48 Days of Blue made waves. By the time the National Aquarium campaign to protect the environment (started on Earth Day) concluded on June 8, World Oceans Day, it had proved that small changes can help to protect the oceans that cover 71 percent of the earth’s surface.

Widgeon grass has made itself a 13-acre bed around South River Farm Park, reports Riverkeeper Diana Muller, from her June 4 reconnoiter with the Underwater Grass Expedition Kayak Team. That expansion “is exciting news in water quality,” Muller says.     A species native to the river, the underwater grass has great value for waterfowl, listed in the authoritative Life in the Chesapeake Bay as one of two “of the most important.”  

In the nine brutal legs covering the 38,739 nautical miles of the Volvo Ocean Race, every ounce matters with the evenly matched, one-design boats. Sailors have been known to shave down their toothbrushes, and drinking cups often double as dishes.     So what would the grocery list on a Volvo-65 look like on one of the longer legs, say from China to New Zealand?     Here in his own words is the food order that Stefan Coppers for Team Brunel sent to the shore crew for the 4,500-mile fourth leg to Auckland.

In Edgewater, at Camp Letts, on a tiny peninsula that juts into the Rhode River, erosion could down a might oak. The tree has done yeoman’s work by keeping the soil in place. But even now, as a living shoreline restoration project undertaken by the West/Rhode Riverkeeper seeks to halt the degradation, the soil is sinking between the roots and falling into the river.     Erosion of this kind repeats throughout Chesapeake Country, where there are 11,684 miles of shoreline and over 100,000 waterways.

You’d expect this kind of action in a thriller borrowed from your public library. Not over it.     Instead, Anne Arundel County’s public libraries are the story in a showdown with high stakes: The location, size and scope of public libraries for the county’s 555,743 people.

At the forefront of America’s newest energy boom — export of now-abundant natural gas — the standoff continues. Though you wouldn’t know it at first sight.     Trucks are rolling and earth moving as Dominion Cove Point continues on its way to becoming the East Coast’s first liquid natural gas exporter.

Time-stained pages printed and bound almost 400 years ago hold 36 plays written by William Shakespeare. That’s the Shakespeare considered “the most important writer in the English language.” So says Daniel De Simone, Eric Weinmann Librarian at Folger Shakespeare Library.     This book is one of the 82 First Folios Folger Library owns. That’s a lot.

What are you doing for Mother Earth this Mother’s Day?     Like many mothers of a certain age, she’s needing less, not more, except in the way of your attention.     One thing Mother Earth needs no more of is trash.

Terry Hutchinson has been named the U.S. Sailing Association’s 2014 Rolex Yachtsman of the year.     A veteran of four America’s Cup campaigns, Hutchinson in 2014 was atop more major regatta leader boards than any other American sailor. Competing as chief tactician, he won the Farr 40 and TP52 World Championships and the Oman Cup’s RC44 one-design class, among other big-boat regattas around the world. He also was at the helm in the Annapolis Fall Brawl, as the winner in the J/70 class.

Chesapeake Country has hundreds of marinas, each unique in its own way. They come in different sizes, different locations, different facilities — and different levels of cleanliness and Bay friendliness.