Articles by All

Article - Earth Journal by Gary Pendleton; by Gary Pendleton - 12/2/10

Backlit Against a Heavy Sky

The sound and sight of Canada geese overhead

Is there a more iconic figure from nature to represent the state of Maryland than the Canada goose? Resplendent as our state bird, the Baltimore oriole, is, it is seldom heard and rarely seen by the majority of Free Staters. The great blue heron and osprey are contenders, and I would also nominate the canvasback. But let’s stick with the goose. Once upon a time, there was no surer sign of winter’s coming than a skein of “geese in chevron flight flapping and a-racing on...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 12/2/10

Savoring Season’s End

Adrenaline warms up the last days of rockfishing

The chill was familiar for this time of year, damp and penetrating. A soft gloom had settled over the water with the arrival of some heavy cloud cover, and I noticed that the tidal current running against a fresh wind had just added an eager chop to the mix. Fish Are Biting The big winter rockfish are still a bit to our south, but they are showing up in ever-better numbers. Stripers in the 40-inch range and carrying sea lice fresh from the ocean have been encountered near...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 12/2/10

Cast in the Shadows

It’s not for lack of light that we cannot see the new moon

The moon wanes thru week’s end, until Sunday, December 5, when the new moon passes directly between the sun and the earth, disappearing from view. Of course, the moon is still there. However, the side facing us is cast in the darkness of its own shadow, rendering it invisible to us. But the so-called dark side of the moon faces the sun full-on, reflecting all that light away from earth. Like the tree falling in a forest with no one to hear it, the dark side of the moon is only dark...

Article - People; by Diana Beechener - 12/2/10

Debut of a Dream

December 5, Andrew Greene’s Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra plays Buster Keaton

In his right hand, Andrew Greene lofts a conductor’s baton. In his left, a DVD remote. The 19-year-old University of Maryland civil engineering major lives in the 21st century, but he longs for the 20th. Compressing time, he is conducting the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra in rehearsal of its original score to Cops, Buster Keaton’s silent 1922 classic. The orchestra is Greene’s tribute to an entertainment form that died away nearly seven decades before he was born. “Back...

Article - Good Living; by Roberta Safer - 12/2/10

Avoid the Christmas Crisis

This Jewish Jeweler sets gifting guys on the right road

No matter what people have told you, it is not just the thought that counts. It really is the gift. It should not be so, but it is. Christmas is beloved by children and by women who get the right gift. But the annual holiday of giving strikes fear in the heart of any man — husband, father or boyfriend — for he must choose gifts. Small matters he may delegate to his secretary — at least if he works in New York or Washington. He can ask his Significant Other to do the...

Article - Local Bounty; by Diana Beechener - 11/28/10

Illuminations 2010

Near and far, small towns and big cities are aglow with the magic of twinkling holiday lights.

Winterfest Lights up Ocean City Nov. 18 thru Jan. 2 See shining lights by the seashore as Ocean City is first to turn on its holiday lights. Start your tour at the inlet lot, traveling through the Tunnel of Lights, a gleaming archway of 800,000 tiny bulbs. Take a turn down Baltimore Ave., from 15th to 32nd streets, through the Avenue of Trees, featuring elaborate illuminated wreaths and old-fashioned decorations. Arrive at Northside Park, off 127th St. and Isle of Wight Bay, where...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 11/25/10

The Planetary Parade

See if you can spot the five naked-eye planets

Sunset reveals Jupiter high in the south, shining far brighter than any other object. The king of planets is truly massive — more than twice as large as all the other planets combined. That’s a lot of reflective surface, which makes up for its distance from the sun. While more than three times as far from the sun as its inner neighbor Mars, Jupiter is second in brightness only to Venus. And despite its huge girth, Jupiter spins faster than any other planet, so that one Jovian day is...

Article - Where We Live by Steve Carr; by Steve Carr - 11/25/10

Beating a Path Through Open Space

What do we save and what do we sacrifice?

Saving the Last Farm on the Magothy, my November 4 column, brought lots of interesting mail that sent me down a broader path through the Preservation Woods. Lucy Illif, who owns one of the few remaining farms in Arnold, reminded me that the Jordan Property next to Ritchie Highway has just been rezoned commercial and that the whole area is being swallowed up by houses and shopping malls. “Will our farm now be the last one in Arnold?” she wondered. This opened up an old wound for me....

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 11/25/10

Putting Leaves to Work

Composting returns all those nutrients to the garden

The soil in my first garden at Upakrik Farm in 1991 was mostly hard clods of silt. Because I have added liberal amounts of compost over the past 19 years, my soil is now loose, friable and highly productive. I attribute the change entirely to the use of compost. Ninety percent of the leaves that I rake become mulch under my shrubs and in the flower gardens. The remaining leaves go to the compost pile. To hasten their composting, I run the lawn mower through the pile of leaves, grinding them...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 11/25/10

Cold Comfort

Big rockfish make foul-weather fishing worth while

Getting in on the early-winter rockfish bite can be quite unpleasant. Except for the lucky anglers with big, enclosed boats that can safely and comfortably ply our cold, windswept Bay, most anglers this time of year must simply deal with November’s increasingly nasty weather. Fish Are Biting Good fishing for stripers is occurring throughout the main Bay, with fish to seven pounds being taken by trolling, fishing cut bait, chumming and casting to breakers. Farther south,...