Winter is a wonderful time to study nature in Chesapeake Country. Yes, you read that correctly, the dreaded season of cold and snow. Before I am lambasted for being a warm-weather heretic, let me explain my reasoning.      First, winter in the natural world is mostly a quiet time for humans and nature alike. Similar to our many hardwood species, the crowds of summer now lie dormant, giving you plenty of space to enjoy the natural world.

     With the coming weeks offering events and attractions promising to wow you, amaze you and fill your hearts with holiday wonder and glad tidings, how do you choose which of the season’s pageants makes it on to your calendar?      Here’s a bit of guidance that may help you to inspire a new tradition or rediscover a forgotten favorite.   What: Illuminated London Town  

     Not in my backyard. That’s where nobody wants the new Chesapeake Bay Bridge that just about everybody wants — somewhere else.      This week, you get to join the debate on whose backyard deserves a new bridge and how to finance it. In a short half hour from 7:00 to 7:30 pm Wednesday, November 15, you’ll hear an overview of the massive project, including its schedule.

     Thirteen shovels dug into the ochre clay to break ground for Calvert County’s first animal shelter. Rising at 5055 Hallowing Point Road in Prince Frederick is a main shelter building of 12,910 square feet to house up to 200 animals plus a 1,380 square-foot barn to shelter livestock.      The shelter’s namesake, former county commissioner Linda Kelley, would like that, as her fellowship with animals extended to potbellied pigs, which she kept as pets.

     Lights on the Bay, the annual holiday display at Sandy Point State Park, has a new producer.      For 22 years, Anne Arundel Medical Center created the two-mile drive-through light show. Now Anne Arundel County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals takes the reins.

     Chesapeake Beach and North Beach have more going for them than great views. Calvert County’s Twin Beach towns are certifiably sustainable, meaning they live up to standards set by the University of Maryland. As well as the Twin Beaches, 11 other Maryland towns joined the Sustainable Maryland community this year.      Each town has its own advances up the 150-point ladder of certification.

     Snoopy and Charlie Brown, rainbows and candy canes, Christmas trees and an angel with a big trumpet: Over 35 years, Pete Chambliss’ boats have morphed into all those forms in the Eastport Yacht Club Lights Parade.       Crowds of thousands cheer as the illuminated powerboats and sailboats cruise in two slow loops below and above the Eastport-Annapolis Spa Creek Bridge.       That’s how Chris and Cyndy Rogers joined the parade.

     I could use a fried oyster right about now. Or one freshly shucked by Shady Side’s Gross watermen.

     You can’t protect the water if you can’t protect the land.      Light bulb or lightening bolt, that realization led Dick Lahn, of Crofton, to the capstone achievement of a lifetime of environmental campaigns.       Lahn’s personal success is a still bigger deal for environmental protection. He has linked 56 environmentally significant Maryland land parcels on both shores in a network of permanent preservation.

Sixty-two (and up) is the right age and August the right month to enjoy the best deal the federal government has to offer: the Senior Pass to Federal Lands.             America the Beautiful Passes open the gates to over 2,000 federal recreation sites spanning all 50 states plus many American territories.