Articles by Margaret Tearman

Behind Closed Doors

Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage invites you to Scientists’ Cliffs for a day.

Quirky. Eccentric. Eclectic. That’s how people describe Scientists’ Cliffs, the private community on Calvert’s famous cliffs. The twisting dead-end lanes and the collection of cabins lining them have been quietly hidden from public view for the last 74 years. All five entrances to the community are labeled private, discouraging sightseers and adding further mystique to the historic neighborhood. Come May 7, the era of privacy closes, and for that one day,...

Article - History & Lore; by Margaret Tearman; 4/28/11

Digging In

From their yards to yours, Master Gardeners protect Mother Earth’s stability and sustainability

Let no one think that real gardening is a bucolic and meditative occupation. It is an insatiable passion, like everything else to which a man gives his heart. –Karel âapek, 1931 There are gardeners — and then there are gardeners. People whose love, whose devotion to gardening runs so deep they can’t keep it to themselves. It’s more than a hobby. It’s a passion. They have to share it, teach it. Because what they’re giving is something big:...

Article - Gardening; by Margaret Tearman; 4/21/11

This Week’s Creature Feature: Stink Bugs

Leaving our homes, they're heading for our gardens

The much-discussed invasion of the stink bugs — known to entomologists as the brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys) — is expected to cause quite a stink in our gardens. With spring’s warmer weather, the heat-seeking insect is leaving its comfy winter lodgings — our homes and other heated structures — for the great outdoors. Gathering on sunny windows and doors, they’re begging, let me out. Once outside, the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman; 4/21/11

Power Play

Electricity will cross over rivers and tunnel beneath the Bay — if given a foothold.

Whether it’s wind turbines in Annapolis, Western Maryland or Ocean City, or power poles and pathways in Calvert, the debate keeps coming closer. Do you want affordable, reliable and accessible power? Or do you want to protect the environment, starting with your own backyard? In the court of public opinion, Calvert County won against local electrical provider Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, SMECO, bringing down dozens of behemoth power poles. ...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman; 4/7/11

Rogue Daffodils

A Blooming Mystery

Hundreds of sunny yellow daffodils line the edge of busy Route 2/4 south of Prince Frederick, seemingly popping up out of nowhere. Brilliantly announcing spring’s arrival, the daffodils blooming along the woodland’s edge are neither naturalized nor deposited will-nilly by bulb gathering critters. Nor are these daffodils escapees of an old garden; there is no house in the vicinity and besides, escapees don’t line themselves up in such an orderly fashion. It...

Article - History & Lore; by Margaret Tearman; 4/7/11

This Week’s Creature Feature: King Lear Courts Queen...

Will this relationship go to the dogs?

You’ve probably heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, the assumption that anyone can be linked to the actor through six steps … like my sister worked for a man whose wife is the third cousin of Bacon’s hairdresser. We can go one better with Six Degrees of GCH Foxcliffe Hickory Wind. Who? Hickory is Grand Dame of American dogs, the Scottish deerhound crowned Westminster Kennel Club’s Best in Show last month, the...

Article - Creature Feature; by Margaret Tearman; 3/10/11

Lowering the High Price of Electricity

Great power poles — not bills — will shrink

After a year of public flogging, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative has agreed to replace behemoth power poles with smaller, less intrusive poles along Calvert County’s winding Bowie Shop Road and Route 2/4 in Huntingtown. Smaller is relative. The poles will still be as tall — 75 feet — but a thicker steel plate will allow for the poles to taper toward the top. That, says SMECO spokesman Tom Dennison, is because “The most...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman; 2/17/11

Back In the Saddle

Teresa Chambers of Dunkirk is back at work as chief of the U.S. Park Police. Her swearing in January 31 by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar not only returns her to the job she loves but also clears her name and vindicates her claim of wrongful dismissal. Chambers lost her job seven years ago after telling the Washington Post that funding cuts to her department could endanger public safety and national monuments.

Article - People; by Margaret Tearman; 2/17/11

Following the Sidewalk to Nowhere

What's With Calvert’s Ghost Town?

Dowell Road bisects a strip of land sandwiched between Back and Mill creeks in Solomons. Past new homes under construction, the road runs out of asphalt. There a hard-packed dirt road parallels sidewalks leading nowhere, crumbling foundations with no buildings to support and rusty fire hydrants with nothing to protect. In the middle of these ruins sits a long-empty swimming pool. No disaster wiped out this abandoned village. Its demise was predetermined; it was never intended to be...

Article - History & Lore; by Margaret Tearman; 2/10/11

2,593 Days to Justice

After losing her job as chief of U.S. Park Police, Teresa Chambers has finally won vindication — and maybe her old job, too.

She’s back. It took seven years, one month and six days. Then, against all odds, on January 11, Teresa Chambers of Dunkirk got the news she’d hoped for all along. Before the month is out, she’ll be reinstated to the job she loved and lost, U.S. Park Police Chief. Editor’s note: Chief Chambers told the early story of her one-woman fight in spring of 2005. Read it at http://bayweekly.com/oldsite/year05/issuexiii14/leadxiii14.html 2,593 Days Back in...

Article - News; by Margaret Tearman; 1/20/11