We’ve saved the best for last.         The Best of the Bay is our last word for 2011. It’s the news of the 11th hour of the 12th month.     It’s your judgment on who gives you the best value, service and satisfaction for your buck. On where you go for a good time. On what you like to do best in Chesapeake Country.

The deaf cat, a skinny princess getting on, could not hear her own purrs, nor our learned conversations above her head, at a festive gathering in a lovely house on St. Leonard’s Creek beyond Jefferson Patterson Park.

Keep Christmas in bloom by shielding your poinsettias from sudden drops in temperature. Remember, poinsettia are a tropical plant, so a sudden chill below 40 degrees can cause the plant to quickly lose foliage, including the red or white bracks.     At 36 degrees, foliage can be freeze-damaged. Within 24 to 48 hours, tissues between the veins in the leaves will appear water-soaked and turn black-green. There is no recovery.

As I decked the halls with boughs of holly I put a Santa hat on this dog to be jolly. When down to the dog park we went to play, The strangest things my dog had to say! Santa Hat, for who? Not me!