Thekla Jubinville wears a rain poncho over her wrapped present costume, as she marches down Water Street in the “Who’s Your Favorite Who” parade on Saturday, in downtown Gardiner.

Mary West puts a row cover over plants growing inside a hoop house on Thursday afternoon at 3 Level Farm in Vassalboro. The double layer of protection should keep the greens and other plants alive over the winter, she said.

Nan Spaulding, standing left, and Mary Perkins, seated right, look for books to buy on Monday morning at the Gardiner Public Library. Monday was a “buck-a-bag” sale day following the semiannual book sale held on Saturday. The next one will be held in June 2013, according to Library Director Anne Davis.

Tim Wing, of Northeast Painting and Coating, puts another coat of blue onto a Marketplace at Augusta sign on Monday afternoon in Augusta. The letters are inset, so he was able to just go over them with a roller. He said that the signs would be topped off with a new sign for the Walmart Supercenter.

Carol Frey, of Salem Township, tries to decide on what type of poinsettia to buy on Monday afternoon at Longfellow’s Greenhouses in Manchester. They have different 60 varieties of the plant and raised about 30,000 of them according, to employee Dave LeBlanc.

Aaron Scalia, of the Greater Augusta Utilities District, uses an earpiece to listen to double-check that no water is running inside a hydrant that had been winterized earlier by another crew.

City workers set up the walls of an ice skating rink on Wednesday morning in the Calumet Playground in Augusta. The skating rink is located on Northern Avenue near the corner of Monroe Street.

A person walks in the The Olde Federal Building on Wednesday in downtown Augusta. The flowers and red ribbons on the large ornate building at the corner of Water and Winthrop streets were from last weekend’s tree lighting events when it was Santa’s castle.