Howard County Conservancy’s Fall Fest 2017

Last Saturday was Howard County Conservancy’s annual Fall Fest. I volunteered for the whole day. I went early since my first assignment was an activity new to the festival. It was good to be there when it was still relatively calm with just the vendors, volunteers, and staff getting ready – because the event was very well attended; toward the end of the day, one of the staffers said there had been about 1,500 cars (so double or triple that for numbers of people!). I know that both activities I helped with were busy the entire time.

The first segment was inside the Nature Center and was a giant map of Maryland provided by National Geographic that took up most of the floor. There were activities that came with the map designed for grades 3-4 classrooms…so I modified them for a walkup audience and varying ages of children. The first requirement was ‘socks only’ – what child doesn’t like taking off their shoes! Even some of the parents joined in. The ages skewed younger so I encouraged them the ‘walk the Potomac River’ either from western Maryland down to the Chesapeake Bay or from the Chesapeake Bay to the west. Almost everyone wanted to find where they lived on the map….I added to that by asking how they would get from their house to the beach and they had great fun finding the Bay Bridge and then Ocean City or the Delaware beaches. Many of the parents helped their children find where various family members lived. Some children walked the Appalachian Trail (an orange dashed line on the map. Others plopped themselves down on the map along a state boundary. Toddlers holding onto a grandparent or parent walked across the map – often standing in the ‘blue.’  Many people noticed that the highest point of Maryland was in the far west of the state…and the big bays: Chesapeake and Delaware.

I took a short break to sit down and eat a sandwich…then I was off to pumpkin painting. The activity was done on two paper covered picnic tables under an awning beside the farm stand selling small pumpkins. 8-10 children could be painting at the same time. The tables were set up with cups of paint and brushes…and my job was too try to keep the brushes in one color and the cups supplied with paint….wipe up the splatters on the paper when they got too thick. The original idea was to replace the paper during the day be there was never a slow time so the wiping kept them from getting too messy. The pumpkins were put on paper beside Montjoy Barn to dry; they were picked up as people left the event.

The hay ride (large wagon pulled by a tractor) line was near the pumpkin painting. There was a line every time I looked!

It was a busy day and the two places I worked were full of people enjoying a fall day. Maybe next year I’ll have time to walk around see more aspects of the festival!

Celebrating Labor Day

We’re staying home for Labor Day – celebrating the end of summer with a ‘splurge’ meal of hotdogs and corn-on-the-cob cooked on the grill,

Snacking on cherry tomatoes while we cook…and

Watermelon afterward (maybe as mid-afternoon snack).

The forecast is for sun after a weekend of clouds (and rain) – a warmer day that we’ve had recently as a finale for the summer. The opening of schools in Maryland has changed from late August to the Tuesday after Labor Day this year which emphasizes the feeling that Labor Day marks the end of summer.

This year with the flooding from Hurricane Harvey just beginning to recede – there is a sobering aspect to this holiday. Modern communication brings it to us; the loss of ‘home’ for so many people is painful to us as well.  We should all be thinking about how we can help....and find out more about disaster mitigation strategies where we live.

Ten Little Celebrations – August 2017

August has been a busy month – volunteering (primarily at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy) and the solar eclipse road trip. There has been plenty to celebrate.

Monarch Butterflies. The population of Monarchs in Maryland is so reduced from 15 years ago that I celebrate whenever I see them. Brookside Gardens has a few and they are strong enough flyers that I’ve seen them even on rainy days where most of the other butterflies are hiding under leaves.

Orange dead leaf butterfly resting on my hand. An orange dead leaf butterfly kept me company for the last 20 minutes of one of my Wings of Fancy shifts! It settled onto my hand and used its proboscis to get whatever was on my skin. Periodically it opened its wings – flashed their brilliance for a second or two before looking like a dead leaf again. (picture from back in July...not when it was on my hand)

Emerging Atala butterfly. I was at the discovery station talking with a group of children in front of the discovery station when an Atala butterfly emerged. Its wings were folded so tight that they were almost not visible! The was a great experience for the children…and for me too.

Emerging pipevine swallowtails. One day there were three swallowtails that emerged during the hour I was at the discovery station at Wings of Fancy. There was a different audience of families each time. Someone would comment that one of the chrysalises was moving and then – the butterfly would be pulling itself out. The wings would be very wet but noticeably start expanding almost immediately.

Cantaloupe. We’ve has some great watermelon and cantaloupes from our CSA this year. They are probably all worth a little celebration but there was one cantaloupe that was spectacularly sweet – and that’s the one I’m thinking about as I write this.

August sunrise. Somehow being up and observing the sunrise is my favorite way to start the day. It is something to celebrate even if it potentially happens every day!

Orange striped oakworm caterpillar. Yes – it eats oak leave…but they don’t kill the tree. They are beautiful caterpillars and I celebrated seeing one for the first time!

Spider web on the mailbox. I celebrated a spider web that was naturally misted (with fog) and being in out at the right time to photograph it. As a secondary little celebration – I was relieved that the ants that crawled up my legs, while I was concentrating on photography, did not bite me!

Glow. I celebrated thinking about the glow of light in flowers and glow of interactions with people…sometimes those two things bring out similar emotions.

A day at home. Sometimes with a lot going on, a day at home is just what I need…and worth celebrating.