51. Write a Story; Think of Bay Weekly
Do you have something to share? Can you tell a story?
Let summer bring out your creative side. Be descriptive, be reflective, be observant of the people and places around you. Ask questions about what's going on and find out what people are thinking. Write about what you know and research what you'd like to know more about.
Bay Weekly is always looking for new voices from Bay Country. Send your thoughts in a letter and outline to [email protected]. Follow up with a phone call on Monday, Thursday or Friday: 410/867-0304.
We look forward to hearing from you.
52. Savor Summer Specialties: Bake a Blackberry Cobbler
I can still remember the luscious smell of Grandma's fresh fruit cobbler as it cooled on the back porch picnic table. We waited, our mouths watering, as we watched her dig down through the golden crust into the deep purple berries hiding underneath. Topped with a crown of vanilla ice cream, Grandma's cobbler made us forget our manners as we dove into our all-time favorite summertime treat.
Luckily, Grandma's special recipe survives today. The success of this easy, yet tasty, recipe relies on the key ingredient, fresh berries. Raspberries and blackberries are midsummer jewels. Make sure you choose ripe, plump, freshly picked berries for the most juicy and flavorful cobblers.
Crust:
- 11&Mac218;2 C flour
- 1&Mac218;4 tsp. salt
- 1&Mac218;2 C unsalted butter, cut into bits
- 4 to 5 T Ice Water
Filling:
- 6 C fresh blackberries, washed and drained
- 3&Mac218;4 C sugar
- 1&Mac218;4 C unsalted butter, cut into bits
- Extra sugar for sprinkling
Work flour, salt and butter together until mixture is crumbly, the size of small peas. Add ice water and quickly mix together until dough begins to stick together. Form dough into a ball and flatten slightly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll dough into a large, ragged circle about 15 inches across. In a 9-inch round ovenproof dish that is 2 or more inches deep, place the circle of rolled dough, lining the bottom and sides. Allow extra dough to hang over the outside of the dish.
Mound the washed berries in the middle of the dish, sprinkle with sugar and dot with butter. Bring pastry crust up over the fruit, it will not quite cover the berries completely. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a little more sugar.
Bake in 425F oven for 45 minutes or until crust is brown and filling is bubbling.
Serve warm with ice cream.
53. March to the Beat of a Military Band
The Armed Forces' military bands - resounding with some of the nation's finest musicians - thrive throughout Bay Country, performing music ranging from rousing patriotic standards to the symphonies of classic masters to cool jazz to the Top 40 pop hits.
Annapolis' own U.S. Naval Academy Band sets you awash in music by the full band or popular ensembles during its free Summer Serenade 2001 series, running July 10 to August 14 (7:30pm Tu @ City Dock: 410/293-0263 • www.usna.edu/usnaband). It also hosts other Washington-area military bands for its Guest Series, this year featuring Army and Navy groups, running from July 19 to August 9 (7:30pm Th @ Rip Miller Field, U.S. Naval Academy).
The District's U.S. Navy Band makes sound waves throughout the region as ensembles drift from the Capitol steps to Bethany Beach, Delaware, with frequent stops locally in Anne Arundel and Calvert counties. Watch "Eight Days a Week" for the latest. The band also makes a summer ritual of performing at the Navy Memorial, from July 24 through August 28 (8pm Tu @ 701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW: 202/433-2525 • www.navyband.navy.mil).
When in Washington you can find grand military music every day but Saturday at two spots on the National Mall. At the U.S. Capitol: Select Mondays, Navy Band; Tuesdays, Air Force Band; Wednesdays, Marine Band; Fridays, Army Band. At Sylvan Theater, on the grounds of the Washington Monument: Sundays, Marine Band; Tuesdays, Army Band; Thursdays, Navy Band; Fridays, Air Force Band.
All military band concerts are free and need no tickets. Weather dependent. For updates, call the bands: Navy 202/433-2525; Marine 202/433-4011; Army 202/685-2851; Air Force 202/767-5658.
54. Savor Summer Specialties: Make a Batch of Jam
When you make a batch of jam, you preserve summer all year long. Making it puts summer in your hands, eyes, mouth and jar. Keeping it fills your cupboard with bounty in jars of shining beauty. And when winter's blowing up a storm outside, the sun-fresh taste of strawberry, peach or even gooseberry or fig jam takes you right back to summer.
Clear, almost foolproof directions come inside any box of commercial pectin, whether liquid or powder, at your grocery store. Open the box and read. You can choose between traditional cooked jam or jelly that you put up in jars or freezer jam, which preserves a very fresh delicious taste but denies you the beauty of rows of shining jars.
Next, you'll need fruit. Here's your chance to pick your own as we've just done with strawberries. If you're new at jamming, you'll also buy jars and lids (new ones in the store come with lids). In the future, save your jars, and ask your friends who enjoy your gifts of jam to return the jars for refills. Add a big bag of sugar.
If you choose cooked jam, you'll also need a big pots to cook the jam. The newest directions say you don't need to sterilize the jars. It helps to have a big spoon (for skimming your jam) a jar lifter and a wide-mouth funnel.
Follow package directions carefully, crushing fruit, adding jelling pectin and sugar, boiling, skimming and filling jars. In about an hour, you'll have a half-dozen glistening jars of summer memories to savor and share. Maybe you better make a second batch. Our strawberry jam is almost gone already.
55. NJFK: Get to Know a Bay Animal
Are you crazy about crabs? Do you ogle over ospreys? Do whales make you go "wow"? Are you perplexed about plankton?
What's your favorite Bay animal? Pick one you like, one you hate, or one you just want to get to know better. Find out everything you can about it.
Go to an aquarium. The National Aquarium in Baltimore and the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons have tanks and exhibits that focus on animals of the Chesapeake Bay.
Check out the library. Field guides like David Owen Bell's Awesome Chesapeake, Kenneth Gosner's A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore, or Hildebrand and Schroeder's Fishes of the Chesapeake Bay give detailed descriptions of animals - how they look, where they live, what they do.
Talk to scientists. The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater has guided canoe trips and other hands-on programs featuring Chesapeake Bay animals.
Be a scientist. Get out there. Walk on the beach. Muck in the mud. Take a boat ride. Explore the intertidal zone. Observe. Take notes. Draw pictures. Make a book about your animal. Share it with your friends.
56. Cruise Ego Alley
Afloat or afoot, cruise Annapolis' watery main street, where the display will entertain and amuse you.
On weekend afternoons, Ego Alley fills with boats of every persuasion, from zippy Zodiacs to rocket-like vice boats, plus sailboats so large that maneuvering them around the crowded turn is a brag. Too cool is the word for these guys.
You'll stay cool if you sip a drink from the Marketplace and sit along the seawall, eyeball-to-eyeball with working crews on crab, clam or oyster boats and styling crews on sail, power and workboats.
From that spot in the center of the universe, it's an easy shot to launch yourself toward one of downtown's bars. Acme Bar & Grill, Armadillo's, Mangia, Ego Alley, Griffin's, Maria's, McGarvey's, Middleton Tavern, O'Brien's, Pusser's, Riordan's, Phillips Seafood House - many with sidewalk cafes - all crowd on or around the waterfront.
57. Ride an Historic Boat
Historic boats abound along the Chesapeake's waterways, from proud tall ships to sleek log canoes to the small fleet of skipjacks still working the Bay. All are there to gawk at, some even ready to board. But only a relative few offer regular cruises for anything short of a charter. Listed below are some:
Wm. B. Tennison: This 102-year-old, 60.5-foot bugeye makes its retirement home at Solomons' Calvert Marine Museum. Back in the day it was a workhorse buyboat; it now lives as the second oldest licensed passenger vessel in the nation. Regular cruises shuttle tourists along Solomons' Back Creek and Patuxent River waterfronts. Special cruises pop up now and then; watch "Eight Days a Week" for details. (Ride 2pm WThFSaSu summer-long plus 12:30pm Sa Su in July & August; $5/adults, $3/kids: 410/326-2042 • www.calvertmarinemuseum.com.)
Mister Jim: Another buyboat, this 51-footer makes three summertime forays into the Miles River for log canoe race watching (June 30), environmental education (July 21) and storytelling with Disappearing Delmarva author Ed Okonowicz (August 11). (Cruise 2-4pm June 30, 9:30-11:30am July 21, 6-8pm August 11 from Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels; $22, $20/members; rsvp: 410/745-2916.)
Minnie V.: Maryland Historical Society's skipjack cruises Baltimore's harbor right on through late September with biweekly twilight lecture cruises highlighting the Chesapeake's maritime, industrial and patriotic heritage. Especially popular are July 3's cruise with Francis Scott Key and July 4's fireworks cruise. (Cruises depart 6pm TuTh; 7pm July 4 from Harborplace; $25 w/discounts, $50/July 4; rsvp: 410/685-3750 x321 www.mdhs.org.)
John W. Brown: History thrives aboard this World War II Liberty ship, kept alive and steaming thanks to an all-volunteer crew, more than half of them Merchant Marine or Navy Armed Guard veterans. While cruising the Bay you can step into the massive engine room, peer through the sights of some of the 10 big guns, tap the first-hand history of veterans and browse on-board museum displays. Mid-cruise you'll often find mock dogfights and turret fire heightening the drama of period entertainment. August's cruise to Solomons is prelude to a World War II-era beach landing exercise. (Cruises July 14, August 10 and September 1 from Dundalk Marine Terminal, Baltimore; $125 includes food; $25/return bus August 10; rsvp: 410/558-0164 or www.liberty-ship.com.)
58. Find Out Where in the World You Are
It's three in the morning … somewhere. Do you know where you are? Yes, of course, you're right here, but if you got on your flying carpet could you navigate it to your favorite fishing hole in a pea soup fog? Could you call up your sweetie and have her/ him/it meet you there? If you had a pocket-sized GPS unit, a communication device and a wonderful sweetie you could.
GPS, short for Global Positioning System, lets you pinpoint your location within 30 feet - no matter where in the whole wide world you are. GPS works by measuring distances between satellites in orbit and a receiver on or above the earth. The receiver then computes spheres of position from those distances. Where those spheres intersect determines the general position of the receiver. You hold the receiver.
Your answer will come in latitude and longitude, degrees, minutes and seconds. You'll still need to make sense of the numbers. A nautical chart will supply the correlation Good up-to-date charts and maps (see Way 91) and a good compass will make it even easier.
If you get distracted and run your rugs into a crab trap, you'll be able to call up the pros and tell 'em exactly where you are.
GPS can also remember where you've been. With the touch of a button, the GPS marks the coordinates. You'll never lose 'site' of your favorite fishing hole - or anyplace else on sea or land you want to return to. Getting there is just as clear.
The GPS uses the marked coordinates in comparison with your present location to calculate the distance and bearings needed to get from point A to desired point B.
In short, the GPS can tell you where you are, where you're going, and where you've been. Just don't expect it to tell you who you
59. Catch a Baseball Game
There's a swing, the crack of the bat, the spin of the ball, an outfielder racing back, a drive deep to left field, the smell of green grass, dirt, leather … way back … a bloop single, the turn on a double play, a triple to the gap … way back … a 3-2 change up, a pick off at second, a relay to the plate … going … a hot summer day, a cold beer, a race to the pennant … going … fathers and sons, generation to generation, major league dreams … gone, a three run home run.
As June turns to July, when basketball is over and football is not yet on the horizon, all eyes turn to baseball and the boys of summer. With the chill of spring gone, the pitches come a little faster, the bats crack a little louder and a long fly ball looks like it might float forever.
With a cold beer in one hand, a hot dog in the other and your old man sitting next to you on a warm summer night, you'll find life is better at the ballpark.
In Chesapeake Country your best bet is to head to Prince George's Stadium (a field that always reminds me of the old Memorial Stadium) and catch a Bowie Baysox game, where you'll see future Orioles take the field. If the big club continues with its youth movement, you might catch next summer's hero today.
With a carousel in right field, a summer full of special promotions and theme nights - including fireworks - and between-inning shenanigans, there's something at the ballpark for everyone.
For ticket information call the Bowie Baysox at 301/805-2233 www.baysox.com.
Talk baseball, and we're talking Cal Ripkin's last season. Until he announced his retirement, for nearly the first time since Camden Yard opened, you could walk up the day of the game and buy tickets. At $8, bleacher seats - with backs and leg room - are a bargain with a great view. Now you better call early and often for your chance to bid Cal farewell: 410/685-9800 www.theorioles.com.
60. NJFK: Study Bugs
Bugs, or rather, insects live everywhere. Bugs are just one kind of the billions of insects out there. Fill your bathtub with dirt and start counting. You might find as many as 2000 insects in your tub. Now clean out your tub before your parents get home.
Better yet, go outside and find some good dirt from your garden or the woods. Measure off one square foot and start gently digging with a trowel. How many different insects can you find? You'll probably find worms too. All of these critters are working together to break down leaf litter into good nutrients for this summer's plants.
Scoop some soil into a pan and bring it inside. Gather a shoebox, an old teacup and a two-liter soda bottle. Put the teacup inside the shoebox, right side up. Cut the soda bottle in half. Recycle the bottom half and throw out the lid. Cut a hole in the shoebox lid big enough to hold the soda bottle spout. Turn the soda bottle upside down, put the spout through the shoebox lid over the teacup and close the shoebox. Now scoop your dirt into the soda bottle. Put the whole setup under a warm desk lamp. After an hour or so look inside the cup. Do you see insects?
Keep some of the critters in a terrarium made out of a wide-mouth jar or a dry aquarium tank. Put lots of soil and leaf litter in the bottom with some plants and water in a shallow lid. What do your bugs do all day? Be sure to return them to your backyard.
Make a simple butterfly net using a broom handle, bridal veil netting and a coat hanger. Pull open the coat hanger to make a square and sew the netting to the hanger. Use cloth tape to attach the hanger to the broom handle.
Make a house for the butterfly you catch by cutting windows in two sides of a cardboard milk carton and putting it in a nylon stocking. Be sure to include part of the plant the butterfly was sitting on. Use a hand lens to look closely at the scales on the butterfly's wings. Can you tell the differences between butterflies and moths? Let your butterflies go.
Lots of larval forms of insects, like mosquitoes, dragonflies and damselflies, live in the water. Visit a pond, stream or part of the Bay and turn over rocks and leaves in the water. Look closely. Do you see some things that want to be fly boys when they grow up?
Here are some field guides to help you find names for what's bugging you:
• Insects (Peterson Field Guides) by Donald Borror and Richard White
• Pond Life (A Golden Guide) by George Reid
• Insects (A Golden Guide) by Herbert Zim and Clarence Cottam.
Copyright 2001
Bay Weekly
