Articles by Ellen Moyer

A Tale of Three Fountains

They bring us water, adornment and inspiration

Annapolis has another fountain. You can’t miss it, for it dominates the plaza on West Street at Park Place as the great i am. Capping it is an unknown godlike male in the classic tradition and classically surrounded by horses. Water shimmers down it into a trough. Intrigued by the fountains of Rome, where people gathered to laugh and talk and hold hands, developer Jerry Parks built this fountain to welcome visitors to Park Place. It watches over the ghosts of horses...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer; 5/19/11

Walking thru History

In two hours, I’ll show you 350 years — with stops for ice cream.

Downtown Annapolis is a time capsule. Follow me on this mile-and-a-half jaunt, and you’ll pass through 350 years. Editor’s note: What’s your favorite walk in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties? Guide us through its spaces, history and ecology in 400 to 800 words with pictures. Send to editor@bayweekly.com. Selected tours earn editing, a byline and $25. Find a parking place on Main Street and buy two hours on the meter, for we start at Kilwins, the...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer; 4/28/11

Take to the Woods

Oh the things you can see!

In the cathedral of the forests, the mysteries and magic of Mother Nature come alive. Through the soaring pillars of trees, rising in arching canopies, streams of sunlight reflect on the forest floor. In cathedrals of nature and of faith, we are awed in the presence of harmony. Like the great cathedral builders, 19th century French landscape painter Camille Corot was inspired by the woods. Fascinated by the play of sunlight on color, he recorded the crisscross of shadow and light across...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer; 12/23/10

Go Outside and Play

Annapolis is a good place to start

I can still hear my mom’s voice: Go outside and play, but be back for dinner. The street where I grew up was surrounded by woods. A dirt trail — a remnant of a 10-mile, horse-drawn, streetcar track — cut through the woods and gave me hours of outdoor magical fun. I was a free-range kid. Chances are if you are over 50, you were too. If you’re under 50, you’ve likely been deprived of free range-spaces. Population has tripled. Eighty percent of us now live in urban...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer; 11/18/10

Dealing with the Downpour

The Parking Garden at Little Gotts Court in Annapolis is soaking up stormwater runoff and getting it back into the ground

It rained and it rained. Three inches, five inches, nine inches, 13 inches of new water fell on Annapolis. City Dock was underwater. Compromise Street was flooded. The low places in Eastport on Second Street and Chester Avenue and in West Annapolis on King George Street were flooded. Roads with the least bit of incline were sluiceways for water. Overloaded storm drains seeking new outlets made missiles of manhole covers. On September 30, 2010, a mini-Isabel was flooding Annapolis. Off West...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer; 10/21/10

Small Steps into the Future

Walk with me for our grandchildren’s sake

Maybe it is just my age, but every summer in Annapolis seems to be getting hotter, humidity thicker. Satellite technology tells us that carbon, a greenhouse gas, is increasing in the atmosphere and that the whole world is heating up. The world’s natural thermometer, ice, agrees. Ice asks no questions, has no political ideology and no agenda. It just melts. The Arctic icecap is shrinking. The Antarctic ice cap is thinning. Glaciers in the world’s mountains are disappearing. This...

Article - Our Capital by Ellen Moyer; by Ellen Moyer; 8/12/10