Saturday June 29   The Hollywood Volunteer Fire Department kicks off the festivities. Enjoy live music and carnival rides through the afternoon. Then find a seat for the fireworks at dusk. Carnival starts at 6pm; fireworks at 9pm at Fire Department, 24801 Three Notch Rd., St. Mary’s County: 240-9257863: www.hwvfd7.com.

In a time when money is tight, we celebrate the nation’s founding with an-over-the-top party.     The American tradition of lighting fuses to make colorful explosions in the sky started on the day the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence: July 4, 1776.     The day before, July 3, founding father John Adams wrote to his wife, “the day will be most memorable in the history of America … It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, bonfires and illuminations.”

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity. –John Muir


Bay beaches are tucked away in coves throughout Chesapeake Country. With tides and waves, soft sand, salty air and cooling breezes, they’re a nature lover’s paradise.     Our beaches are sown by the Bay with fascinating finds: shells, stones, driftwood, sea-glass frosted and smoothed by years of ocean tossing and tumbling. If your beach is within the range of Calvert Cliffs, Miocene fossils make for exciting and rare treasure finds.

“Count these records,” said Charlie after introductions.     The year was 1969. The records were five-inch vinyl-printed cardboard squares recorded by our candidate in the Northern Virginia district where I lived with my parents. The square records would be dropped off at every house to deliver his campaign message.     Hundreds were loose in each big three-foot-square box. I started counting. I was fairly nimble at age 26, but the older lady next to me was faster.

People seem friendlier. Colors are brighter. Food tastes better. The world is transformed with shimmering newness.     What causes the rush of good feeling we call romantic love?

Punxsutawney Phil has prognosticated an early spring, but it doesn’t feel like spring in Chesapeake Country. Like many a cold-hating human, Bay Weekly’s movie-loving groundhog Chesapeake Chuck remains hiding in his burrow.

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself. –Alan Alda

After you take your Christmas tree down, recycle it for a second life.     In your own backyard, recycle your tree by placing it near a bird feeder. The tree’s branches shelter smaller birds. Throw unsalted, unbuttered popcorn into the branches as free-form birdfood. Branches also provide a good place to hang pinecones smeared with peanut butter and rolled in birdseed.

With the Polar Bear Plunge New Year’s Day and a portable ice skating rink set up for fun the first weekend of the New Year, North Beach become the winter capital of Chesapeake Country.