Judging by their book release party, the collaborators are proud of their first-time novel, the memorably named The Dung Beetles of Liberia.

     “We call it eelgrass music,” says Jeff Holland from his office on the campus of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater. “Eelgrass seems an apt descriptor for the genre of ethno/eco-music we’re trying to create as part of the effort to build music into the legacy of the Bay.”

      Chesapeake Country is once again the setting for a picking pair living out dream jobs. This time, you can be part of the treasure hunt. Your valuables take center stage on Sunday, Sept. 15, when Appraisal Roadshow comes to Owings. Todd Peenstra and Steve Gouterman are on hand to educate you on the worth of your item and regale you with its history.

      Autumn invites us to pack up the camping gear and head to a park, trail or national monument. If you have a fourth-grade student, your park visit can be free.       For the fifth year, fourth-grade children can get a free pass to visit more than 2,000 federal recreation areas. The Every Kid Outdoors program is a partnership between the Department of the Interior, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Forest Service.

      Every spring and summer, baby animals are orphaned alongside highways and in backyards. Find one and you’ve got a quandary: What do I do now?       A person who can answer that question is Patricia Terrant of Blue Angel Rescue in Lusby. Terrant, 65, a Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator, has been saving animals, mostly birds, since 2015. 

    Picking is the age-old trade of finding valuable items in other people’s junk. With the debut of American Pickers on The History Channel in 2010, the profession experienced a resurgence. That year, the show was the Number 1 non-fiction series among television viewers.

     What’s the retirement plan of a man who has driven more than one million accident-free miles on the job? For Julian Ralph Easterday III and wife, Ruth, the answer is jump in their Dodge Roadtrek and hit the road for a few thousand more. A million if they are lucky, Easterday says.       Their goal is to visit every national park in America. So far, they’ve already camped at about a quarter of them.

     Do you smell the roasting smoked turkey legs? Hear the clanging of steel as jousters meet on the field of battle? Spot courtiers from the 1500s showing up in everyday scenes?       Yes, it’s that time of year again. The Renaissance Festival is Chesapeake Country’s unofficial sign that summer is ending.

      August 25 marks the 400th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America. They arrived on the White Lion, an English privateer ship sailing under Dutch authority, at Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia, now part of Fort Monroe National Monument, a unit of the National Park System.

         It takes good school supplies to get the school year off to a good start. To make sure that a few hundred kids have exactly what they need, Chesapeake neighbors have joined forces.             In Eastport’s Community Backpack Fest Saturday, August 24, backpacks brimming with school supplies will be handed out.