June 2024 Tidewater Times

In Praise of Walking: Michael Valliant

Sterling Elliott to Perform: Anna Snow

Chesapeake Film Festival

Tidewater Gardening K. Marc Teffeau

Tidewater Kitchen: Pamela Meredith

About the Cover Photographer Susan Hale

As a Realtor for 30 years I spent much of my time photographing and creating brochures of beautiful homes. In retirement the subjects of my photography have changed as I have had time to focus on the natural beauty around me. While I have photographed many places around the world, I feel that nothing beats the beauty of the Chesapeake, my own ‘back yard’ since 1998.

The Chesapeake Bay area is a magical place, from the wildlife and waterfowl to the landscapes, waterscapes and boating activity. As the seasons change, the colors change and so do the birds and waterfowl that call our Bay home. From sunrise to sunset the changes in lighting and activity have given me an endless slate for capturing on camera the wonders and beauty of our area.

I hope that my photography communicates this beauty to you. Visit me at www.chesapeakescenesphotography.com.

Gone Crabbing by

Helen Chappell

Knapp’s Narrows is almost dark and nearly silent as we putter on the deep current. My friend puts his tin horn to his lips and lets out a long blast.

The old counterweight bridge groans and chimes her warning as the massive jaw slowly rises. It’s like some kind of magic to me, a fairy tale where the dragon gets the password and opens his jaw. It’s always awesome to pass under the bridge and down the Narrows into open water.

For a time, I’m part of someone else’s reality. We’re going trotlining.

Here and there along the shorelines, lights twinkle. Other workboats are either ahead of us or just behind, but no one else is awake, except people on the graveyard shift up at the hospital, except they’re clocking out as we’re heading out.

Sometimes, at two, three in the morning, I’m just going to sleep. I am a night person. Getting up at

Gone Crabbing

three, half asleep as I get dressed and swill a half-gallon of coffee, grab my trusty reporter’s notebook. Dig up my white rubber boots and drive the deserted road down to Dogwood Cove. It’s an ungodly hour, but this is part getting the experience and part playing at being a waterman. I know I would last a week as a real waterman. A few women do this full time and do it well, but I know for sure after the first time I broke my spine lifting a basket of Ones, I’d crawl back to the desk. I’m just lucky my friend is both patient and a good mentor. Working the water is a closed world where outsiders are regarded with suspicion.

It’s going to be a stinking humid day. What else is new in summer on the Eastern Shore? Still, as the big Mercury picks up speed as we head out for open water, I feel a little chill and huddle in the cuddy, eating some Lance crackers and a half tin of Vienna sausage

Gone Crabbing

for breakfast, eating off the rising beam and watching the shore grow smaller as we head out.

I’m not sure where we’re headed. There are two bottoms out here, the Shoals and the Diamonds, but I couldn’t tell you where they are. I only know they oyster them in season. Or I think they do.

I know we’re on the tide and headed for my friend’s lay, which I am forbidden to locate. Such things as lays and oyster beds are not disclosed, because you don’t want someone else on your patch.

The sunrise is just cracking over the distant shoreline, and while my friend prepares for work,

he is confident enough to let me take the line. It’s open water and while there are other workboats out there, he knows I’m not stupid enough to run against them or drive us up on a sandbar just beneath the water.

Celebrate Summer at Lizzy Dee

Gone Crabbing

So, for a couple of minutes, I feel large and in charge and as psyched as a Romantic poet or a lady pirate. I love the feel of the waves hitting the hull and the freedom of the Bay.

Thoughtfully, my friend has provided a compound bucket for my elimination needs, which he keeps in the cabin. Guys generally can go over the side, and I’ve tried when I was younger and limber, and in a Whaler, but no more.

Most people are just getting up when we come up on my friend’s lay.

A lay is a long length of line, tied at each end with a float and a weight to keep it in one place. Hopefully a place where there are a lot of crabs. Every few feet, a shorter strong is knotted to the long line. These short lines are called snoods, and a chunk of bait is at-

Monday-Saturday 10:30-5:30

Gone Crabbing

tached to the other end of each one. Bear with me here because I’m not that good at explaining mechanical things. A roller is attached to the side of the boat, just on the edge of the washboard, and as the boat slowly moves along the line, the snood is pulled to the surface, or as near to the surface as can be, and if you’re lucky, a crab has clawed up that bait and will cling to it as you put your dipnet over and take it off.

You do this from one end of the lay to the other, then come back and do it again and again.

You flip the crabs into a basket, then your culler, if you have one, like me, sorts them by size and sex. To do this, you have a measure. A piece of flat wood with another piece nailed horizontally

to it. This is your measuring stick. It’s marked by inches and widths. First, crabs below a certain size, measured from horn to horn, get thrown back. Sponge crabs, females carrying eggs, get culled back. The rest are keepers come into three categories. The largest males are Ones, the smaller males are Twos, and the females are known as Sooks. Ones are the most desirable and get the best prices. Twos are slightly less expensive, and sooks, if kept, are said to have the least meat.

It’s very important to sort your crabs correctly, because if the DNR randomly stops you for inspection, called “pulling a tub”, you can get a ticket or a serious fine depending on what sins you have or have not committed, according to the Fish Cops. And you do not call them Fish Cops to their face.

The engine’s in low gear, the sun is now out and fierce, and you’re hanging off the stern, wishing for a cold drink and too lazy to get one from the cooler. Still, this is the magic. To be out on the water, bathing in the sun, with the smell of fish, diesel and saltwater like a perfume or something free and almost wild.

You realize days like this on the Bay, days like this are coming to an end, a whole way of life disappearing, and you cling to the memory of that bridge rising in the darkness as a moment of magic.

Helen Chappell is the creator of the Sam and Hollis mystery series and the Oysterback stories, as well as The Chesapeake Book of the Dead . Under her pen names, Rebecca Baldwin and Caroline Brooks, she has published a number of historical novels. 19

www.curlicuethestore.com

Historic St. Michaels near the water - Carefully preserved, this once modest house dating from c. 1790/1850 has been enlarged and modernized with the addition of a main level primary BR suite and a beautiful sunroom overlooking the bluestone patio and landscaped backyard. You will admire the many original features that have been retained - wood floors, 4 fireplaces, a back staircase and so much more. Close to a public landing w/ kayak launch, waterfront park and nature trail plus the many amenities of our town.. Sited on a large lot just under .25 ac. w/ off street parking, and alley access. $1,195,000.

Welcome to Sandy Lane, in Easton MD, where prime location and rst class design and construction come together. Our ten tastefully-appointed custom-built homes feature a highly e cient, low maintenance lifestyle that boasts rst oor primary bedroom suites, garages and elegant nishes throughout. Home prices starting at mid $400s.

WHY CHOOSE SANDY LANE

· In-town convenience with privacy

· Quiet cul-de-sac community

· Easy access to Rt. 50 for commute

· Walking distance to downtown

· Schools, shopping, and medical nearby

· Close to parks, trails and more!

Sugar White Sands on the Gulf Coast

by Bonna L. Nelson

Toes in sand. Is there anything better? The refreshing scent of salty water spritzed in the air from the Gulf of Mexico. Seagulls swooped overhead under an azure blue sky dotted with tiny poofs of clouds. A lighthouse stood guard. Peace on a beach.

The sugar-white sandy beaches of the Mississippi (MS) and Alabama (AL) coasts on the Gulf of Mexico are some of the most beautiful on the planet and beckon vacationers to explore and enjoy. The largest gulf in the world and the tenth largest body

of water on the planet, the Gulf of Mexico borders five U. S. states, in addition to MS and AL: Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, as well as parts of Cuba and Mexico, including the Yucatan Peninsula.

Formed 300 million years ago, the Gulf of Mexico is a 930 miles wide oval-shaped basin of the Atlantic Ocean formed as a result of tectonic plate rifts. The Gulf contains rich deposits of gas and oil. In addition to the humans inhabiting the coasts of the Gulf, it boasts over 15,000 marine species, including

Sugar White Sands

sharks, dolphins, whales, sea turtles, manatees, fish and crustaceans. Shipwrecks abound in the Gulf and its warm currents, growing warmer with climate change, feed hungry, powerful hurricanes.

Husband John and I were exploring the coasts of MS and AL as part of our travel quest to see, even put a toe in, all fifty states. Water-loving people, we were attracted to the temperate Gulf Coast with its magnificent beaches and savory seafood offerings.

We stopped in the town of Biloxi, situated in Coastal Mississippi at the northern extreme of the Gulf of Mexico, our first toes-in-the-sand site.

The magnificent beachfront of Biloxi, MS, is situated on the Mississippi Sound and Gulf of Mexico. In total, MS boasts 26 miles of white sand beaches on the Gulf. Two impressive sights in the town are the Visitors Center and the Lighthouse.

The visually stunning Biloxi Visitors Center, fronted with verandas and columns, sits just across the street from the lighthouse and

provides a panoramic view of the beckoning beach. The structure incorporates the city’s historic architectural features with modern exhibits and technology. The center includes an art gallery, memorabilia and historic and multimedia exhibits that tell the story of Biloxi. Visitor amenities, a theatre, a gift shop and an extensive offering of information about the city and state, are available along with charming staff to answer questions.

Surprising but true, the painted white cast iron 64-foot-tall Biloxi Lighthouse was built in Baltimore, Maryland, and shipped south, where it was completed on site in 1848! The structure has become a symbol of resolve and strength in the face of challenges, including surviving multiple hurricanes, most recently receiving considerable damage from Hurricane Katrina. Since renovations, tourists can climb the 57 steps to the top.

According to Biloxi Lighthouse literature, “It is a guiding light for those at sea, and an enduring symbol of hope and resilience for those on

Sugar White Sands

land. It is our Biloxi Lighthouse. Our signature landmark.”

In 1904, Biloxi was crowned the Seafood Capital of the World, and the MS Gulf Coast is responsible for producing about 70% of the nation’s oysters and shrimp. We had to sample some Gulf Coast delicacies and decide for ourselves if the title was still warranted.

Lunch at Half Shell Oyster House on Beach Boulevard, Biloxi, one of their three restaurants in MS, confirmed for us that the title is still valid. We were delighted with delicately fried oysters with a spicy cocktail sauce, light and airy sweet potato mousse and crispy jalapenoflavored hush puppies, washed down with local brews.

Sugar White Sands

Dating from 1699, Biloxi also offers walking tours of its historic downtown as well as restaurants, breweries, nature centers, galleries and museums. The beach is the big draw, with plenty of resorts to accommodate visitors and fishing, water sports and casinos if that is of interest.

Our coastal tour continued with a beautiful drive along the Alabama Gulf Coast ending with a planned layover at Orange Beach, which was named after the numerous citrus and orange groves dotting the landscape in the early 1900s. The Alabama Coast boasts more than 32 miles of beaches to explore. The beach sand is made of quartz that came from the Appalachian Mountains thousands of years ago and has since filtered down to create the sugar white beaches we enjoy today.

On that sunny 80-degree day, we

spotted a wide variety of shorebirds on our meandering coastal drive with stops at inlets and lagoons, including egrets, gannets, gulls, herons, osprey, terns and white and brown pelicans. As on the Mississippi coast, the Alabama coastal waters are home to many species of whale and dolphin as well as manatees.

Coastline freshwater bodies contain an abundance of fish, mussels, snails and turtles.

At our next stop, the staff at the Orange Beach Welcome Center offered warm southern hospitality. They handed us a tote bag already filled with maps, brochures and guides about the Alabama Gulf Coast and especially the towns of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. Included in our welcome package were tips on dining, sites and accommodations. We had already booked our room, so we headed there next.

Our attractive, clean, comfortable, pleasant and quiet Sleep Inn

Grace and Grandeur! Welcome to the iconic Albanus Phillips house (c 1913) designed by renowned NY architect William Van Allen, architect of the famed NY Chrysler building. Steeped in history and tradition, this Queen Anne style house with Colonial Revival influences has enjoyed a storied past as a private residence and former B & B. Boasting extraordinary craftsmanship and millwork, a grand foyer, 10 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, drawing room and gallery, 6 fireplaces, large kitchen.

Sugar White Sands

on the Beach was located directly on Orange Beach as its name implies. The views from our balcony afforded us an outstanding vista of the sparkling, turquoise-hued Gulf fronted by pristine sands. We threw our luggage in the room, slipped into beachwear and headed down for more toes in the pearly white sand experiences.

Orange Beach is an idyllic getaway, with its ideal coastal climate and endless attractions, southern hospitality, beach and seafood. The hidden gem, a true paradise, offers museums, art galleries, nature centers, eateries, entertainment, events, gardens, historic sites, shop -

ping, trails and a variety of accommodations amidst the beauty of its natural setting. Water activities include canoeing, fishing, kayaking, paddleboarding and cruise/excursion tours. Land activities include beaching, biking, hiking, touring, walking and ziplining. My favorite activities included lounging, reading and snoozing.

8.037 Wooded acres just west of St. Michaels, MD with an approved perc site. Great opportunity to build your home in a private location with easy access to all the amenities of the Bay Hundred area of Talbot County, MD. $200,000

Snow White Sands

The terrific beachfront location at our Sleep Inn was enhanced by two pools, beach towels, lounge chairs, umbrellas and dining tables and chairs. We splashed around in the pools and Gulf, strolled along the edge of the sea and beachcombed. Always a bonus when staying at hotels, Sleep Inn provided a free bountiful breakfast.

When visiting Orange Beach, a trek to the wharf complex, located a bit inland on the Intracoastal Waterway, 20 minutes from our hotel, is pure pleasure. An adventure destination, the wharf encompasses a marina, accommodations, boutiques and restaurants as well as nightly entertainment and a laser light show in its amphitheater. Fishing and cruising experiences can be arranged at the marina. It also boasts a Ferris Wheel, which stands 112 feet tall.

After browsing in some shops and admiring some sleek, shiny boats in the marina, we were famished. We savored fresh mussels in a spicy butter broth and local beers on an outdoor patio while watching vessels traverse the waterway in and out. A soft breeze kept us cool and comfortable.

Another highlight of the visit to Orange Beach was a stop at the Orange Beach History Museum, formerly the Indian and Sea Museum. A treasure trove, the museum offers exhibits and displays covering local history, Native American culture, regional fishing, marine history, photos, memorabilia and artifacts. Established in 1995 for the preservation of the town’s heritage, the building that houses the museum is a schoolhouse that was built in 1910.

Located in the highly sought-after Easton Village, this 3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom residence, constructed in 2019, offers a perfect blend of comfort and modern convenience. Hardwood floors run throughout most of the home, complemented by crown molding and chair rail accents. The open floor plan creates an inviting atmosphere, ideal for both entertaining and daily living. The living room features a fireplace. Adjacent, a well-designed kitchen boasts stainless steel appliances and island. The upper-level has a primary suite with a generously sized bedroom, large bathroom with tile shower, and a walk-in closet, and two additional bedrooms with full bathroom and laundry room. The large privacy fenced side yard offers plenty of space for outdoor activities and gardening. Above the garage, a bonus finished room includes a full bathroom and bar counter with sink, all equipped with HVAC for year-round comfort and versatility. Conveniently located minutes from downtown Easton and a short drive to St. Michaels, Community amenities such as a pool, clubhouse, walking trails, and water access to the scenic Tred Avon River provide additional enjoyment close to home.

Nestled in the highly sought-after Cookes Hope community, this waterfront retreat built by Willow Construction redefines upscale living. The main house, featuring 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, includes a desirable main-level primary suite with a custom walk-in closet, double vanity, soaking tub, and tiled steam shower-all with enchanting water views. The welcoming den, adorned with a gas fireplace, serves as a perfect escape or home office space. The birds-eye lookout loft room bathes in ambient light, and the kitchen boasts a breakfast bar, warming drawer, and beverage refrigerator. Enjoy hosting gatherings on the screened-in porch or waterside deck with a natural gas hook-up for grilling. A detached guest apartment, complete with 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom, provides additional flexibility and comfort. Additional amenities include a detached 2-car garage, built-in bookcases, cathedral and vaulted ceilings, and a covered front porch. Situated on 1.9+/- acre

and also includes a 2024 slip rental at the community pier.

| $1,495,000 | www.6780CookesHopeRoad.com

2013 42 Sabre Salon Express

Now over 100 years old, it is the only original schoolhouse structure still standing in the area.

Families of early fi shermen have donated nautical pieces, supplies and collectibles representing the early days of the area’s fi shing industry. Many Native American artifacts are also on display, collected from the region. John and I were fascinated with the small but powerful museum collection.

On our last night, we sipped our favorite and extremely popular Gulf Shores cocktails, for me a Lime Mojito, for John a Rum Punch, while watching a brilliant orange sunset. We wondered if Orange Beach might have also been named for its brilliant burnt orange sunsets.

Waves lapping, sand between our toes, breezy, salty air, pelicans soaring overhead, fresh shrimp and oysters—our senses were tantalized on our trip along a small slice of the Gulf of Mexico coast. We hope to return to experience once again the sights, sounds, scents and tastes of the Mississippi and Alabama’s Gulf Coasts.

Sources for this travel story include welcome center publications, Gulf tourism websites, nature websites and Wikipedia.

Bonna L. Nelson is a

TIDE TABLE

OXFORD, MD JUNE 2024

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SHARP’S IS. LIGHT: 46 minutes before Oxford

TILGHMAN: Dogwood Harbor same as Oxford

EASTON POINT: 5 minutes after Oxford

CAMBRIDGE: 10 minutes after Oxford

CLAIBORNE: 25 minutes after Oxford

ST. MICHAELS MILES R.: 47 min. after Oxford

WYE LANDING: 1 hr. after Oxford

ANNAPOLIS: 1 hr., 29 min. after Oxford

KENT NARROWS: 1 hr., 29 min. after Oxford

CENTREVILLE LANDING: 2 hrs. after Oxford

CHESTERTOWN: 3 hrs., 44 min. after Oxford

3 month tides at www.tidewatertimes.com 11:42 12:39 1:37 2:31 3:22 4:11 4:58 5:45 6:32 7:18 8:05 8:51 9:35 10:19 11:02 12:18 1:08 1:52 2:32 3:10 3:49 4:31 5:15 6:02 6:51 7:41 8:31 9:22 10:15 11:09

AQUA Pools & Spas:

50 Years of Poolin’ the Shore

by Tracey F. Johns

Imagine being in a business that quite literally brings fun and relaxation to the backyards and outdoor spaces of people across Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Delaware beaches. Now, imagine keeping that pool and spa business moving with trends and technology to arrive here today 50 years later, stronger and more focused than ever.

That’s AQUA Pools & Spa of Easton, with a long-time reputation as a trusted name in pool and

outdoor living solutions. Today, their Easton showroom features Hot Spring hot tubs, Primo ceramic grills, Traeger grills, Breeo fi re pits and a vast selection of Yeti products. You’ll also fi nd lots of pool accoutrements, including a full selection of swimming pool toys, games, floats, umbrellas and more.

As a “come here” to Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Talbot County since 1995, I began to know AQUA Pools & Spas during its humble

beginnings. My then two-year-old was taking swimming lessons while attending Manor Discover Center in AQUA’s demonstration pool at

an earlier, much smaller location. At that time, I had also met Danny Bridges—as most locals I know call him—while he was working in cable advertising out of an office in Talbottown.

I vividly recall how genuinely kind and “Eastern Shore-y” Danny was. And those are two traits that still ring true for him and Kristi— both “from heres”—along with their now-grown children, their staff and their network of close friends today.

“The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a special, idyllic place to live,” says Dan Bridges. “We’ve aimed to create a place to work and a product line that complements that lifestyle.”

Founded

by W. Donald Wood, Sr.

Oxford Waterfront – Well maintained 4BR/2.5BA home sited on 2+ private acres on Boone Creek. Attached garage as well as detached garage with 1BR/1BA apartment above. Waterside pool, private pier w/lift. This is a hidden gem. Listed for $1,500,000.

St. Michaels – Rio Vista Community with Water Access. This 4BR/3BA home has been well maintained with encapsulated crawlspace, granite & stainless steel, fresh paint, new carpet, etc. Community pier, waterfront park and no town taxes. Listed for $495,000.

and David Kibler in ’74, Aqua Pools began its journey as a modest venture and has since evolved through waves of growth and right-sizing to emerge serving generations of outdoor lovers. Over the years, ownership changed hands, with the Bryan Brothers taking the helm in the early ’80s, followed by Michael Whalen in the ’90s.

In 1998, Aqua found its current guardians in Kristi and Dan Bridges. Now, the company has a not-to-miss bright orange and blue headquarters building and a large demonstration pool on the corner of Mistletoe and Glebe Road in Easton that looks even more im-

pressive when the lights come on at dusk. The company has 45 employees and a fleet of trucks that can be seen throughout the year and on the roads servicing pools and spas or in the process of building them.

When asked about plans for any growth or future changes, AQUA President Danny Morris—who’s been with AQUA since ’92—says he’d like to keep operations running at the current pace of “smooth.”

Morris says AQUA’s longevity isn’t just about selling pools; it is about building relationships and enriching lives. “We’ve been poolin’ the shore since ’74,” Morris remarks, repeating the company’s long-standing tagline with a warm, genuine smile. “It’s not just about

NEW LISTING!

429 S. Washington St., Easton

Rare find! 5 bedroom, 3 bath well built Cape with over 3,000 sq. ft. of living space. Nestled on almost one half acre corner lot with an attached apartment which could also be used as an owner’s suite if you did not want the extra income. $679,900

7121 Station Rd.

Perfect location just minutes to St. Michaels or Easton on 2 acres Zoned VH. Consisting of 3 bedrooms each with an attached bath, 4th bedroom or den, attached 2 car garage and huge screened porch. Public landing less than a mile away which connects you to the Miles River or to explore the Tred Avon River. Close to Bellevue landing. $549,875

UNDER CONTRACT!

805 N. Washington St., Easton

Spectacularly renovated Craftsman home, originally built in the 1920’s. Yesterday’s charm with today’s modern conveniences having 3 ample bedrooms, 2 full baths and plenty of room to add a pool or an outbuilding on this .74 of an acre property zoned R-7 in the town of Easton. The final touches are being completed for it to be move-in ready for your family to make new memories in! $499,900

pools and hot tubs; it’s about having fun and being a part of our community.”

The community has been at the heart of Aqua’s culture from the beginning. Whether it’s supporting charity events, sponsoring local initiatives, or simply being a neighbor -

ly presence, AQUA has dedication to giving back.

“We’ve done charity duck races, frog races, golf tournaments—you name it,” Morris explained. “It’s about being there for our community.”

AQUA’s commitment to its employees is equally noteworthy. With a team that feels more like family, AQUA has provided stable employ-

CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024

Ebenezer Theater, Easton, Maryland

This six-concert series features renowned artists and Rising Stars performing works from Haydn and Mozart to Schubert, Brahms, Elgar and Reena Esmail.

For further details, and to purchase tickets, please visit ChesapeakeMusic.org

ment and opportunities for growth.

As it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, AQUA invites the community to join in their open house festivities beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 27 at their headquarters.

AQUA’s anniversary open house will include plenty of eats and treats, so plan on sticking around for barbecue and more served hot off the grill, along with treats from Kona Ice to cool you down. The event promises to be a day of fun and celebration with a live radio remote, amazing giveaways and door prizes and a grand prize of a hot tub

for one lucky raffle ticket holder.

AQUA is also a must on your list of shopping stops in Easton any day of the year, especially if you are a lover of outdoor fun in or around the water. (I’ve heard an insider’s tip that barbecue samples are often cooking up in good weather for shoppers on Saturdays.)

As Morris aptly puts it, “If you’re looking for fun, come see us. That’s what we’re selling.” And after 50 years of poolin’ the shore, AQUA shows no signs of slowing down.

For AQUA, the journey is not just about pools; it’s about creating waves of joy and relaxation in the outdoors of people’s homes and on the water throughout Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the Delaware beaches.

AQUA Pools & Spas

Monday - Friday: 9 am to 5 pm Saturday: 9 am to 1 pm 8801 Mistletoe Drive, Easton 410-822-7000 info@aqua74.com www.aqua74.com

Tracey Johns has worked in communications, marketing and business management for more than 30 years, including non-profit leadership. Tracey’s work is focused on public and constituent relations, along with communication strategies, positioning and brand development and project management.

In Praise of Walking by

Michael Valliant

I don’t know if I will ever walk the Camino de Santiago. It’s an aspiration, a hope among some of our seminary classmates to walk that storied route as a pilgrimage after we are ordained. I’ve seen pictures, watched films, read some books; I don’t know if I will get there or not, but I know something about pilgrimage. And it’s something I try to bring to everyday walks—from grabbing lunch, to morning or evening strolls, to walking somewhere new.

The Camino de Santiago, also known as “The Way of St. James,” is a network of paths or ways that lead to the shrine of St. James in the Cathedral de Compostela in Galicia, which is in northwest Spain. Routes come from Spain, France or Portugal, and people travel from around the world to walk or bike all or part of the trail, both for health reasons and as spiritual seekers. There are different accommodations for groups of pilgrims along the way. I

In Praise of Walking

only learned of the Camino a couple years ago and have become fascinated with it.

Whether I get there or not, the practice of walking, for health, enjoyment and as a spiritual discipline, is something that has meant more and more to me over the years. The small towns and rural character of the Eastern Shore make this a perfect place to walk intentionally.

Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard got it right when he wrote, “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of wellbeing and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one

In Praise of Walking

cannot walk away from it.”

Walking myself into a state of well-being and walking myself into my best thoughts are experiences I have had, and I wish I described them that well. I have gone on walks to observe what’s going on around me; I have walked to clear my head; I have walked to get somewhere; and I have walked to relax.

A walk at lunch breaks the day up perfectly. On days that I don’t bring lunch from home and make it a point to walk to pick up lunch, it makes the day even better. I have worked in St. Michaels, Oxford, and Easton and have found favorite lunch walk destinations in each town.

St. Michaels, walking from the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to the Village Shoppe (known by locals at that time as Lighty’s) gave me

In Praise of Walking

side streets of beautiful houses to marvel at, took me over Honeymoon Bridge and through Muskrat Park, behind Christ Church St. Michaels and by the St. Michaels Museum. If my brain was taxed from the morning or the day was going askew, noticing something new, focusing on something I hadn’t seen before while stretching my legs was a perfect reset button.

In Oxford, my lunch walk was from the Oxford Community Center to the Oxford Market. Houses in both St. Michaels and Oxford have inviting front porches, which always pull my attention. Walkable towns with front porches for conversation create an inviting atmosphere, even at midday if there aren’t people sitting on them.

My lunch walks in Easton go from Christ Church to The Ivy Café, which takes me by businesses, people out shopping and the shade of Thompson Park. I almost always pass by someone I know, I look for what is

in bloom, what is being fixed up, for people who are clearly new to town and trying to make their way around. And The Ivy is its own destination for conversation, smiles and a perfect lunch.

Walking is not just for lunch. People in small towns all across the Shore have moved close to downtown areas in order to make their lives as walkable as possible. Walking to the Farmer’s Markets in Chestertown, Easton or St. Michaels. Walking after dinner to breathe in the cool of the evening. I can spot friends walking to and from work.

Frederic Gros, in his book, “A Philosophy of Walking,” talks about how walking intentionally slows us down and what that can do for us.

“Slowness means cleaving perfectly to time, so closely that the seconds fall one by one, drop by drop like the steady dripping of a tap on stone. This stretching of time deepens space. It is one of the secrets of walking: a slow approach to landscapes that gradually renders them familiar. Like the regular encounters

In Praise of Walking

that deepen friendship.”

We live in a world that tries to speed things up to the point where we are out of touch and out of time. A friend who painted houses in Oxford used to ride his bike every morning from his house in Trappe, some 12 miles away. When asked why he didn’t drive he said he felt out of touch when he drove—he got to work too quickly and didn’t feel ready to start his day. When he rode his bike, he meditated, he took in the sights, smelled the smells and listened to life going on as he rode by. Walking provides that same experience.

Towns are picking up on that. Easton has anchored its Easton Point waterfront with a new park, wooden bridge and wooded walking trail. The town’s Rails-to-Trails is in constant use for both health and transportation. The Oxford Conservation Park is full of dog walkers from sunrise to sunset. The St. Michaels walking trail provides a quiet and scenic way across town without the worry of cars and people shopping.

That’s not taking into account all the state parks we have access to across the Eastern Shore.

Back to the idea of walking as pilgrimage—not needing to travel abroad to a storied destination, but anywhere you start putting one foot in front of the other.

“When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings,” Gros writes. “Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of ol-

ive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze.”

Walking as transformative; walking to better understand who I am; walking as becoming; to think new thoughts, to see something I haven’t seen before and to arrive where I am going, changed.

Michael Valliant is the Assistant for Adult Education and Newcomers Ministry at Christ Church Easton. He has worked for non-profit organizations throughout Talbot County, including the Oxford Community Center, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and Academy Art Museum.

Virtuoso Cellist Sterling Elliott to Perform at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival

by Anna Snow

“Perfect intonation, style and total involvement.”

“His discernible love for the music won over the audience.”

Praised for his musicality, sensitivity, dexterity and performing ease by audiences and critics alike, the 25-year-old American cellist Sterling Elliott will be featured in three concerts at the 2024 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival held at the beautiful Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland. A child

prodigy, Elliott began playing the cello at the age of three. He made his orchestral concerto debut at the age of seven and has since received numerous prestigious awards and performed with the world’s leading symphony orchestras. A graduate of The Juilliard School in New York City, he currently is pursuing an Artist Diploma at Juilliard under the direction of renowned cellists Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. Chesapeake Music audience members will remember Sterling Elliott’s exciting recital with pianist Elliot Wuu in 2022. The two musicians will be reunited at this year’s Festival performing Claude Debussy’s famous Rêverie in an arrangement for cello and piano (Saturday, June 15). Elliott will also perform Brahms’s beautiful and majestic first piano trio (with Sahun Sam Hong and Max Tan on Thursday, June 13). He will take the demanding, virtuosic first cello part in Luigi Boccherini’s String Quintet in A Major (with Catherine Cho, Max Tan, Daniel Phillips and

Chamber Music

Marcy Rosen on Friday, June 14).

The last opportunity to enjoy Elliott’s stellar stage presence and joyous musicianship will be at the Festival Finale on Saturday, June 15, where, in addition to Debussy’s Rêverie, he will perform Arthur Foote’s A Night Piece and Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet (with Tara Helen O’Connor, Daniel Phillips, Max Tan and Catherine Cho).

Asked what he envisioned his future as a classical musician to be, Elliott replied: “My goal as an artist has always been to simply share my passion with audiences across the globe. However, as my career develops and I can expand further

on the idea of my role as an artist in society, I would like my ultimate goal in music to be focused on furthering music’s reach in all communities.” To that end, he takes seriously his standing in the classical music world as a Black role model.

“Along with performing in concert halls, I frequent smaller communities and educational settings in which my position as a role model and an inspiring figure becomes clearly evident to other people of color. It brings me great satisfaction to be at a point in my career where I have the freedom to open up my agenda to several artistic engagements in under-resourced communities which might have a little budget for public music edu-

He o Summer!

C LEANING S ERVICE

Chamber Music

cation, let alone a traveling guest artist.” In recognition of this commitment and of his astounding success as a classical musician, in March 2024 Sterling was awarded the highly coveted Sphinx Medal of Excellence and a $50,000 career grant, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization—a non-profit dedicated to the development of young Black and Latino classical musicians. The award was presented in recognition of Sterling’s artistic excellence, his outstanding work ethic, and his ongoing commitment to leadership and his community.

And when he is back home, he loves working on and building cars. “That’s what I love to do—be in the garage, all day.” In Easton, his love for his art, his total involvement with his music, will win over the audience.

For program information and to purchase tickets, visit chesapeakemusic.org/festival/.

Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival Schedule

June 7-15, 2024

Friday, June 7 – 7:30 p.m. Opening Extravaganza!

Saturday, June 8 – 7:30 p.m. Personal Perspectives

Sunday, June 9 – 5:30 p.m. Fabulous Fantasy

Thursday, June 13 – 7:30 p.m. Masterminds

Friday, June 14 – 7:30 p.m. Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition and More

Saturday, June 15 – 7:30 p.m. Finale

Sponsors of this year’s Festival include the Maryland State Arts Council, Paul and Joanne Prager, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation and private benefactors.

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Caroline County – A Perspective

Caroline County is the very definition of a rural community. For more than 300 years, the county’s economy has been based on “market” agriculture.

Caroline County was created in 1773 from Dorchester and Queen Anne’s counties. The county was named for Lady Caroline Eden, the wife of Maryland’s last colonial governor, Robert Eden (1741-1784).

Denton, the county seat, was situated on a point between two ferry boat landings. Much of the business district in Denton was wiped out by the fire of 1863.

Following the Civil War, Denton’s location about fifty miles up the Choptank River from the Chesapeake Bay enabled it to become an important shipping point for agricultural products. Denton became a regular port-ofcall for Baltimore-based steamer lines in the latter half of the 19th century.

Preston was the site of three Underground Railroad stations during the 1840s and 1850s. One of those stations was operated by Harriet Tubman’s parents, Benjamin and Harriet Ross. When Tubman’s parents were exposed by a traitor, she smuggled them to safety in Wilmington, Delaware.

Linchester Mill, just east of Preston, can be traced back to 1681, and possibly as early as 1670. The mill is the last of 26 water-powered mills to operate in Caroline County and is currently being restored. The long-term goals include rebuilding the millpond, rehabilitating the mill equipment, restoring the miller’s dwelling, and opening the historic mill on a scheduled basis.

Federalsburg is located on Marshyhope Creek in the southern-most part of Caroline County. Agriculture is still a major portion of the industry in the area; however, Federalsburg is rapidly being discovered and there is a noticeable influx of people, expansion and development. Ridgely has found a niche as the “Strawberry Capital of the World.” The present streetscape, lined with stately Victorian homes, reflects the transient prosperity during the countywide canning boom (1895-1919). Hanover Foods, formerly an enterprise of Saulsbury Bros. Inc., for more than 100 years, is the last of more than 250 food processors that once operated in the Caroline County region.

Points of interest in Caroline County include the Museum of Rural Life in Denton, Adkins Arboretum near Ridgely, and the Mason-Dixon Crown Stone in Marydel. To contact the Caroline County Office of Tourism, call 410-479-0655 or visit their website at www.tourcaroline.com .

Chesapeake Film Festival: Celebrating Independent Cinema in Historic

Easton and Chestertown

The Chesapeake Film Festival invites you to the picturesque towns of Easton and Chestertown for an unforgettable celebration of independent cinema. Hosted at the iconic theaters of the Garfield Center on September 12 and the Ebenezer Theater from September 27 to 29, this year’s festival offers an unparalleled experience for film enthusiasts and industry professionals alike.

Immerse yourself in a cinematic journey with over 35 carefully curated films showcasing the best in independent filmmaking. Screenings commence at noon on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the historic Ebenezer Theater, promising a diverse array of stories, genres and perspectives.

Early birds get the best of the fest! Secure your exclusive VIP tickets now at chesapeakefilmfestival.com and enjoy three days of live events in Easton and one day in Chestertown. Four days packed with the finest independent films, engaging panel discussions, speakers, workshops and networking opportunities. As a VIP ticket holder, you gain access to all festival events, including the prestigious

VIP Reception catered by Bluepoint Hospitality.

On Thursday, Aug 15 join us for a special screening at the Academy Art Museum. This free preview event features the film WYETH about the life and work of artist Andrew Wyeth—and includes Q & A via Zoom with the director, Glenn Holsten, following the screening. WYETH is a documentary film telling the story of one of

Chesapeake Film Festival

America’s most popular but least understood artists. This event is free to the public. Join us to learn more about what will be happening during the three-day festival in September. Light refreshments will be served. Reserve your seat today at academyartmuseum.org/ wyeth-a-documentary-film/

The 17th annual Chesapeake Film Festival comes to Chestertown, MD, on Sept. 12 with an amazing lineup of environmental short films. The mini festival in Chestertown heralds the grand, three-day celebration of independent filmmaking at CFF 2024 in Easton September 27-29.

The theme of the Chestertown Festival, Fragile Rivers/Fertile Land , pays homage to the abundant waterways and farmland that grace the Mid-Atlantic region. The six films show how humans, who have threatened these treasures in the past, are working to restore our rivers and minimize agricultural runoff. The one-day Chestertown Festival includes two programming blocks, 4–6 p.m. and 7–9 p.m., in the historic Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre. Each block includes three short films and discussions with the filmmakers and environmentalists. Acclaimed Chesapeake Photographer Dave Harp, who directed four of the films, will be among the speak-

ers. Annie Richards, the Chester Riverkeeper for ShoreRivers, will introduce the evening program and talk about what ShoreRivers is doing to protect and restore the rivers of the Eastern Shore. The afternoon program features the films Nassawango Legacy, Search for the Cooper and A River Called Home. The evening program features the films A Voice for the Rivers, Pop’s Old Place and Red Creek Sessions. Tickets to these events can be purchased at the door.

The 17th Annual Chesapeake Film Festival culminates in Easton at the historic Ebenezer Theater Sept. 27–29 with a celebration of the very best in independent

films, including Call Me Dancer, Chesapeake Rhythms, Diary of an Elephant Orphan, Racing Rivals: Log Canoes of the Chesapeake Bay, Losing Blue, The Last Epic Ride, Dear Josephine, The Genius of Gianni Versace, WYETH, Truth Tellers, Get on the Bus, In the Whale and many more. Network with some of the highest profile independent producers and directors in the field. For early bird tickets information, visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com . Tickets online or at the door.

One of the highlights of the festival this year is The Art of Storytelling panel discussion and workshop, on Sunday, September

29 at 10:30 a.m. featuring a lineup of esteemed filmmakers to delve into the art and craft of storytelling in independent cinema. Panelists include:

Leslie Shampaine, director of the captivating Opening Film Call Me Dancer

Rebekah Louisa Smith, renowned as The Film Festival Doctor will address the art of distribution

Vincent De Paul, two-time Emmy Winner and director of The Genius of Gianni Versace

Theodore Adams, III, producer and screenwriter of acclaimed screenplays like ShineBox and Breathe

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Chesapeake Film Festival

Monda Raquel Webb, director and producer of the powerful Zoo and Mother Knows Best

Moderated by producer/director Kimberly Skyrme and director Harold Jackson, III

FESTIVAL KEY DATES

• August 15, Free Preview Event, WYETH documentary screening – August 15, Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD—6–7:30 p.m.

• September 12, Environmental films at the Garfield Center in Chestertown—4–9 p.m.

• September 27, Opening Day Film – Call Me Dancer at 12 Noon. 5:30 p.m.—VIP Reception, Ebenezer Theater, Easton, catered by Bluepoint Hospitality—7:30 p.m. Environmental Films

• September 28 & 29—Full days/ nights of 35 carefully curated independent films beginning at noon

• September 29, The Art of Storytelling Panel & Workshop— Talbot County Free Library at 10:30 a.m.

Get your early bird tickets today! Don’t miss out on this extraordinary cinematic experience! Early Bird Tickets are available until July 15, exclusively at chesapeakefilmfestival.com . Join us as we celebrate the magic of storytelling and the power of independent cinema in Easton and Chestertown. Chestertown tickets available at the Garfield Center box office.

About the Chesapeake Film Festival: Founded in 2008, it is the mission of the Chesapeake Film Festival to entertain, empower, educate and inspire diverse audiences of all ages by presenting exceptional independent films and events. We offer outstanding filmmakers, experienced and emerging, as well as a forum to showcase and discuss stories of compelling interest to our local and global community. Because of our location on the Chesapeake Bay and our diverse population, we prioritize films that focus on environmental justice, student initiatives, underrepresented voices, and social justice issues. The festival also strives to be an economic engine for the Eastern Shore by inviting visitors to experience exceptional films, world-famous seafood, art, and the beauty of our waterways.

Easton

Map and History

The County Seat of Talbot County. Established around early religious settlements and a court of law, Historic Downtown Easton is today a centerpiece of fine specialty shops, business and cultural activities, unique restaurants, and architectural fascination. Treelined streets are graced with various period structures and remarkable homes, carefully preserved or restored. Because of its historical significance, historic Easton has earned distinction as the “Colonial Capitol of the Eastern Shore” and was honored as number eight in the book “The 100 Best Small Towns in America.” With a population of over 16,500, Easton offers the best of many worlds including access to large metropolitan areas like Baltimore, Annapolis, Washington, and Wilmington. For a walking tour and more history visit https:// tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/easton-maryland/.

Dorchester Map and History

Dorchester County is known as the Heart of the Chesapeake. It is rich in Chesapeake Bay history, folklore and tradition. With 1,700 miles of shoreline (more than any other Maryland county), marshlands, working boats, quaint waterfront towns and villages among fertile farm fields – much still exists of what is the authentic Eastern Shore landscape and traditional way of life along the Chesapeake.

For more information about Dorchester County visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/dorchester/.

TIDEWATER GARDENING

by K. Marc Teffeau, Ph.D.

Summer Gardening

June has arrived, and it is an active and productive month for gardeners. Warmer days, nights, and longer days—at least until June 21—all encourage excellent plant growth. There is lots to do in the landscape and in the vegetable and fruit gardens.

In the vegetable garden, cool-

season crops like broccoli have finished up their production. Pull out the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants after harvesting and plant some warm-season crops like string beans, cucumbers, and squash. If you have had a problem with cabbage looper caterpillars in the broccoli, do not compost the

Tidewater Gardening

plants but put them in the trash instead. Make succession plantings of green beans every two to three weeks through August 1 to provide a regular supply.

Trim up your tomato plants to keep them healthy by removing any suckers that sprout from the base

We make construction work and renovations

or lower leaf axils. This will help direct energy toward fruit production. The first leaves on the tomato plants are the oldest and are less efficient in energy production. Removing the leaves also helps control early blight disease that might have appeared on the leaves. Wellfertilized tomatoes produce a lot of excess foliage, so selective removal of excess branches and foliage will also encourage good airflow in the leaves, which helps reduce disease problems.

If you have an asparagus bed, stop cutting the asparagus in midto late June when the spears become thin. After the last cutting, fertilize by broadcasting a 10-1010 formula at 2 pounds per 100 square feet. Allow the tops to grow during the summer to store food in the roots for the crop next spring. Set young melons and cantaloupes atop tin cans or flat rocks—they’ll

Tidewater Gardening

ripen faster, be sweeter and have less insect damage than those left on the ground.

Yellow crook-neck squash tastes best when it is 4–7 inches long. Harvest when pale yellow (rather than golden) and before skin hardens. It is important not to let green and yellow squash get too large. Letting them grow to the size of baseball bats will result in less overall squash production per plant. In your sweet corn patch, the plants need water at two crucial times: when the tassels at the top are beginning to show and when the silk is beginning to show on the ear. If we have a dry spell, you must water the corn.

Actively growing vegetable plants requires adequate feeding. The key is to not overdo fertilizing. Depending on the type of vegetable, some need more nitro -

gen, while others, like root crops, require more phosphorus and potassium. You can use a standard 10-10-10 or 5-10-10 fertilizer. I prefer slow-release organic-based fertilizers, and they do not result in rapid foliage growth. Many different slow-release fertilizers are available at the garden centers. You can also use mature compost or aged manure to side-dress your plants for added nutrients.

With the warm weather comes insect pests in the vegetable garden. Look for aphids, asparagus beetles, cabbage worms, cutworms, tomato hornworms, scales, snails, slugs, leaf spots, mildew and rust.

Weed control in June is significant in the vegetable garden and landscape. It is possible even if you still need to mulch your plants. Clean up the bed first of existing weeds. If weed plants are mature, weed your garden early in the morning when moisture is present to prevent the seed heads from shattering and dropping weed seeds in the garden. Hold as much of the seed heads in your hand, and do not shake off extra soil as it may scatter weed seeds.

If you use a hoe for weeding, be sure not to cultivate too deeply around shallow-rooted plants. This is a good place to use a swan scuffle or rocker hoe, as this tool does not penetrate the soil deeply. Azaleas and boxwood are two shrubs especially vulnerable to careless cul-

Tidewater Gardening

tivation. Do not mulch too deeply. Two inches is adequate. Overmulching is one of the main causes of plant death in the landscape. With woody ornamentals, there are some shrub and tree pruning jobs that you can do in June. Pruning now involves cutting back the rampant growth that many trees and shrubs made during the spring season. You can head back and thin overly vigorous shrubs to the desired size. Cuts on trees and shrubs made at this time will heal quickly. Do not cover the pruning wounds with pruning paint. This is no longer a recommended practice. While at it, remove the old seed

heads of lilacs and rhododendrons by hand. Do this now to increase growth and the development of flower buds for next year; you want the plant’s energy to go into maintaining the plant and not producing seeds. As I have reminded you, pruning on spring flowering shrubs should be done now because if you prune in late August, you will prune out the flowering wood and buds for next year. Trim wisteria after it finishes.

Remember your houseplants! You can move houseplants outside to the deck or patio and enjoy them outdoors for the summer. It is best to gradually introduce them to more direct sunlight to prevent the leaves from being burned. Feed

houseplants with good quality indoor plant food either in liquid form or as one of the CRFs (controlled release fertilizers) available at the garden center and retail stores. Pinch and shape them as they grow to produce lovely, symmetrical, full plants to bring back into the house next fall. Be sure to keep the insects under control so you don’t bring them into the house in fall with the houseplants.

This is also a great time to repot root-bound houseplants in a larger pot if needed. Use a potting mix specifically formulated for houseplants when you do the repotting. Along with putting your houseplants on the deck, look for plants that can add color to the patio and

deck. Hibiscus, Jasmine, Oleander, and Mandevilla are just some flowering tropical plants you can add to provide color.

During June, homeowners may notice odd growths in tree leaves. When I was the Extension Agent for Talbot County, I received many calls and samples about odd structures that homeowners found in their trees. Many home gardeners have discovered lumpy protrusions or galls on certain trees and shrubs’ branches, twigs and leaves. Most of these galls result from the activity of tiny insects and mites that “sting” the branch, twig or leaf surface. The insect’s sting is actually depositing eggs in the plant leaf tissue. The galls that form

Tidewater Gardening

safely house the developing insects or mites as they feed on the host plants.

The gall formation process is only partially understood. Still, the egg or the stinging process applies an enzyme to which the plant cells react. The size and shape of the gall are characteristic of the insect species that produce it. Galls vary in appearance from small, pimple-like projects on leaves to relatively large, inflated swelling such as the familiar golf ball-size “apple” sometimes seen on oak trees. Several types of insects are responsible for galls on garden plants. For example, tiny wasps cause most oak galls. Aphids produce spruce galls. The dogwood club-gall is formed by a small fly. A mite causes maple bladder gall, which frequently affects certain species of maples.

There is still time to plant annuals into the landscape. They will need more attention now that the hot weather is here. Many of us whose homes are not in the woods or shaded by big trees have those dry, hot locations in our yards where the annuals we plant seem to suffer yearly. Even though they are watered regularly, they seem to “bake” in that hot space next to the sidewalk or driveway.

Don’t despair, however! Several annuals will thrive in these tough locations. Consider planting Portulaca,

Celosia, Petunias, Zinnias, Spider Flowers, Mexican sunflowers—a.k.a. tree marigolds—regular sunflowers and Cosmos in these places.

Celosia is an annual that does well in these sites. It has two flower forms: Celosia plumosa and Celosia cristata. Plumosa has plume-shaped blossoms, while Cristata is known as cockscomb for its flower shape. Flower colors range from cream, yellow and bronze to pink, apricot, scarlet and wine-red. Start early from seed or buy bedding plants without blooms for best results.

Petunias, a basic and stalwart annual in the landscape, are also very drought tolerant. There are many different varieties of petunias. If you want large flowers, say up to 3 1½ inches across, choose grandiflora petunias. Multiflora types produce smaller flowers but tend to tolerate wet weather better. Both are available in a rainbow of colors, including stripes and single and double flowers. Petals may be smooth or ruffled. Don’t forget to

remove the spent flowers to keep the plants flowering. Zinnias have been a favorite annual flower for many years. Many different colors and forms can be found and used. You can prolong the blooming period by regularly “dead-heading” the flowers to remove the spent blooms. Water these plants early in the day. If you need taller annuals in hot, dry locations in the flower bed, try Mexican sunflowers. They can be a nice alternative to annual sunflowers. Because they do grow tall, up to 6 feet, they may need to be staked. Mexican sunflowers have daisyshaped blooms that are bright orange or red with yellow centers.

Spider Flower—Cleome—at four to five feet is another good choice for the back of the border, especially against a fence or wall. This unusual annual shows off airy, exotic-looking flowers atop tall, spiny, branching stems. The flowers’ unusual appearance is due to long, protruding pistils, stamens and whiskery developing seed heads. The plants do best in the sun but can tolerate part-shade. The “Queen” series, in violet, rose and white is readily available in garden centers. Expect some self-sowing. I grow Spider Flowers because they remind me of my late grandmother, who always had them in the flower beds around her house.

Cosmos—Mexican aster—are heat and drought tolerant and

flower prolifically on poor soil if well drained. Colors range from yellow, gold, orange and scarlet to pink, rose and white. Foliage is fine textured and fernlike. Cosmos blooms quickly from seed sown in the garden after the danger of frost is past and persists until killed by frost in the fall. Depending on the type of flower, the Cosmos can grow anywhere between 18–60 inches tall.

Happy Gardening!

Marc Teffeau retired as Director of Research and Regulatory Affairs at the American Nursery and Landscape Association in Washington, D.C. He now lives in Georgia with his wife, Linda.

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St. Michaels

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St. Michaels Map and History

On the broad Miles River, with its picturesque tree-lined streets and beautiful harbor, St. Michaels has been a haven for boats plying the Chesapeake and its inlets since the earliest days. Here, some of the handsomest models of the Bay craft, such as canoes, bugeyes, pungys and some famous Baltimore Clippers, were designed and built. The Church, named “St. Michael’s,” was the first building erected (about 1677) and around it clustered the town that took its name.

For a walking tour and more history of the St. Michaels area visit https://tidewatertimes.com/travel-tourism/st-michaels-maryland/.

Hulbert Footner’s World by A.M. Foley

Recent reissue of author Hulbert Footner’s classic Rivers of the Eastern Shore sent me down memory lane. Decades ago, I happened on a well-thumbed, second-hand copy of the 1944 edition, which I probably discovered on a stop at the Unicorn Bookshop while passing through Trappe. I guess I never got over reading it. At the time, I was a tad too young for a midlife crisis, but reading of Footner’s travels had me falling in love with the Eastern Shore, eventually to be propelled there by an urban life of business ups and downs.

Of all the wonders Footner encountered on his watery, WWIIera explorations, what stuck in my mind were not Colonial plantations, crumbling Church of England ruins, nor natural wonders. Neither was it the general “salubrity of the climate and the richness of the soil,” nor his admiration of Crisfield as a “great place for yarning.”

Over ensuing years of city living, a couple paragraphs came back to me about a general store where Footner stopped on Deal Island. Of course, he found islanders sitting around on any bulk containers that would hold them. A stranger

was a rarity on an isolated island, even one tenuously connected by road to the mainland. Naturally, he was subjected to gentle probing of his purpose. In return, Footner was curious about a cot taking up valuable floor space in the seambursting emporium. Rumpled bedding suggested recent use. Eventually, he learned that the store’s late owner, too infirm to trek back and forth from home, opted to spend his remaining days among his store-sitters. To the end, he inhaled local news, undoubtedly wafting to him on a cloud of pipe and cigar smoke. The storekeeper

had passed away some months before Footner’s visit. Gone but not forgotten. As Footner says elsewhere, “It has always been easy come, easy go on the Shore, with all that connotes both good and bad.”

Unfortunately, Footner himself died in November 1944, within weeks of the release of Rivers of the Eastern Shore. He hadn’t time to celebrate its success, but into his 65 years he had crammed enough adventure and completed enough work to fulfill several lifetimes. Self-directed study of classic literature allowed him to compensate for grade-school-level formal education. Subsequent travel in North

Oxford Map and History

Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. Although already settled for perhaps 20 years, Oxford marks the year 1683 as its official founding, for in that year Oxford was first named by the Maryland General Assembly as a seaport and was laid out as a town. In 1694, Oxford and a new town called Anne Arundel (now Annapolis) were selected the only ports of entry for the entire Maryland province. Until the American Revolution, Oxford enjoyed prominence as an international shipping center surrounded by wealthy tobacco plantations. Today, Oxford is a charming tree-lined and waterbound village with a population of just over 700 and is still important in boat building and yachting. It has a protected harbor for watermen who harvest oysters, crabs, clams and fish, and for sailors from all over the Bay. For a walking tour and more history visit https://tidewatertimes. com/travel-tourism/oxford-maryland/.

Footner's World

America, Europe and Asia ideally suited him to infiltrate the Deal Island store and unlock its mysteries, while being equally at home among the literati of Baltimore, New York and London.

Born in Canada and raised largely in New York City, William Hulbert “Bill” Footner credited his Canadian grandfather with nurturing his appetite for words. The scholarly old gentleman loved to read aloud to himself from literary classics. Young Billy relished time spent in Hamilton, Ontario, seated by the floor-to-ceiling bookcase, absorbing the sound of his grandfather’s mysterious words. Back in

New York, by the age of fourteen, family finances ended Bill’s formal schooling. Menial jobs followed, but he kept a journal of classics to tackle on his own at the public library.

After interviewing him in his sixties, Amy Greif wrote, “His first job was breaking eggs into a sort of a churn for a man who made horseliniment. The pay was minute and the hours were the traditional ‘dawn till dusk,’ and no questions asked.” Alone in the city, he enrolled in night school, aspiring to procure a profession and to write in earnest. By the age of twenty he had written a play—good enough to attract attention, but not production. Instead, he was offered a small stage part and toured for a

year in “Sherlock Holmes,” through forty-one states and five Canadian Provinces. The lead actress had a sister, an attractive young comedienne who inspired Footner to write her a one-act play that ran ten weeks on the Orpheum Circuit of vaudeville houses.

This kept the wolf from his door for a time, before he was forced indoors to office work with Doubleday. He escaped its confines when a friend’s letter lured him west to Calgary, a wild frontier town at the time. With false claims of prior experience for Footner, his friend got him hired as a newspaperman. In a brief stint with Calgary’s Albertan , Footner built circulation from 850 to 2,400 with imagina -

tive reporting and interviewing. Even so, it was mostly office work; he craved adventure. He hired onto an official expedition to the wilds

of newly created Alberta Province, but the trek was canceled. Instead, he undertook to go himself, reporting on the journey for a fournewspaper syndicate. He survived 3,000 solo miles as canoe paddler and porter, returning to safety (and unemployment) in Calgary. There he received an offer from New York that seemed too good to refuse: selling securities by mail. Luckily, he didn’t linger long with his dicey new employer, resigning before others left New York for a federal penitentiary. His close escape taught him, he would rather “break rocks than work in an office again.”

Rationing himself to 30 cents a day for food, Footner set to work marketing adventure stories based

on his hazardous western Canada experiences. “I was a new author then,” he writes in Charles’ Gift, “impecunious but no longer chained to the city.” He’d read an inspirational article (such as he would later write) describing the lure of Chesapeake Bay. The romantic sound of a “Rappahonnock River” drew him southward. Lacking train fare, he launched a canoe and paddled inland waterways from New York to Baltimore. There, fate intervened to stall him in Maryland rather than Virginia. Bad weather precluded canoeing farther. For three days, no steamer was leaving for the Rappahonnock. On the other hand, the Westmoreland was about to depart Light Street wharves, bound for the “Patuxent,” which also had a nice ring to it. Footner had his canoe loaded aboard the side-wheeler

and embarked for parts unknown. He didn’t know how far he was going but knew he would need to find a room for rent that night. The steamboat’s puzzled purser recommended he try Solomons and calculated the fare there for one passenger and a canoe. Footner alighted on the island by lantern light and found a room. When daylight broke, he emerged to a treeless town’s working harbor and surrounding waters of the broad Patuxent and Chesapeake. “So pronounced was the maritime flavor that it was like being on sea on land.” Thoroughly captivated, he was never to stray far again. He began scribbling furiously.

There near the river, the romantic young, grey-eyed adventurer eventually matured into the image of a sophisticated Jazz Age author, equally comfortable having

his pipe in a country store or a London club. He married Gladys Marsh, a Calvert County doctor’s daughter, and they set about refurbishing a modest-looking house overlooking the Patuxent, a home they called Charles’ Gift, said to date from 1650, the oldest, most original dwelling in Maryland. With Footner’s growing success as an author and a growing family of three daughters and one son, they summered on the riverside and wintered in Baltimore, taking time off for stays in London and beyond.

Footner credited his friend Christopher Morley with steering him beyond tales of wilderness adventure into detective, mystery and romance stories and novels. Footner produced a prodigious quantity of work, two-fingertyping on a Corona. Beginning in the Roaring ’20s, for over a dozen years Argosy published thirty ep -

isodes of his revolutionary series of mystery stories featuring a duo of female detectives, Madam Rozika Storey and her sidekick, Bella Brickley. A serialized romantic tale, Country Love , featured a theater such as the James Adams Floating Theatre, which toured the Bay and played at Solomons Island. Country Love was published as a book in London and adapted for the screen in Hollywood, years before Edna Ferber’s Showboat or John Barth’s Floating Opera . In the 1930s, Footner created a new duo of detectives, Amos Lee Mappin, ably assisted by his secretary, Fanny Parran.

Throughout the 1930s and early ’40s, Footner’s mysteryadventure novels were published in New York, London, Paris and Barcelona. He wrote articles for the Baltimore Sun. A couple nonfiction books preceded Rivers of the Eastern Shore : a biography of Joshua Barney and a memoir of life at his beloved Charles’ Gift. Before he died rather suddenly of a heart attack at his Baltimore home on Lanvale Street, he had produced an unceasing stream of work, from a youthful poem this grandfather praised to Rivers, now reissued. At the time of his death, Footner was proofreading the tenth Mappin novel, Orchids for Murder. At the same time, he was planning to tackle a bit of unfinished business. He planned

next to head down Rappahannock-way and chronicle the rivers of Tidewater Virginia.

Orchids for Murder was published posthumously with a forward by his friend Morley, who had once written, “There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.”

Forty-some years ago, A.M. Foley swapped the Washington, D.C. business scene for a writing life on Elliott Island, Maryland. Tidewater Times kindly publishes Foley’s musings on regional history and life in general.

Kick off the Summer with Healthy Make you Feel Better Lifestyle

Seasonal Selections

When I am planning my recipes, I often use fresh vegetables or fruits. Prioritizing buying produce in season cannot only add variety to your meals but can be more nutritionally beneficial.

Ethical Meats and Dairy

Game

If you are lucky enough to have someone hunt game, which often have a lower environmental impact

If your diet includes animal products, consider sourcing them from local farmers who practice regenerative farming. This also ensures that the animals are free from excessive hormones and antibiotics.

and are typically some of the best quality meat, i prefer to replace traditional meats.

Bulk Spices and Herbs

Instead of buying pre-packaged spices, consider sourcing them

from bulk shops. This way, you can ensure they’re fresh, potent, and free from unnecessary fillers. Store spices in dark, airtight containers to maintain their potency.

Farmers’ Markets

These local gems are treasures of fresh, organic produce. By shopping here, you’re not only getting nutrient-rich food but also supporting local small-scale farmers. Talk with the farmers. They often provide invaluable insights into the best seasonal picks and sometimes even share unique recipes!

My salt of choice is Himalayan Pink Salt

Mined from ancient sea beds in the Himalayan mountains, this salt is known for its purity and mineral content, including magnesium and potassium. The trace minerals are believed to support hydration and electrolyte balance. Use Himalayan

www.piazzaitalianmarket.com

Tidewater Kitchen

pink salt in cooking or as a finishing salt to benefit from its mineral content and add a colorful touch to dishes.

Oil Selection

Always opt for extra virgin, coldpressed oils when choosing your

cooking fats. These oils are minimally processed, retaining more natural nutrients and flavors, and generally considered healthier options due to their extraction method, which avoids the use of heat or chemicals. This ensures you get the maximum health benefits and the best quality in your cooking oils.

For healthier cooking, it’s recommended to use fats that are stable at high heat and offer health benefits like avocado oil, olive oil, and butter. Using these fats for cooking can enhance both the flavor and nutritional benefits.

Breakfast Omelet with Spinach Serves 2

This omelet blends anti-inflammatory, nutrient-rich and proteinpacked. Easy in about 15 minutes. High in fiber, vitamins, and minerals, it supports eye health, reduces oxidative stress, and improves blood pressure. A great source of protein and essential amino acids. This meal also contain choline,

which is crucial for brain and liver health. Also promotes heart health.

4 large eggs

1/2 cup of fresh spinach, chopped 1/4 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved 1/4 cup of feta cheese, crumbled (optional)

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp of turmeric powder

1/4 tsp of black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Fresh parsley for garnish

Salt to taste

In a bowl, whisk the eggs with turmeric, black pepper, and a pinch of salt. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Add the chopped onion and sauté

until translucent. Add the spinach and cherry tomatoes to the skillet and sauté for another 2 minutes. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables in the skillet, ensuring an even spread. Allow the omelet to cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the edges begin to lift. Sprinkle the crumbled feta cheese on one half of the omelet. Using a spatula, carefully fold the other half over the cheese. Cook for another 2 minutes, then flip and cook for an additional 2 minutes on the other side. Transfer to a plate, garnish with fresh parsley, serve hot. Add your favorite homemade wholegrain bread and bowl of berries for a well rounded meal.

Cindy’s

Mixed Greens and Chicken with Honey Mustard Dressing

Home Cooking”

Mon.-Sat.: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

This salad provides a balanced meal with lean protein, fresh vegetables, and an easy homemade dressing that avoids preservatives found in store-bought dressings. Packed with heart-friendly fats, it fights oxidative stress and inflammation, promoting overall and mental health. Lettuce hydrates and aids digestion, spinach supplies iron and folate for energy and brain function, while arugula is a good source of bone-healthy vitamin K. While the red onion, is an antioxidant that reduces inflammation and disease risk. Its sulfur compounds support heart health and mood. Makes 4 servings in less than 30 minutes

4 boneless, skinless chicken tenders or chicken thighs

4 cups of mixed greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula)

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 cucumber, sliced

1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Extra-virgin, cold-pressed Olive oil

Honey Mustard Dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Season the chicken tenders or

thighs with salt and pepper. In a skillet over medium heat, add a splash of olive oil and cook the chicken until golden brown and no longer pink in the middle, about 7 minutes per side. Let it rest before slicing into strips. In a large bowl, combine the mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, red onion, and cucumber. In a small bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the honey mustard dressing until well combined. Add the chicken strips to the salad and toss with the dressing.

Top the salad with crumbled feta cheese and chopped walnuts for added texture and flavor. Serve immediately and enjoy your wholesome and hearty salad, with your favorite whole grain sourdough roll.

For those looking to customize their salad with a twist, here are two varied options to substitute mixed greens, each bringing its own unique flavor and nutritional profile to the dish:

Tidewater Kitchen

Asian Greens Mix

A spicy and robust blend that can include favorite cabbage, mustard greens, and baby bok choy. This mix has a bold flavor and pairs well with a ginger or sesame dressing.

Whole Pasta

Whole pasta into a salad is a fantastic idea for adding substance, texture, and nutritional value. Whole wheat pasta, made from whole grains, is an excellent source of dietary fiber, which is beneficial for digestive health and can help in maintaining a feeling of fullness, aiding in weight management.

Baked Salmon with Roasted Asparagus

A delightful blend of flavors and textures, offering a wholesome meal rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and antioxidants. Very easy to make and perfect for a health-conscious dinner, this dish is designed to support heart health,

Trappe Vfd Country Carnival

June 27, 28 & 29

(Parade - Saturday June 29 at 5 p.m.)

Live Music · Games

Hay

Rides

Silent Auction

Great Food and Fire Trucks, of course!

Tidewater Kitchen

boost brain function, and promote overall well-being. Salmon: Rich in omega-3 fatty acids for brain and heart health. Asparagus: Nutrientrich with folate and vitamins, offers mood-lifting properties. Lemons: High in vitamin C and flavonoids, boosting immune and skin health.

4 servings 25 minutes

4 wild caught salmon fillets (about 6 ounces each)

1 bunch of fresh asparagus, trimmed

2 tablespoons of extra-virgin, coldpressed olive oil

2 lemons: 1 sliced, 1 for juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

Sea Salt and Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Fresh dill or parsley for garnish

Preheat your oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.

Place the salmon fillets on the baking sheet. Drizzle each fillet with olive oil and lemon juice.

Sprinkle with minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Place a few lemon slices on top of each fillet.

In a separate bowl, toss the asparagus with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Arrange the asparagus around the salmon on the baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, and the asparagus is tender but still crisp.

Garnish the salmon and asparagus with fresh dill or parsley before serving.

Change the recipe to suit your needs for a delightful twist on the classic Baked Salmon with Roasted Asparagus recipe by exploring two distinct alternatives: Pork Tenderloin

It provides a rich source of protein, vitamins B1, B6, and B12, as well as minerals like selenium and zinc. It’s a great choice for a robust

and flavorful meat option.

Hard-Boiled Eggs

As a non-meat and non-fish alternative, hard-boiled eggs offer highquality protein, essential vitamins like B12 and D, and minerals such as zinc and iron. They can be sliced and added to the dish for a different texture and nutrient profile.

Honey Lemon Lavender Bars

Creating the harmonious blend of flavors in this Honey-Sweetened Lavender Lemon Bars, is such a sweet treat. Lemon Zest: Contains essential oils and bioactive compounds aiding digestion and antimicrobial properties. Lavender: Calms, reducing stress and improving sleep quality, beneficial for mental well-being. Coconut Oil: Medium-chain fatty acid, providing quick energy and aiding metabolism. Has antimicrobial and antiinflammatory benefits for immune health. 12 bars in about 55 minutes

Tidewater Kitchen

Trade up for two alternative ingredients to the wheat flour, each offering unique nutritional profiles and flavors:

Oat Flour

Oat flour is a gluten-free alternative that’s high in soluble fiber, particularly beta-glucan, which is known for its cholesterol-lowering and heart-healthy benefits. It provides a subtly sweet and nutty flavor, adding a wholesome and slightly different texture to the bars.

Rice Flour

Rice flour, especially brown rice flour, is another gluten-free option that’s rich in B vitamins and essential minerals like magnesium and selenium. It offers a light, slightly grainy texture and a neutral flavor, making it a versatile alternative for those who prefer a lighter texture in their baked goods.

For the Crust

1 cup whole wheat flour or almond flour (for gluten-free option)

1/4 cup solid coconut oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons honey

Lemon Lavender Filling

3/4 cup warmed honey

3 tablespoons whole wheat flour or arrowroot powder (for gluten-free option)

3 large organic eggs

1 tablespoon organic lemon zest

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely ground dried culinary lavender

Powdered sugar alternative you could use monk fruit sweetener for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper, leaving an overhang for easy removal.

Mix flour, solid coconut oil, salt, and honey until it forms a dough. Press evenly into the bottom of the prepared dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes until just golden.

Whisk warmed honey and flour/ arrowroot powder in a bowl. Beat in eggs, then stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and lavender until well combined.

Pour the filling over the baked crust. Return to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the filling is set but slightly jiggly in the center. Cool completely.

Using the parchment overhang, lift the bars from the pan. Dust with a powdered sugar alternative and slice into bars. Enjoy.

Pamela Meredith, formerly Denver’s NBC Channel 9 Children’s Chef, has taught both adult and children’s cooking classes.

For more of Pam’s recipes, visit the Story Archive tab at tidewatertimes.com.

Perfect for Kayaks and Paddleboards

Slot Dock

12’ x 16’

• Kayak Docks

• Re-Decking

• Pressure Wash & Seal

• Boat Lifts, PWC Lifts

• Gangways

• Solar Dock Lighting

• Floating Piers

• Rowing Docks

• Kayak Racks

• Ladders

• Dock Boxes

• Piling Caps

All Quiet on the Sound A novel by

B. P. Gallagher

Chapter 10:

Christmas Surprises

Earl was up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning. He crept quiet as a mouse from the Higgins home and stole through the mist across Moore Island, where Dave Howell met him at his door. The as-yet-unnamed puppy proceeded to harry Earl down the Howells’s front hall, nipping at his ankles all the way. Though still tiny, the dog had grown in the two days Dave had been fostering him.

“Merry Christmas, Earl.”

“Merry Christmas, Dave. Easy, pup! You’re gonna trip somebody, you keep that up.”

“He’s got some energy,” said Dave as the puppy barreled through his legs, tiny claws scrabbling across the bare floorboards.

“I’ll say. Look at him go! Whatcha been feeding him?”

“Same shit I feed Boone, but I ain’t ever seen old Boone run like that!”

“He’s quick, alright. Think he’ll

be of use for anything?”

Dave shrugged. “Sure, if you got rats. Born rat-killer, that one. Nothing much by way of potential as far as pointing and retrieving go, though. Don’t even know how to fetch, far as I can tell.”

“Rat-killer, huh? You don’t say.”

“I do say. Say, you hear about old Preacher Pete?”

Earl tensed. “What about Preacher Pete?”

“That he’s missing, first off.”

“Oh.” Tread carefully. “No, I hadn’t heard.” It was almost true, in a way—all of a sudden he could hardly hear anything. How could he be expected to over the thunderous rush of blood in his ears? “How long’s he been missing for?”

“Guess you wouldn’t, if you ain’t been to church lately. I only heard yesterday through Becca’s sister— Becs and I don’t go to Sunday service no more neither, same as you. Anyways, he can’t be more’n a week or so gone, wherever he is.”

“That’s…strange. Any idea where he mighta disappeared to?”

“Becca thinks he met some young floosy and run off with her, maybe to Ocean City. Me, I don’t think so.”

“What do you think?” said Earl, dry-mouthed.

“If he was gonna skip out on his congregation for something like that, I don’t see why he’d do it right before Christmas. Why not wait to

send ‘round the offering plate one more time before hittin’ the big city?”

“Uh, I guess I see your point.” Earl was taken aback at the readiness with which Dave supplied this rationale. Either he was more conspiracy-minded than Earl had taken him for, or he was a better judge of Pastor Calhoun’s character than most folks in the community. Even if he was off base in this instance.

“…So I figure he’s already dead.” said Dave. Not so far off base, then.

“What?” said Earl with a squeak. “How d’you reckon that?”

“Well, that’s the odd thing. Word as of yesterday is some oysterman turned up the pastor’s truck sticking halfway outta a mudflat a little south of Hooper’s Island, crusted in barnacles and rusted to shit. Looks like somebody mighta tried to sink it.”

Earl felt his face drain of blood. His truck. Found his goddamn truck already—Leon, you careless, reckless, feckless fool!

“Think he drowned?” he heard himself say, voice distant through the onrush of blood and wind and the clamor of his jabbering thoughts.

“Drowned? Maybe. But not with his truck, if he did. Sounds like they found it pretty far offshore, which is why they’re talkin’ ‘bout somebody musta dumped it in a hurry. Weren’t no remains dredged up with it neither, far as I’ve heard. Which I’m

sure ain’t the half of it, so I really got no business speculatin’, to be honest. Sorry Earl, didn’t mean to upset you on the holiday.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout me none, Davey, I ain’t upset,” Earl lied. You don’t even know a quarter of it, and thank God for that. “Just wondering what might possess somebody to do such a thing, that’s all. Where’d you hear that ‘bout Pastor Calhoun’s truck?”

“None other than the Deputy himself. Straight from the horse’s mouth—or ass. Depends whatcha think of Tyler Calhoun.”

Earl was more inclined towards the latter descriptor, but this was bad however you phrased it. More terrible news in a snowballing di-

saster. Tyler Calhoun was a cousin of Preacher Pete’s, and a part-time deputy sheriff, no less. That made him the second highest law officer between Moore Island and Salisbury, answering only to the Sheriff himself. If he was on the case, then the Calhoun clan was mobilizing already. By New Year’s they’d have half the folks on the Shore canvassing for the missing pastor in their spare time. No question about it: this was going to put a damper on the holidays.

“Sure is strange,” repeated Earl lamely. “But I guess I’d better get this little fella home before Leon and Maggie start wondering where I am. Thanks again for helping me keep him under wraps the last cou-

ple days. I’m sure it’ll be a real nice surprise.”

Not the only one we get today, maybe, but far and away the nicest.

“No problem, he’s a good pup. Becca just about fell in love with him, and he got on fine with Boone too. Makes me think I might be able to talk her into getting another dog of our own here soon. Anyhow, I’ll let you go, Earl. Have a blessed Christmas, and wish the same to your siblings for me.”

“Sure I will. They’d send the same, if they knew I was over here. And wish Becca a merry Christmas from us, too.”

“I will. Better make sure you got him leashed up tight before you try taking him anywhere. He’s a runner.”

Sound advice. In fact, it was time to tighten leashes all around.

Earl catalogued the myriad ways the situation could’ve gone wrong as he walked home across Moore Island with the puppy roving ahead of him on his leash. Disproportionately, they involved some stupendous mistake on Leon’s part, and lo and behold… Exhibit A: The pastor’s truck, swamped on a mudflat in the middle of the Bay, as good as served up on a platter for the whole Shore to see.

If I’d just gone with him, I could’ve seen it done right. I knew I shouldn’t have let him go alone.

Why did I? Ruminating like this was bound to ruin his Christmas cheer, but he couldn’t help himself. He could envision the circumstances all too well:

Leon, anxious to be rid of incriminating evidence and possibly with a few drinks under his belt you never knew with him, but it was a safe bet—rushes to retrieve the barge that he and Bubba Coyne decided between them a few weeks back to abandon in favor of an afternoon spent fishing. Recalling where he left the barge and recognizing its usefulness for dumping vehicles —because Leon isn’t stupid, remember, only monumentally lazy— he drives to the abandoned marina in the wee hours of Saturday morning, sneaks out on the tugboat, and pushes the barge up Gleeson Creek to the fishing hole where Earl has hidden Peter Calhoun’s truck. Maybe Gleeson Creek is frozen over —it’s narrower than the Blackwater River by a long shot, after all, which was an ice-bath that night— and Leon is huffing and puffing with frustration by the time he even manages to get the truck onto the barge.

From there, Earl could more or less figure what had happened next:

Leon grows harried and heedless as sunrise approaches and he continues to struggle through the slushy shallows, towing a murdered man’s truck and a barge that is, if not outright stolen, than at

All Quiet

least missing. Maybe he sees another boat on the horizon and panic gets the best of him, or maybe he’s just too impatient to wait until he reaches the big water. The result is the same either way: some foolish, myopic motivation leads him to dispose of the evidence too early, far from the deepest part of the Bay or even the Sound. Worse still, Leon dumps the truck in a place where the tide sometimes washes out far enough to expose the mudflats, especially in the winter when ground frost and ice make unpredictable changes to the contours of the waterways. Leon watches as Pastor Calhoun’s truck sinks into the depths, convincingly submerged in water the color of rum, and congratulates himself on a job well done. Until one cold day not long after, the forces of nature conspire to bare it for all the world to see…

The Bay giveth, and the Bay taketh away—and sometimes, apparently, the Bay giveth back as well.

Earl was delivered from his dark musings by a tug at his ankle. The puppy had latched onto his pantleg and seemed determined to ride the rest of the way in that fashion. Rather than see his trousers shredded and the dog suffer a sore jaw, Earl stopped walking long enough to dislodge his fierce grip—not without difficulty; there was definitely some terrier in the little bug-

ger—and carried the puppy the rest of the way home tucked under his arm like a furry football.

As Earl approached the house, his eagerness to see how Margaret would react to the surprise overtook even his sense of dread surrounding Pastor Calhoun’s truck. Maybe that was for the best, just for the time being. Plenty of misery and paranoia to go around already without spoiling a joyous occasion by heaping on more. So Earl decided to withhold the troubling news for now, at least until Christmas was over.

Hiding the puppy within the fold of his jacket, he slipped into the house and shut the front door firmly behind him, then announced himself with a hearty, “Ho, ho, ho!”

Leon poked his head out of the den, and Margaret poked hers out a second later. That was Earl’s cue to cast off his coat and let the puppy off his leash. Like a bolt from the

blue, the tiny black furball barreled down the front hall in a playful charge, capitalizing on the longest route available to exorcise a burst of unbridled energy. With a squeal of glee, Maggie dashed down the hall to meet him. She swept the puppy squirming into her arms, twirled him around in a fit of happiness, and buried her face in his fur.

“Dammit Earl,” said Leon, “you did get her the cat, after all! No wonder you didn’t want me involved.”

“It’s not a cat, you big dummy,” said Maggie, beaming and crying at the same time. “It’s a darling little dog! My very own puppy! Thank you, Earl—I can’t imagine a better

gift than this!”

“You’re welcome, Maggs. Merry Christmas. Got any idea whatcha wanna name him?”

“That’s a puppy?” Leon squinted at the wriggling puff of sable fur. The puppy was busy snuffling Maggie’s face with his wet nose. In answer to Leon’s question, she deposited the dog in his arms, then threw her arms around Earl.

“I’ll take wonderful care of him, promise!”

“You better.”

“I’ll have to think on what to name him, though.”

“Take your time. We’ll just call him pup, for now.”

“Huh,” said Leon, laughing as the puppy planted wet kisses all over

his face. “I guess he is a dog, after all. But he ain’t very big. Sure ain’t mean, neither.”

“He’ll grow, a little. As for mean, well…”

“He’s the sweetest creature ever lived!” said Maggie, snatching the thrumming pup back from Leon and whirling him around again. Planting a kiss on his furry head, she lowered him to the floor, where he promptly bolted down the hall.

“Better make sure he don’t get into anything, Maggs,” said Leon. When she had followed the puppy into the other room, he turned to Earl and said, “You dote on her, see? Next time I bring it up, don’t let me hear you say you don’t!”

“Ain’t just for her. We could all

use something like this to cheer us up.”

“Yeah, we can.” Leon’s face darkened. “Say, you heard any more about—”

“Later,” said Earl. “We can talk that stuff over once Maggie’s abed and Christmas is done with. ‘Til then, let’s just enjoy the holiday, pretend things are normal. Think you can manage that?”

“Sure.”

“Good. In the meantime, we better make sure that pup’s not pissing on the furniture.”

There would be plenty to discuss later, thanks to Leon. But for now, Earl swallowed anger and worry both. The rest of Christmas day was spent watching the puppy tear

Come Fly With Us!

All Quiet

around the house and yard, a seemingly inexhaustible ball of energy ricocheting from person to person and wall to wall. In the afternoon, Maggie brought the dog next door to meet Clara, whose exclamations of delight made Earl even gladder that he had gone ahead with the arrangement, however uncomfortable dealing with the captain of the Jimsonweed made him. Even Geezer Gibbs, who made a brief appearance on his porch to wish his neighbors a Merry Christmas, cracked a smile at the sight of the pup dashing to and fro.

As dark fell the Higginses shared a supper of roast beef—Leon’s purview, scrimped and saved for and purchased out of his own pocket from a butcher on the Shore—and oysters on the half-shell, a real Chesapeake Bay delicacy. The roast turned out tender and flavorful, even more so slathered in horseradish, and the oysters were unmatched, big and briny and delicious. By meal’s end Earl’s stomach was fuller than in recent memory, and his heart as well. Surrounded by his smiling siblings and their new pet (who had exhausted himself at last and curled up, fittingly, on the rug at the foot of the Christmas tree), he could almost convince himself that everything was normal.

But it was a thin veneer. At the

end of the night, long after Margaret and the Christmas puppy had fallen asleep snuggled up together in her bed, Earl and Leon sat up passing a bottle back and forth.

“He’s a nice little dog, I guess,” said Leon.

“That he is.”

“Won’t make a good bird dog though, that’s for sure.”

“No, but Dave thinks he’s got terrier in him. They’re born rat-killers, he said.”

“Rats, huh? Wouldn’t that be something.”

“Sure would, but when’s the last time you seen rats around the island?”

“Not lately, but maybe someday,” said Leon wistfully. He thought about it for a moment. “Got a few squirrels he could go after, in the meantime. I swear it’s one of them bushy-tailed bastards keeps worrying at Betsy’s fuel line.”

“He’ll hafta grow a bit before he takes on a squirrel, even.”

“Ha!” Leon snorted. “He will, at that.”

They quieted for a time, continuing to pass off the bottle as the clock over the mantel ticked towards midnight and the fire in the hearth burned low. At a quarter till midnight Earl threw new logs in the woodstove, stoked the fireplace, and sat back down in the den opposite Leon. Another Christmas come and gone, or near enough. Time now to return to the doldrums—and

dangers—of daily life. Earl took another long swig, relishing the whiskey’s acerbic bite and the artificial calm descending over his mind. He would need it for the conversation to come.

“Listen Leon,” he began, “I gotta talk to you ‘bout something serious.

Queen Anne’s County

The history of Queen Anne’s County dates back to the earliest Colonial settlements in Maryland. Small hamlets began appearing in the northern portion of the county in the 1600s. Early communities grew up around transportation routes, the rivers and streams, and then roads and eventually railroads. Small towns were centers of economic and social activity and evolved over the years from thriving centers of tobacco trade to communities boosted by the railroad boom.

Queenstown was the original county seat when Queen Anne’s County was created in 1706, but that designation was passed on to Centreville in 1782. It’s location was important during the 18th century, because it is near a creek that, during that time, could be navigated by tradesmen. A hub for shipping and receiving, Queenstown was attacked by English troops during the War of 1812.

Construction of the Federal-style courthouse in Centreville began in 1791 and is the oldest courthouse in continuous use in the state of Maryland. Today, Centreville is the largest town in Queen Anne’s County. With its relaxed lifestyle and tree-lined streets, it is a classic example of small town America.

The Stevensville Historic District, also known as Historic Stevensville, is a national historic district in downtown Stevensville, Queen Anne’s County. It contains roughly 100 historic structures, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located primarily along East Main Street, a portion of Love Point Road, and a former section of Cockey Lane.

The Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor Center in Chester at Kent Narrows provides and overview of the Chesapeake region’s heritage, resources and culture. The Chesapeake Heritage and Visitor Center serves as Queen Anne’s County’s official welcome center.

Queen Anne’s County is also home to the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (formerly Horsehead Wetland Center), located in Grasonville. The CBEC is a 500-acre preserve just 15 minutes from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Over 200 species of birds have been recorded in the area.

Embraced by miles of scenic Chesapeake Bay waterways and graced with acres of pastoral rural landscape, Queen Anne’s County offers a relaxing environment for visitors and locals alike.

For more information about Queen Anne’s County, visit www.qac.org .

Kent County and Chestertown at a Glance

Kent County is a treasury of early American history. Its principal towns and back roads abound with beautiful old homes and historic landmarks.

The area was first explored by Captain John Smith in 1608. Kent County was founded in 1642 and named for the shire in England that was the home of many of Kent’s earliest colonists. When the first legislature assembled in 1649, Kent County was one of two counties in the colony, thus making it the oldest on the Eastern Shore. It extended from Kent Island to the present boundary.

The first settlement, New Yarmouth, thrived for a time and, until the founding of Chestertown, was the area’s economic, social and religious center.

Chestertown, the county seat, was founded in 1706 and served as a port of entry during colonial times. A town rich in history, its attractions include a blend of past and present. Its brick sidewalks and attractive antiques stores, restaurants and inns beckon all to wander through the historic district and enjoy homes and places with architecture ranging from the Georgian mansions of wealthy colonial merchants to the elaborate style of the Victorian era.

Second largest district of restored 18th-century homes in Maryland, Chestertown is also home to Washington College, the nation’s tenth oldest liberal arts college, founded in 1782. Washington College was also the only college that was given permission by George Washington for the use of his name, as well as given a personal donation of money.

The beauty of the Eastern Shore and its waterways, the opportunity for boating and recreation, the tranquility of a rural setting and the ambiance of living history offer both visitors and residents a variety of pleasing experiences. A wealth of events and local entertainment make a visit to Chestertown special at any time of the year.

For more information about events and attractions in Kent County, contact the Kent County Visitor Center at 410-778-0416, visit www. kentcounty.com or e-mail tourism@kentcounty.com . For information about the Historical Society of Kent County, call 410-778-3499 or visit www.kentcountyhistory.org/geddes.php . For information specific to Chestertown visit www.chestertown.com .

Chesapeake Music Announces Winners of 11th Biennial Chesapeake International Chamber

Music Competition for Young Professionals

Finalists recently came from around the U.S. from distinguished schools and conservatories to compete at the 11th Biennial Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland. The Lerman Gold ($10,000) Prize was awarded to The Amara Trio of New York, New York. The Silver ($5,000) Prize was shared by The Hesper Quartet of New York, New York, and the PULSE Quartet of East Lansing, Michigan at Michigan State University. The Audience

Choice Award ($1000) was also awarded to the PULSE quartet. Honorarium Awards ($1000 each) were awarded to the Kodak Quartet of New York, New York, and Trio Menil of Houston, Texas.

“The level of this competition was phenomenal! All five of the ensembles performed at an astounding level. They were all technically proficient and showed fantastic musical insight. It was a huge pleasure to hear all of the ensembles and making our decision was extremely difficult. What a privilege it was to share

The Hesper Quartet of New York, New York. Members included Sejeong Kim, violin; So Hui Yun, viola; Ye Jin Yoon, violin; and Connor Kim, cello.

Winners

this experience with my fellow judges Robert McDonald and Tara Helen O’Connor. We all came out of the weekend humbled and inspired,” commented Marcy Rosen, Co-Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival, Head Competition Judge, and cellist. Preliminary judges included Catherine Cho, Laurie Bloom, clarinetist; Daniel Phillips, violinist/violist; Todd Phillips, violinist/violist; and Diane Walsh, pianist.

The Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition was the first competition for The Amara Trio, which was formed at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival

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during the summer of 2023. The trio found their experience with the competition to be very positive.

“The organizers have been so helpful every step of the way. They always wanted to make sure that we were taken care of at all times and we felt so welcome. It’s been a beautiful experience,” reflected Kevin Jansson, a pianist with the trio.

Nagyeom Jang, cellist, added, “The judges were very inspiring. It was a good reminder of how important mentors are for us as we move forward.”

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The trio is extremely passionate about community engagement and they often share their love of music in the Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and multiple retirement homes around the New York and New Jersey areas.

The Amara Trio is continuing their studies at the Juilliard School as an Honors Chamber Group, under the guidance of Laurie Smukler and Joel Krosnick.

The Hesper Quartet, a KoreanAmerican string quartet formed in 2022 at the Emerson String Quartet Institute of Stony Brook University, enjoyed the comprehensive feedback from the judges.

“I enjoy competitions to meet new people, for the audience, and getting new comments from people about our playing,” stated Sejeong Kim, violinist in the quartet.

“The judges also helped us look

at how we interpret each piece of music. It was good to know that we are on the right track.”

Connor Kim, cellist for the quartet, added, “It’s rare to have a town with such a passion for music. Everyone was locked in on our playing and we appreciated that.”

Sharing the Silver Prize and receiving the Audience Choice Award, PULSE, an internationally award-winning saxophone quartet based in East Lansing at Michigan State University delivered a diverse repertoire that the audience enjoyed. According to the quartet, although the saxophone wasn’t invented until 1854 in Belgium, today a lot of contemporary and new music composers are starting

to write for the saxophone.

“The judges enjoyed our communication and stage presence. I think we were having fun out there and that’s why we also got the Audience Choice award,” shared Michael Ethier, baritone saxophonist in the quartet.

The quartet has had a residency with Soundgarden at NPR. The goal of the project is to plant music in unexpected places and bring classical music outside of the concert hall to places that people may not usually hear it, including at gas stations, offices, on the beach, and in restaurants.

“The world of classical music is interesting as it’s very much the performer on one side and

the audience on the other side. So this project is just trying to make classical music a little more accessible to the general public. The most common response from people was that they really did not know the saxophone could sound like it did,” Ethier added.

“We have found that audiences tend to be open to more contemporary pieces if we provide context and explain the piece. Painting that picture for them helps them get there,” Zachary Costello, soprano saxophone, shared.

“We’re very appreciative of both our host family and the community. It has been truly a unique experience.

I couldn’t think of a more organized or more welcoming competition.”

The Amara Trio will perform again on June 14, at 7:30 p.m. as part of Chesapeake Music’s 39th annual Chamber Music Festival. The Festival will present six extraordinary concerts, June 7th through June 15th, at the historic Ebenezer Theater, 17 South Washington Street in Easton, Maryland. For complete program listings and to purchase tickets, go to chesapeakemusic.org.

The Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition is underwritten by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and private benefactors.

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Changes: Drilling and Filling

by Roger Vaughan

“The dentist’s office is the only place in the modern healthcare system where I still expect to be unrelentingly shamed.”

That was one of the lead sentences in a piece by Atlantic magazine staff writer Elaine Godfrey a few weeks ago.

“Shamed” wasn’t quite the right word. For me, “abused” would have been more accurate. But I stopped everything and started reading because that sentence triggered a video of my lifelong avoidance of the dentist. Call it fear.

Ms. Godfrey’s statement dragged me back to preteen years when old Dr. Talbot was the first to acquaint me with a Novocain procedure: that large, extra-long dripping needle that is inserted not just once, but time after time with slow, diabolical precision into your gums to reduce the pain of the drilling and filling that will follow. They tell us slow makes the injections kinder.

Drilling and Filling

They say swabbing the gums with a topical numbing agent makes it better. Not for me.

Drilling and filling would be quite painful without Novocain, no question, but the repeated insertion of a needle into one’s sensitive, dense gum tissue smacks of torture. Novocain by injection is right up there with thumb screws. That a

pain killer continues to be applied by injections in one’s mouth in this age of GPS, smart phones, Artificial Intelligence and the currently maligned Styrofoam cup is most puzzling.

But wait! Even before the painful injections there’s the picking process with that fine little steel fish hook of a tool that is capable of lodging itself into the faintest flaw

and doing damage that will have to be repaired. Hence, the abusive Novocain application followed by that lonely ten to fifteen minutes of suspended, clock-ticking solitude while you “get numb,” while you contemplate the dreaded drilling and filling to come under a blinding light that would make a person confess anything if only he could be in his car heading home.

The Novocain currently in use leaves a lot to be desired. Without it, the local nerves activated by the drilling and filling would jangle the brain big time. Ten-plus on the one-to-ten pain scale. Even with it, a good nerve strike recalls touching the hot stovetop burner. At least with the burner one can jerk away.

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Drilling and Filling

In the dentist chair, jerking away would have dire consequences. A patient is meant to STAY STILL!

What’s almost as bad is the terrifying racket, the screaming whine of the high-speed drill invading a tooth. It is an awful noise conducted by one’s jawbone. It resonates throughout the skull with terrible intensity, wiping out all other sounds of life. Listening to the audio track of a jack hammer, volume up, would be a good comparison. Novocain does nothing to reduce the noise factor that is distracting to the point of claustrophobia. The headphones they give you playing elevator music are useless.

In 2024, would we be expected to have our appendix removed, or endure open heart surgery while lying on a table fully awake, having had many injections of anesthesia in the stomach or chest? Ridiculous, you say? Then why, as if we have been abducted and paralyzed by aliens, are we still agreeing to recline in a dental chair, agreeing to lie there fully awake, agreeing to open wide and STAY STILL while we watch (in terror) a syringe full of Novocain approaching our face needle first?

I agree to lie there fully awake and staying still because of pain: when my teeth are producing more pain than will be experienced in the dental chair. For years now that has been my criteria for dental visits. I tried a “cleaning” once. Much like the experience Ms. Godfrey relates, the hygienist was a sadist, seemingly bent on creating work for her boss by her rough approach to my teeth. Never again. One must

Drilling and Filling

come to terms with the fact that, like knees, ankles, shoulders and backs, teeth are a faulty design. They are fragile, bone-like chunks full of nerves set in an inadequate foundation. They can easily crack, chip, decay or become infected. They frequently get knocked loose by hockey pucks.

I think of my aging teeth as delicate, antique tea cups. I floss religiously. I brush lightly, thoroughly and with well-considered care. I don’t chew on ice anymore. I gave up biting my fingernails for fear of injuring my teeth. I test small portions of foods that could be difficult to chew before taking a nor -

mal-size bite. I do all this because I know that syringe with the long needle awaits any careless mistake.

As Ms. Godfrey pointed out, the problem is not with the various doctors who practice dentistry, some of whom (like my excellent dentist) are likable, kind, outstanding people who are very good at what they have to do. “The problem,” Godfrey writes, “is with dentistry itself.” It is a medieval science. Aside from some new machines, materials, and tools, more advanced glues and chemicals, and the upgrading of basic procedures, the dentistry Dr. Talbot was practicing on me at age 9 remains the basic dentistry of today. Sharp-edged X-ray films

Drilling and Filling

tear up your gums, and the patient is still required to use his or her thumb to press them into painful positions. Taking impressions with a mouthful of squishy goo that runs down your throat and makes you gag while it is setting up—and feels like it is pulling all your fillings out when it is removed—has not

been improved. While Novocain serum may have been upgraded, the horror of the application hasn’t changed one whit.

One of my all-time favorites is the root canal, a grisly procedure in which a hole is drilled in the failing tooth. Tiny round files are then pushed into the hole and pulled out—repeatedly—until all the nerve has been extracted. The resulting “clean” hole is then filled with a forever substance. Root canals used to require two appointments. Like nearly every other dental procedure, root canals are now a specialty. They can be completed in one appointment.

The alternative is to have that dying tooth pulled. I began em-

bracing that dubious alternative many years ago, and am missing several teeth because of it. Why? Because after sweating through two root canals, with my body held ridged with apprehension while listening to those little files scraping away for twenty minutes, while watching the hovering body of the dentist also sweating as he pushed

and pulled, and while suffering the occasional icepick stab of stubborn nerves being extracted, I didn’t think my heart could take any more of them. Feeling the pliers gripping my tooth and wrenching it from its socket is a sorry alternative, but as Shakespeare wrote about such violence, “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly” (Novocain excepted). The empty socket healed fast.

Having the tooth pulled was also cheaper. Excuse me while I have a good laugh. “Cheap” is not a word to be used when dentistry is the subject. Less expensive is more accurate. Root canals these days are cresting around $2,000. Extractions are almost half that. More

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Drilling and Filling

comprehensive plans from dentists for wholesale repair, with items like posts and caps and (perish the thought) jaw bone work, can easily come in at $20,000 to $30,000. Or more. The price of a decent automobile.

What about insurance? Another mystery. While Medicare covers a comprehensive list of other

medical needs, from wheelchairs and home nursing to drugs and a hundred kinds of surgery, regular dental services are not covered by Medicare. One can only wonder why.

There are several medical insurance companies in the dental business. One typical company offers a PPO plan (Preferred Provider Organization). For PPO plans, an insurance company has contracts with a network of dentists who have agreed to charge certain fees for approved services). This company’s PPO covers cleaning and X-rays 100%. It covers fillings and extractions 50%. But the expensive stuff—root canals, crowns, implants, dentures and orthodon-

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tics—is not covered. People insured by this PPO plan have an annual maximum coverage of $1,000 a year, small change when it comes to dentistry.

Dentistry is a grim tale because teeth are such an important part of the survival package we call our

body. Unless we are willing to use a blender every meal, unless we are happy to exist on purified carrots, chicken, and other taste treats, teeth are vital for masticating the food that keeps us alive. The fact caring for such an essential element of everyone’s well-being can be so poorly developed is bizarre. Amazing technological advances that have elevated the rest of medicine seem to have bypassed dentistry. There’s more technology at work in a nail parlor. Ms. Godrey reminds us we live in a “modern health-care system.” When will dentistry become a member?

Nearly 40 years ago I met a middle-aged couple who arrived on the Eastern Shore by boat. Sam

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Drilling and Filling

and Judy were engaging, capable people. Sam had built their boat with his own hands. They opened a bakery that did well. They were up every morning at 5 AM making bread. It turned out Sam was also a dentist. Judy was an anesthesiologist. When I told them my dream

had always been to get knocked out in the dentists’ waiting room, they laughed and said they could make it happen. They had rented space in a local dentists’ office. I went in. Anesthesia was applied. Forty minutes later they woke me up. For me, no time had passed, but the work had been done without me experiencing the ghastly shots of Novocain or the confounding racket of drilling and filling. Sam’s work has lasted to this day. And as I recall, it wasn’t that expensive.

Where are Sam and Judy when we need them?

Vaughan.roger@gmail.com

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Woods at Stoney Ridge - This well maintained one-owner home features 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, living room/dining room combo, family room with woodstove off kitchen with center island, granite countertops, tile backsplash and stainless appliances, office, half bath and sunroom leading to deck overlooking large Aqua installed pebble tech in-ground pool (saltwater/heated). Laundry room on 2nd floor with the bedrooms. All wood flooring on the 1st floor, hall and primary bedroom. Partially finished basement. Natural gas heat and central air. 2-car garage, concrete driveway, fenced backyard and storage shed. Home is located at end of cul-de-sac with private backyard. $525,000

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Easton - Mulberry Station - This exquisite 4 b/r 2 ½ bath two-story colonial offers an unparalleled blend of classic elegance and modern comfort. Boasting timeless architectural details. The owner has lovingly cared for this home with updated appliances, new flooring, crown molding and much more. Lots of room for a pool in the huge back yard with gorgeous landscaping and custom deck.

$494,900 • 8834 Roundhouse Circle

St. Michaels- Rio Vista - This cozy 3 b/r 2 bath rancher offers not only a peaceful retreat but also grants you access to waterfront amenities, including a community picnic area and boat ramp, all convenient to downtown St. Michaels. One level living at it’s best with beautiful new hardwood flooring, fresh paint, updated appliances and bathroom fixtures.

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EASTON CLUB Great open floorplan and 9 ft ceilings. Large windows give plenty of light. Primary BR has huge closet and large modern bath. Kitchen with excellent counterspace, Community pool and tennis. Convenient location in much sought-after neighborhood on the s/w side of Easton, close to “the Oxford Road” and the many town amenities. $625,000.