Articles by Margaret Tearman

Article - Green Living; by Margaret Tearman - 10/14/10

From Vine to Wine

2010 was a very good year for Maryland grapes

It’s been a wild weather year — record winter snowfall followed by record summer heat followed by record daily rainfall. Weather that’s been inconvenient for most us has been terrible for Maryland farmers who grow conventional crops like corn and soybeans. But for Maryland grape growers in all corners of the state, 2010 has been a very good year. “A good year is an understatement,” Rob Deford, president of Boordy Vineyards in Hydes, Maryland, told...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/30/10

The Tall Price of Power

For SMECO, it’s a big job feeding our demand for electricity

Something alien is growing in Calvert County. The aliens have sprouted up in the front yards of homes along quiet, winding Bowie Shop Road. Still more are appearing on Route 4. They are big, very big, towering over the landscape. Eventually there will be 23 of them. These aliens are behemoth power poles, erected by Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative in the name of progress. The new metal poles bear little resemblance to the old wooden poles they are replacing, and they don’t exist...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/23/10

Amazing Maize Mazes

Making these marvels is just as much a puzzle as finding your way through them

Well-trod paths lead to dusty dead-ends. Back to the last turn. Go right instead of left, left instead of right. Until, finally, light at the end of the corn row. High fives all around. A corn maze has been successfully navigated. A sure sign of fall, these tricky trails through acres of dried cornstalks are a growing business as agri-tourism blossoms. It’s next to impossible to see on foot, but the maze-trekker has just walked the outline of a giant pirate ship. Or a soldier. Or a...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 9/16/10

Help Calvert Honor Eating Local, from Farm to Table

You have until Sept. 20 to nominate three for awards

Calvert County is taking local to a higher level with its new annual Sustainable Agricultural Awards Program. Emphasizing the once-rural-county’s continuing pride in its agricultural heritage — and to preserve that heritage — the Calvert County Board Commissioners seeks nominations for three new awards. Two will recognize businesses that make it their priority to support local producers; one will recognize a local farmer who makes good on the promise of sustainable farming...

Article - Arts and Culture; by Margaret Tearman - 8/26/10

Dogs of a Different Color

Both these artists love their dogs — as pets and as subjects. That’s where the similarity ends.

Kelley Donnelly looks at a dog and sees a colorful character. Blue, red, yellow. Her pooches are a flamboyant lot. Paula Waterman sees light and grace. Her dogs are realistic and often in motion, flying across a field in dogged pursuit of a ball or romping in snow. Waterman, 56, has been making art as long as she can remember. “I drew before I wrote my name,” she says. She spent a year and a half in art school, but she considers herself self-taught. Her subjects are mainly waterfowl...

Article - Features; by Margaret Tearman - 8/26/10

Scratching Out a Home in the Woods

Friends of Felines sanctuary provides a last chance for feral felines

From the road, the 198-acre tract is unremarkable, anonymous by the absence of signs and unscathed by improvements. The woman driving the green John Deere Gator knows her way through the woods of almost-wild Southern Maryland. She’s been driving these rutted dirt paths for eight years to care for the hundred-plus inhabitants of the region’s only sanctuary for feral cats. Petite, energetic and almost fanatically committed to the cats, Carol Hall is a founder of Friends of Felines,...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 8/12/10

Buoying the Health of the Bay

These high-tech floats monitor conditions on the Chesapeake, sharing its findings and the Bay’s history with cruisers on the water and on the Internet

A flotilla of big, yellow buoys bobs in Chesapeake Bay. The smart buoys of NOAA’s Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoy System do more than help boaters steer a safe passage — though they do that, too. With their monitoring equipment and advanced satellite technology, these smart buoys give scientists, boaters, educators — anyone interested in the Bay — daily real-time data about the estuary. The first buoys went to work near Jamestown, Virginia, in May, 2007, during the...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 8/5/10

World Trade Center Mystery Ship Berths in Maryland

Archaeological find is biggest news Jefferson Patterson Park team has ever been part of

Something good has come out from under the World Trade Center. Near the site of so many grim finds, excavators working on the new trade center unearthed a treasure — an ancient wooden ship buried beneath modern lower Manhattan. Its remains were discovered about 20 feet under street level, in an area that had not been dug out for the original World Trade Center. This old ship has tales to tell. But before it can give up any of its secrets, it must be preserved. And fast, because when wood...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 7/29/10

Neighbors, Can You Spare $300 Grand?

How Calvert’s biggest party brings in the bucks

What’s left after 1,000 pounds of lobster are washed down with champagne? Or if you prefer, a roasted pig is washed down with beer? Or filet mignon washed down with martinis? A third of a million dollars — if Calvert County’s biggest party, the Celebration of Life Cancer Crusade, lives up to the tradition of past celebrations. And if Sue and Steve Kullen, this year’s honorary chairs, are as good at reaching into your heart and pockets for this year’s Aug. 5 party...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman - 7/29/10

Neighbors, Can You Spare $300 Grand?

How Calvert’s biggest party brings in the bucks