81. Observe an Osprey
The osprey are back. Not just for the summer, but back from the brink of extinction. Take a drive along the Bay and look up and out. You'll find osprey nests on channel markers, utility poles, billboards, duck blinds, trees, buoys, cliffs or anything big and tall. Stand still long enough, and you may become an osprey nest yourself.
Thirty years ago, DDT had all but banished ospreys from our shores. Since the ban of that pesticide, which makes the birds' eggshells too brittle to withstand incubation, the birds have been making a comeback. The Bay is now home to some 3,000 pair of osprey.
Osprey start arriving in March, about St. Patrick's Day, from wintering grounds in South America. They use the same nests every season; they are so sturdily made. If you can get close enough to take a good look, without disturbing the birds of course, you're apt to find the makings of a yard sale. Anything that makes their nest big and strong enough - osprey have a 54 inch wingspan - will do. David Gessner, who recently published Return of the Osprey, reports that he's seen everything from green plastic garbage bags and Easter basket grass to a half-naked Barbie as osprey nesting materials. Others have observed hula hoops, TV antennas and bicycle tires.
Watch the osprey for a time, and you might learn some valuable life lessons. Ospreys mate for life. The lady clearly rules the roost. Pity the less than eager male if he isn't gathering sticks and used dolls fast enough to satisfy his mate's nesting frenzy. And he'd better bring home lots of fish once she is sitting on the eggs or when the little ones arrive. If he doesn't, he'll get an earful.
If you're more of an armchair naturalist, and sitting down by your computer with a glass of iced tea sounds better than sitting by the Bay with a pair of binoculars, you can watch a nesting pair of ospreys at www.discoveryvillage.net. Better yet, take the kids and drive on down to Discovery Village in Shady Side. You'll learn a lot about the Bay and you can pass the time driving there by seeing who can count the most osprey nests.
82. Start a Bay Book Club
Get some bookish friends together and read fiction set in and around the Chesapeake Bay. Michener's Chesapeake is an obvious place to begin. But if you don't have time for 1001 pages, here are some other titles to inspire a quiet day by the Bay.
- Barth, John. Sabbatical: A Romance (1996), The Tidewater Tales (1997)
- Brooks, Kenneth F., Jr. Run to the Lee (1988)
- Byron, Gilbert. The Lord's Oysters (1957), Done Crabbin': Noah Leaves the River (1990)
- Chappell, Helen. The Oysterback Tales (1994) and Oysterback Spoken Here (1998)
- Charbeneau, Jim. Shouts and Whispers: Stories from the Southern Chesapeake Bay (1996)
- Gear, Kathleen O'Neal and W. Michael Gear. People of the Mist (1997)
- Junkin, Tim. The Waterman: A Novel of the Chesapeake Bay (1999)
- Lee, Barbara. Death in Still Waters: A Chesapeake Bay Mystery (1995)
- Lockhart, Barbara M. Rambling Raft (1989)
- Osborn, David. Murder on the Chesapeake (1992)
83. Take Tea on the Lawn
There is something so elegant, so civilized, about tea in the afternoon on the lawn. Use a lovely tea pot and cups. Bake scones, slice fruit, pick out a new cheese at your favorite store. Dress nice, and wear a hat if you've got one. A flowered tablecloth is nice, set on the table outside or even right on the ground. Invite a great conversationalist as a guest.
The British know hot tea is great on a hot day. Learn to brew tea correctly. Use a tea bag if you must, but brew it in a tea pot. Boil the water, and pour a little in the pot to warm it first. Throw out that water, add the tea bags or leaves in a strainer, and fill with fresh hot water. Let steep for at least five minutes before serving.
Let one person be host and pour the tea for all. Don’t pass the hot tea pot around! Remember the sliced lemon. For those who prefer cream, add a splash before pouring the tea into the cup. If you like your tea sweet, always use sugar cubes or lumps: "One teaspoon or two?" just doesn't sound as charming.
84. Enjoy Summer From the Porch
Some of summer's sweetest moments unfold during a lazy evening on the porch.
Summer nights on the porch are perfect for striking up card games among friends, gazing at the stars, listening to ball games, playing guitar and singing songs, sipping lemonade or sweet iced tea, rocking to the sound of the wind in the trees, eating Popsicles, watching fireflies and catching up with neighbors.
Or simply sit back, relax and enjoy the balmy air that we longed for all winter.
Whatever you do, it's a nice chance to take your foot off the accelerator of life and idle in the beauty of the moment.
85. NJFK: Make Natural Dyes
Have you ever squished a blueberry with your fingers? If you have, you know that the blue color on your hand won't wash right off. That's the reason our ancestors used things like blueberries and other natural stuff to color, or dye, their clothing and other fabrics. All dyes used to come from nature. Most came from bark, berries, flowers, leaves and roots. Some colors were difficult to come by, so they were more highly valued. For example, purple used to be reserved for royalty because it had to be extracted from jellyfish, a difficult process.
Today most people use synthetic dyes, but natural dyes are fun and easy to make.
To create your own naturally dyed T-shirt you'll need a large, non-reactive pot for dyeing (enamel, pyrex, glass, ceramic or stainless steel will do the job), plastic dishpans for rinsing, a wooden or stainless steel strainer, a measuring spoon, a mixing spoon, a wooden drying rack, some natural stuff (bark, berries, flowers, leaves, roots), alum (available at hardware or craft stores) and a 100% cotton T-shirt.
Put the natural stuff in your large pot - one color at a time until you're experienced enough to color - and fill the pot with water. As a general rule, if a plant part is hard, like bark or sticks, pound or grind it to loosen the fibers. If it's soft, like petals or berries, use it as is. Boil the mixture for 30 to 60 minutes until the color is a little darker than you'd like. Strain out the plant parts and add a teaspoon of alum, which keeps the colors from washing out. Mix well. Wet your T-shirt and put it in the dye bath. Let it soak for 30 to 60 minutes. Remove the shirt from the dye bath and rinse it in cold water several times until the water is clear. Hang to dry.
To dye a T-shirt in your favorite color, try these plants:
- Yellow: Onion skins, goldenrod stems and flowers, sunflower petals, marigold petals, moss, milkweed leaves, birch leaves
- Red: Sumac berries, dogwood bark, red beets, cranberries, purple cabbage
- Purple: Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
- Green: Juniper berries, yarrow leaves and flowers, lily-of-the-valley leaves, grass
- Brown: Walnut shells, birch bark, jewelweed flowers
- Blue: Larkspur flowers, blueberries, forget-me-nots
- Black: Hickory bark, alder bark, purple grapes
86. Meet a Horseshoe Crab
Before it's too late, meet one of those slow-moving pith helmets on a Chesapeake beach, where this time of year they're returning, as they have every year since time immemorial, to mate and lay their eggs. Despite its other worldly look, it's harmless - even that long, hard spike of a tail. Think about how it's survived, looking exactly the same, for 30 million years. Then consider that in our times it's closer to extinction than ever before, threatened by harvesting for bait and biotech drug-making. In "Way Downstream" most weeks, you can find what the various states are doing to save horseshoe crabs.
87. Turn off the Juice
Power down, lighten up. If it's true that we might face electricity shortages one day, why not take a practice run? Pick a day and rely on the sun for your light, the breeze for your cool and the instincts in your genes to get by. Park you car and, if you must travel, make it a short trip by foot, by cycle or even by small boat. Eat salads, tabouli and cool, light fare. Swim or fish by day. Nap in the quiet. Take a cold shower, like your great grandparents did. Use candlelight for romantic nights without TV and other artificial racket. Forget that computers and e-mail exist. Our bet is that you'll wake up refreshed - and wanting to operate another day on the power within.
88. Visit Vera and Her Polynesian Paradise
As wide as a river St. Leonard's Creek shimmers, struck silver by the setting sun. Every new voice exhorts its companion to 'look at that sunset, will you?'
As the light dims, the creek puddles pink as Vera's patio. Darkness creeping in, patio and creek glow lavender.
Vera, whose tastes were formed in Hollywood, has arranged this spectacle for you. "I didn't find it like this 46 years ago," says the ageless, platinum-haired creator of Chesapeake Country's Shangri-la, Vera's White Sands Restaurant and Marina, which was enrolled just this year in Maryland's Hospitality Hall of Fame.
Vera Freeman had seen the world, but she settled in Calvert County. Certainly the meeting place of St. Leonard and John's creeks is beautiful. Certainly, from the promontory she and her late husband Dr. Freeman purchased, she could dream over wide waters. She must have seen sights grander, yet it was here that this Chesapeake legend created Vera's White Sands as the stage on which she would act out the rest of her life.
She set her stage with bargeloads of white sand and planted it with palm trees. Pointing to the mouths of the creeks, she erected a glass fronted building tapering to a boatlike prow. She furnished it with mermaids, sea shells and diving bells gathered in her travels to faraway places with strange-sounding names.
And, from May to October, she opens her stage nightly (except Mondays) to you and me. Each night, she appears promptly at 7:30, when the gong sounds.
The theater you'll find at Vera's White Sands is improvisational. Vera, her Hawaiian-shirted staff, the night's chance cast of characters and you create it for yourselves. Only those who don't know better think they're visiting Vera's White Sands for dinner. The rest of us know the play is the thing.
(Dinner, by the way, is served nightly from 5-9; lunch weekends. the price is remarkably low; the food may be very good. The drinks are exotic.)
It you haven't visited Vera, go now. If you have, go again. This summer.
Find her in her paradise at the end of White Sands Road in Lusby: 410/586-1182.
89. Bayball!
Bayball, a local variation on an ancient game, has recently gained a foothold on the Western Shore. It's easy, fun, and any number of anybodies can play. All you need is balls and junk.
The first thing you need to do is figure out where you're going to play. This can be done anywhere, but be aware that some commercial establishments (i.e., banks and brokerages) may take a dim view of strangers bearing unusual objects, gathering into mobs and playing lawn sports in their interior spaces, especially if dogs are involved.
To begin, a selected player picks a spot, draws a line around it with one foot while the other remains in place and from this spot throws out the "marker," usually an object about the size and shape of a key lime.
Simultaneous, all other players may throw out any extraneous object that may be heaved onto the playing field, to make the course more interesting. Old crab traps, busted automotive parts and beer cans are traditional enhancements.
Now the players take turns trying to place their balls closest to the marker from the spot. The closest wins. Baseballs are the most commonly used, but cannon, snooker or bowling balls may be substituted.
One can play as an individual or as part of a team, but in any case do not go betting your clam skiff with strangers. They've been playing this game in the Calipygian enclaves on the Eastern Shore for centuries, and hustlers have been known to cross the water.
90. NJFK: Camp Out at Home
Camping in the back yard can be a grand adventure for kids.
A small tent, bought or borrowed will suffice. Or make your own: Plant two poles in the ground about eight feet apart, string a piece of sturdy rope from pole to pole, pull off a guideline for stability and drape a tarp. Use plastic for a makeshift floor.
Sleeping bags are comfy, but not necessary on warm summer nights. A blanket and pillow laid upon an additional piece of plastic will do nicely. For light, battery-operated flashlights or glow-in-the-dark sticks work just fine.
Be aware of the animals that roam your area. Make sure the kids don't eat inside or near the tent; this will attract unwelcome
Copyright 2001
Bay Weekly
