even their pot buoy colors of every lobster boat in the harbor and most still do. The harbor will be freezing over soon and then the remaining lobster boats will soon disappear as well.

Elizabeth Robbins wants to be a doctor when she grows up. For now, she is 12 and in the seventh grade at Pen Bay Christian School. Getting good grades is important to her and she works hard on her homework.

When I had to say goodbye to my Kismet in March, I had some consolation in the fact that when I left the vet’s office, I got to go back and spend the weekend with my buddy, Zeeba. Zeeba kept me company as he normally did by sitting on the couch near me purring (or, even more loudly, snoring) the hours away. He was kind enough to let me hug him while I cried, and I know for sure that I would have cried longer and harder if I hadn’t had him to keep me company.

When one starts researching the history of the town of Damariscotta, it can become a little complicated. The problem is Damariscotta did not become a town until 1848. In the years before that, the area that now makes up Damariscotta was part of Nobleboro and Bristol.

We opened the cellar door, and there, stretched all the way across the doorstep, and then some, lay a beautiful, spotted milk snake, enjoying a last sunbath. It had a row of big cocoa-brown spots exquisitely edged in black, on a creamy tan background. It may have really needed the sun’s warmth to activate its cold-blooded muscles for the last imperative of the year.

Sunday, Nov. 20: We had a sunny morning and off and on during the afternoon. It clouded up during the afternoon hours, and we saw it snowing. It started with big flakes. Then it came down in a thick shower.

Dreary, rainy, and windy, that seems to be the pattern of the early December weather. As I write this column, over 2,000 Central Maine Power Co. customers from Bremen, Waldoboro, Bristol and beyond are without power. For many, this is the second or third time without power in a little over a week. So far, mid-afternoon on Saturday, Fogler, Lessner, and Benner roads seem to be fairing okay; but the whitecaps on Biscay at the moment are impressive, and the old white pine trees are swaying mightily in the winds. It would be a good afternoon for a good, old-fashioned nap!

I will always marvel at the intensity and sublime happiness of it all. That tornadic frenzy resplendent beyond all words. A hallelujah experience to behold. Initially as a witness. And then, despite all routine and daily attachments, being swept up giddy and gleeful. Surrendering it all in a vortex of joy.