Skylands in Winter

Last week I blogged about Martha's farm in Winter. It got me thinking about how her other residences fare during the snowy season. Martha's home in Seal Harbor, Maine, is primarily a summer residence. Skylands was planned as such by architect Duncan Candler and landscape architect Jens Jensen, who built the home for Edsel Ford and his family in 1925 on Mt. Desert Island. Martha has owned the property since 1997 (only the third owner since its inception) and uses the house as it was designed: as a summer residence where she retreats for a few weeks each summer to relax and entertain. Martha rarely gets to Skylands in the winter, which is a shame, since it looks positively magical this time of year. Below are some photos of Skylands in winter, originally published on TheMarthaBlog.com. (Captions below.)

From top to bottom:
1. To preserve it, all of the crushed pink granite that paves the driveway at Skylands is collected in the fall and stored until spring. Much of it would be damaged by snowplowing. In this photo, the main entrance to the house is almost entirely obscured by snow! 2. A view outside one of the bedroom windows of the coniferous trees on the 63 acre property laden with a fresh layer of snow. 3. Duncan Candler also designed the stables, shown in this photo. 4. The garages at Skylands are capped by a large and fully-appointed apartment above. 5. Duncan Candler designed the back terrace at Skylands by configuring stone slabs to look like cracked ice. His vision is certainly made clear in this photo! 6. Another view of the back terrace completely covered in snow. 7. The terrace outside of Martha's bedroom at Skylands looks inviting even in the winter. 8. Another view of snow-covered pines, looking out to the harbor from the terrace. 9. One of the dining room windows catches the reflection of the shadowy woods. 10. Frost on the leaded-glass windows in the parlour. 11. Frost on one of the bedroom windows. 12. A glorious winter sunset viewed from the terrace.