Historic Sotterley Plantation, along the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland is the 94-acre site of bountiful colonial revival gardens, music and wine festivals, picturesque weddings, an organic farm, special events and of course, tours of the historic 18th-cen­tury manor house and grounds.

      When you hear a sparrow, do you envision only those birds under your bistro table? Bonnie Ott is here to expand your view to the many native sparrow species in our area. An expert naturalist, photographer and lifelong Howard County resident, she is more familiar with little brown birds than just about anyone.

      From 19th century art to 20th century children’s books to the Disney animated movie to the sultry song Fever, the forbidden love story of Pocahantas and John Smith is embedded in American romantic legend.        The narrative changes depending on who is telling it: Europeans or Native Americans. For the real story is very different from the myth.

      “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”  –Dr. Seuss             Imagine a book club with 500,000 members.

        For 18 years, the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Center connected would-be volunteers with local causes and helped nonprofits fill a myriad of needs.          Now it is closing its doors.          Due to a lack of sustainable funding, the Volunteer Center could no longer operate as a standalone nonprofit.          Not that the job is finished. Far from it.

      Are you seeking a place to show off museum-worthy relics? If you have historic documents, photos or memorabilia connected to St. Clement’s Island or the Colton’s Point area, your treasure may have found its future.

       With climate change at the door like the big bad wolf, who are you gonna call? Down in Hampton, Va., they may have figured it out: Hello, the Dutch.          Who better to help coastal communities cope than the Netherlands, a land that was covered by swamps 2,000 years ago? Fine minds and industriousness have enabled this densely populated nation to flourish as a result of dikes, dams, floodgates and pumping stations. Oh, and windmills.

      Just two weeks after the South River Federation and the West/Rhode Riverkeeper began their unified partnership as the Arundel Rivers Federation, two more regional watershed groups have tied the knot.          The Severn River Association and the Back Creek Conservancy have merged their operations into one watershed organization. Both will operate under the Severn River Association masthead.

     The Dove sailed with the Ark to land English on New World soil in 1634. The original Dove was lost at sea during a return voyage to the motherland. The Maryland Dove most of us have seen at Historic St. Mary’s City’s is a popular reimagining. Built in 1977, it has hosted some 500,000 visitors, allowing them to better envision how the first English settlers lived at sea.

     Stakes were high and tension palpable New Year’s Day at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, as Sarah Hamilton and her colleagues waited for a long-distance radio transmission confirming either a successful mission or a failure.