Cheerleaders wildly celebrate every arrival. Family and friends proudly sport shirts touting their favorite competing athlete. Volunteers excitedly welcome all who come.       The sights and sounds greeting you as you entered the field at Calvert High School said you were witnessing something magical: a community coming together to celebrate scholar-athletes competing in the Special Olympics Calvert County Spring Games.

     Lora Dania was divorced and sailing mostly with couples when she checked out a group called Singles on Sailboats. “I wasn’t looking for a dating club,” she says. “I just wanted to get out on the water.” 

     Like the village that rises out of the mists in Scotland every hundred years in the 1954 movie Brigadoon, a park in St. Leonard comes alive with the sounds, smells and sights of the oldest Celtic celebration in Maryland.        But for just one day.       On that single day, Saturday, April 27, the annual Southern Maryland Celtic Festival at Jefferson Patterson Park resounds with bagpipes, drums, fiddles and celebration.

     Spring is with us, and thus a very busy weekend awaits. We know where we will be spending Saturday afternoon.      Find us gobbling locally harvested oysters, freshly shucked or roasted, and pulled pork barbecue with baked beans, mac and cheese and homemade cornbread. It’s the annual Pigs & Pearls event that draws us back to the scenic West River for good times.

     The ever-increasing daylight, songbirds singing, flowers blooming and, of course, warmer weather all signal the return to the water for many citizens of Chesapeake Country. It is also the perfect time to take that camera you received for the holidays (or the one that’s been collecting dust in your closet for far too long) and create photographs of our regions waterscapes.  

      Appreciation for our planet is expressed not only in art, music and literature, but also in our consumer and economic practices, our spiritual and cultural beliefs and values, our foodways and our politics.      Working to clean up our collective mess are passionate eco-guardians who make it their business to fight pollution, clean our waterways, protect wildlife and keep our planet healthy. For most, it’s a lifelong journey.

      It’s spring, and the garden is calling. With the threat of hard frost past, you’ve turned on your outdoor water and reattached your hose. But it’s spraying you from leaks all along its length. What should you do with that hose?   a. Recycle it b. Trash it c. Use if for a sprinkler hose.

      Project Spudnik will put more taters into the ground this year thanks to a grant from Keep Maryland Beautiful.          Inspired by the improbable garden Matt Damon grows in the movie The Martian, Project Spudnik teaches teens to live sustainably through gardening. This year, what started as a container garden grows $1,000 richer.

     There’s nothing like the sound of a chainsaw to catch Judy Taylor’s attention.      That’s because following it may lead her to an opportunity that could keep her husband Larry Taylor happily engaged for hours at a time. When he disappears into his woodturner’s equivalent of a man cave, magic happens.

      Trained to retrieve items, alert their partner to important sounds such as a doorbell or alarm, operate light switches and seek help in an emergency, service dogs help many veterans and first responders with disabilities achieve independence. Partnering with a service dog is free.        But preparing those dogs is an expensive and specialized business. The cost of the dog, medical fees and training can run close to $25,000.       Now, Maryland will help pay the bill.