1. Pick Fall’s Fat Crabs     Crabs have been scarce all season, hard to catch and accordingly pricy. About this time of year, we usually get a bonanza.     In autumn, Callinectes sapidus are bigger, sweeter, cheaper and more plentiful. Buy a dozen or a bushel at a roadside stand or a seafood market (they’ll cook them for you) and invite your friends over. Or bring your crab hunger to a local crab house.

For bicycle riders in the Haiti 80, your pleasure in speed and endurance bring hope and help to the school children in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, where more than half the people live on less than one dollar a day. La Resurrection School in Gros Morne has been under the wing of St. Martins-in-the-Field Episcopal Church in Severna Park for 28 years. A newer bright idea, only two years old, puts some spin on that partnership.

Through the beveled glass oval of the front door, I could see trouble. My friend and hair-stylist Kathy Burns’ brother was not making a social call. His khaki uniform meant he had come on official business. Dogcatcher business.     The dog in question, Slip Mahoney, wasn’t home. Wherever he was, he had stirred up enough commotion to bring out the dogcatcher.     “He escaped,” I said, holding up my hands in helplessness.

    Of course there are some who like it hot. In winter, Scruffy sits on a heat vent to warm his bottom. But in summer, Scruffy and Dewey leave the air-conditioned house and head for the warm and cozy garage. Dewey’s spot is under the car or in front of the garage door, while Scruffy lounges on top of the car or in an old lawn chair. In the garage, the boys search for bugs, lizards and mice to play with and eat — and sometimes bring into the house.

    Calvert County’s feral cat sanctuary is home to many cats who would otherwise have been destroyed, yet there is not a scruffy one among them. All have beautiful thick coats in the winter, and I wondered how each cat would manage the transition to summer.     Turns out, nature provides fallen tree limbs. Branches and still-pliable twigs serve as stationary cat-combs.

You work all week and want to relax on the weekends — get away perhaps? The only thing keeping you on the leash at home is you can’t bear to leave your furry friend behind.     Your problem is solved by Visit Maryland’s new directory of Fido-friendly destinations. The list includes places throughout Maryland where both you and your pet are welcome to visit, stay or play.

You remember those days, the excitement — or terror — a new school year brings, mixed with the sorrow of letting go of summer.     It’s a story each of us shares and each generation repeats. Yet each person’s story enriches the theme with delicious detail.     As the 2013 school year begins, we’ve asked 12 kids (and one surprise returnee) — kindergarten through 12th grade — for their views.

Shanghaied into labor, two able-bodied passengers grapple a stout line hand over hand to hoist the 2,000-square-foot Dacron mainsail of the skipjack Dee of St. Mary’s up her 72-foot tree-trunk mast. Then First Mate John Fulchiron crawls out on the 19-foot bowsprit to raise the smaller jib. And off Dee goes.

The World Biggest Crab Feast didn’t make the world’s biggest mess this year.     Some 4,500 pounds of food scraps — about one-quarter of the food waste produced by the massive feast — will turn into compost instead of hogging precious landfill space.

You ate all your locally raised vegetables, fruits, eggs and meat every day during Maryland Buy Local Week.     Now you can have dessert.     Naturally, it’s Maryland made, from the farmer to the chef to you.     At Governor Martin O’Malley’s sixth annual Buy Local Cookout, the sweetest thing on the menu was Chef Douglas Wetzel’s Gertrude’s Charolettetown Farm Ricotta Doughnuts with Peach Caramel Sauce.