Ah, October has returned. That means ghouls and goblins, pumpkins and apples, flannel and bonfires. The air is seemingly crisper with each passing week, and specks of red and yellow are beginning to adorn the trees. Leaf-peeping fever is right around the corner.

       All hot summer long, Baltimore’s Natty Boh gathered tabs and cash to give to Maryland’s favorite crustaceans.       From June to September, Natty Boh 12- and 16-ounce cans came with red, crab-etched tabs. For every tab returned, 10 cents was donated to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s local blue crab research and habitat restoration efforts. 

       If you’re looking for storytellers to tell tales of their love for water, ask a Chesapeake Country native.        Who’s asking for stories?         It’s the Smithsonian.       Calvert Library was selected to join the Smithsonian’s Water/Ways exhibition, a study on the significance of water in communities across the country. 

      With the arrival of fall, farmers from many of Maryland’s 12,300 farms take their work to the streets. The fall harvest season extends to early November. On rural roads and even highways, motorists should be prepared to share as farmers move between working fields. Along major farming routes, electronic signs help remind you to be patient with sometimes sluggish farm equipment.

      The Eastport waterfront overlooking Spa Creek was evolving in 1983, when Carrol’s Creek Café became one of the first tenants in the Annapolis City Marina.        “The Annapolis Yacht Club, Chart House and working boatyards were our neighbors,” says Jeff Jacobs, second-generation owner of Carrol’s Creek Café. “Eastport was seeing its renaissance.”

If the boat bug has bitten you, taken even a little nibble, you’ll walk the blocks of exhibits and miles of floating dock in awe at the wonders of marine technology. As for boats themselves, you’ll see hundreds, including lots of new design trends and models on display with sellers persuasively explaining the merits of their craft.

       It’s been a busy season for the Annapolis Watercolor Club. The work of the club members have been on display across the county, with shows just wrapping up at Annapolis City Hall and Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park. Up next is a gallery setting near and dear to the members’ hearts.

      Annapolis knows boating like peanut butter knows jelly. Whether you boat for sport or recreation, our capitol is nautically superior. But just how significant is this seafaring activity?        Facts and figures are powerful in a data-driven world. Last month, the Bureau for Economic Analysis released a report on outdoor recreation from 2012-2016. Outdoor recreation made up $412 billion of the U.S. gross domestic product — that’s 2.2 percent of the entire U.S. GDP.

      Ten local artists tackled a different type of canvas for their partnership with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. Instead of choosing fiber to capture their artwork, they turned violins into masterpieces of a different sort.       You can see the results Sunday, Sept. 23, when art and music join forces at McBride Gallery for the big reveal of The Painted Violins.

      A staple of the dinner table has now become a staple of fall festivals.        At farms, garden centers and plant nurseries around the nation, the corn field is more about getting lost and having fun and less for picking and eating. Designs get more complicated by the year.