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Guitar Greats

Of Fenders and Gibsons, GE Smith and Eric Clapton

What’s Not to Like?

Where’s there’s music and wine, there will be dancing

Get Ready for the Great American Eclipse

New moon blots out much of the sun in Chesapeake Country

Maryland Photographer Goes Postal

New stamp carries important message

Helping Neighbors in Calvert Count

Christmas in April starts now

The Eastern Carpenter Bee

This bee drills into wood and flowers

Jolly Greens and Grinchy Greens

Evergreens to welcome home — and those to avoid

As Christmas approaches, it’s time to bring fresh greens, with their piney aromas, into your home. Here in Bay Country, we have an abundance of evergreens to choose from. Many will last through the season, even without water. Others dry up too quickly to come inside. To add both beauty and aroma to your home, choose narrow-leaf greens like arborvitae, white pine, Scots pine, red pine, Douglas fir, Canaan fir, Nordman fir, juniper, red cedar or any of the cedrus species...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin, Gardening; by Dr. Francis Gouin; 12/19/13

The Free State Fly Fishers

Learn to tie flies or fly-cast with this open-to-all club

The morning temperature was well below freezing on my home’s weather gauge as I grabbed my coat and fly boxes. It was way too cold and windy to be on the water, so we were headed for the next best thing: tying some flies and talking about fishing. I was meeting a friend, Joe Demeo, at the Free State Fly Fishers Club, a winter haven for local fly-fishers. Anglers join the fly-tying sessions at the Davidsonville clubhouse to replenish their supply of fish-foolers while...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle, Fishing; by Dennis Doyle; 12/19/13

The Shortest Day Is the Longest

This time of year a day is 30 seconds longer

Winter officially begins with the solstice Saturday, December 21. At 12:11pm EDT that day, the sun reaches its most southerly declination, standing still above the Tropic of Capricorn. For the roughly 90 percent of the world’s population that lives in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the first day of winter, the day of the longest night and the shortest day of the year. We say it is the shortest day of the year, but in truth it is one of the longest days as measured...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 12/19/13

Saving Mr. Banks

How Walt Disney won over Mary Poppins

After Mary Poppins became a literary phenomenon in 1934, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks: Captain Phillips) promised his daughters he would make their favorite book into a movie. A lucrative film adaptation is a dream offer for many, but Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson: Love Punch) didn’t share the Disney vision. Horrified by all things animated and kitschy, Travers fought for 20 years to keep her beloved book out of the hands of “the Man Behind the Mouse.” ...

Article - Movie Reviews; by Diana Beechener; 12/19/13

Books for Every Taste

Local and regional authors help you — and your gift list — read into a good new year

For Bay Lovers … Chesapeake Views: Catching the Light by Wilson Wyatt Jr. Almost four hundred years ago, one of the first European visitors to the New World, Captain John Smith, extolled the Chesapeake: “Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.” Chesapeake Country photographer and writer Wilson Wyatt Jr. takes up that theme in his self-published Chesapeake Views:...

Article - Books, Winter Reading Guide 12/12/13

Not-So-Rare Visitors

Snowy Owls popping up all over

Is it a bird? A plane? A creature flown out of Harry Potter? Or a white paper bag frozen in a field? This year, it may be a snowy owl. The white bird with bright, yellow eyes, huge talons and a five-foot wingspan is usually a rare sight in Chesapeake Country. So rare that the first-ever snowy owl sighting and photo was recorded in Calvert County this week. The big bird was perched on a Ford tractor in Prince Frederick. ...

Article - Creature Feature; by Michelle Steel; 12/12/13

Old King Coal

A tottering old soul

King Coal’s crown seems to be teetering. The second fuel of America’s prosperity may be losing the race to the future, just as wood did before it. Scarcity is not the problem; many of America’s coalfields continue producing high yields. At issue are the consequences of the fossil fuel’s combustion: carbon pollution clogging air and lungs. More than 150 coal-burning plants have retired since 2010. This week, two of Maryland’s...

Article - News; by Sandra Olivetti Martin; 12/12/13

The Right Tools to Please the Gardeners on Your List

Gardening tools you can grow with

Fellow gardeners often ask me which gardening tools are my favorites. In case you’re shopping for one of those gardeners, here’s my list. I don’t stint on price because I want quality tools that last. The Weed Bandit hoe is my favorite because of its long rake handle and stainless steel head with a corrugated blade that stays sharp. I like the small Weed Bandit for hoeing onions and closely spaced plants, and the medium blade Weed Bandit for all other...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin, Gardening; by Dr. Francis Gouin; 12/12/13

Gifts for the Sportsman or Woman in Your Life

Stuff their stocking with a good book or video

The dedicated outdoorsman or woman is, by definition, equipped. The few things such a person might lack are likely so specialized as to be a mystery to outdoors outsiders. Books and movies, however, fall into a safe-gift zone. If you’re intent on pleasantly surprising an outdoors lover with your gift, the following suggestions might help. Kayak Fishing (Sportsman’s Best www.Florida Sportsman.com) details in both book and DVD the fastest...

Article - Books, Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle, Fishing; by Dennis Doyle; 12/12/13

Lighting up These Long Nights

Can the Geminids outshine December’s full moon?

The moon lights up the night this week, starting as a waxing gibbous, reaching full moon Tuesday and waxing slowly through the middle of the week. Look for the near-full moon beside the Pleiades star cluster Saturday. You know the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and categorized as celestial object M45, could be called the Mini Dipper. The belt stars of the constellation Orion point up toward Taurus the bull and its orange-...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll; 12/12/13

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