It seems awfully dark around here these days, doesn’t it? The winter solstice—the day when the northern hemisphere experiences the shortest amount of daylight and the longest night—is just a week away. Next Monday also marks the official beginning of winter and although the colder weather tends to keep us indoors a lot more, there is still so much beauty and enjoyment to be found in nature in wintertime.
Many of the entrants to our Picture This: Your Great Outdoors photo contest have found inspiration in one of the most enchanting (but also, often, the most treacherous) hallmarks of winter in New England: ice formations. Here are five of our favorites.
![A delicate ice formation © Josh Philibert](https://blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/3129Josh_Philibert11467-2.jpg)
![Ice formations over a stream on Wolves' Den Trail at High Ledges in Shelburne](https://blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/2833Henry_Josephson10133-2.jpg)
![Winterberries after an ice storm © Cindy Riley](https://blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/2826Cindy_Riley15439-2.jpg)
![Ice crystals on Lower Mystic Lake in Medford, MA © Brad Edgerly](https://blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/2558Brad_Edgerly9103-2.jpg)
![Ice formation on West Dennis Beach © Craig Daniliuk](https://blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/2355Craig_Daniliuk12157-2.jpg)