Comprehensive Zoning

In April, the Osprey return to the Chesapeake, stake out their territory and establish their nests.  Over the ensuing weeks, they find their mates and painstakingly build their nests by weaving branches and sticks together.  They settle in to lay their eggs and raise their young withstanding the Spring chills, early summer storms and unwelcome guests.  I sent this to a local attorney under the heading "Comprehensive Zoning".  He didn't get it- or maybe he just didn't think it was funny.

Queenstown Farm

On this Centennial farm just east of Queenstown Maryland, an early Spring cover crop stands out against the impending storm.  Wood outbuildings and barns are vanishing across Maryland and the United States as newer, less expensive materials including steel and fiberglass supplant traditional resources. Take note of the old wood barns you see on your travels for soon they will be altogether gone.

Cherry Blossoms

Against a gray sky

ethereal white blossoms

rain down from above

Tundra Swans

Winter in the Chesapeake-
the season of the Tundra Swan.
Ice crackles along the marshy edge
of a wind-riffled cove.
White feathers radiant in fading light,
tranquil, until a single call builds to a clamor.
Noise and motion pushing forward
black paddles churning furiously
until awkwardly they rise in flight
and head west into the setting sun.

There is a restaurant in St. Michael's named Gina's. "Restaurant" is a very big word for this tiny space. Jam-packed into an building that might have once served as a corner market, is a handful of tables, a bar that seats a half dozen souls and hundreds of random 'found' things. Saddles and surfboards hang in the rafters along with a life-sized cutout of the "world's most interesting man".  Corks, and broken pieces of glass are glued into the wall. Shelving made of roughly painted 2x4's are full of discarded Frank McCourt and Michener novels. Scrabble pieces are set out at various places- including the bathroom- and random messages greet you each time you visit.  "Sue smokes pot", "I heart iffy",  "Life is liver".   It's a whole new creative spin on graffiti.  A wetsuit hangs up high in one corner and there is an album wedged behind the bar that has photos of patrons who- no doubt with a little liquid courage-  have tried it on. The garden outside holds another half-dozen assorted tables, random flower and a centerpiece of rocks and plants topped by a pair of leather hiking boots which swing from an iron plant stand.  The proprietor, Gina, has a second establishment in Millersville called Gina's Cantina that we decided to check out. Slightly lost and uncertain and approaching via an ambiguous stretch of road- We knew we had found our way when we spotted a child's red flyer trike complete with handlebar tassels suspended over the roadway. (The food, by the way, is great at both places)

Carolina Wren

"There's a wren in a willow wood
Flies so high and sings so good
And he brings to you what he sings to you..."
Kenny Loggins

"Tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle". The male Carolina Wren sings out cheerfully in the woods. Camouflaged in cinnamon-brown feathers, he is hard to spot. Despite his plain woodland colors, his upright tail, and white-striped brow give him a cheeky, inquisitive appearance.

The Shadow of the Waxwing Slain

Cedar Waxwings in flurries, not flocks, fly back and forth between the Cherry and the Holly trees.  The Cherry is stripped of all its fall berries, but the Holly still has an abundant supply.  They take turns burying themselves in the deep green branches before returning to the Cherry Tree with a round holly berry held brightly in their beaks.  Sometimes- they pass the berry back and forth and sometimes they toss their heads back and swallow the berry whole. Each Cedar Waxwing has brilliant red markings at the edge of their wings and their tail feathers are tipped in bright yellow. Dark dramatic masks and yellow stomachs that fade upwards into rose-colored breasts are also part of their distinctive markings. They trill quietly to each other in constant conversation and shift and dart in twos or threes in orchestrated flight before taking off all together.