First bloom of the year – hellebore

Hel-lo hellebore!

I forgot all about you, and it was just out of a sideways glance that I saw you blooming yesterday in that soupy, muddy muck that is our front yard.

You’re demure, and quiet. And poisonous as can be. Hellebores are known to be one of the classic poisons, alongside nightshade, hemlock and aconite.

Known for your zing-ability inside poison tip arrows, I have no interest in that part of you. But I do appreciate the power lurking inside you, there – so bright faced on the ground.

You trickster.

a single mute swan

…lives out behind Target, on the bypass in Easton. I see him whenever I take the short-cut around the corner with the longest light on the Shore. A lady in a big blue Buick feeds him. More than twice, I’ve seen her park her car, and bring him a bag of white bread. You have to wonder if she’s doing him a favor, feeding him white bread.

Due to the fact that they’re an invasive species and so destructive to underwater grasses, the County executed a substantial mute swan eradication effort in 2009 (mass murder is another way to put it, but that’s a little much, I guess.) And ever since, I’ve only seen three left – two floating around by the Oak Creek Bridge, and this one, at Target, eating white bread.

I can’t help but like them.

Oh, I know they’re mean, blah blah. They’re not from here (me either).

But there’s something about a swan. How can you hate a swan?

Oh, I know JohnnyOysterSeed will probably have some good reasons to hate a swan. But honestly, I can’t think of one.

<the post ended here. Until I came home a few hours ago, and saw the comments…..>

For the record – here’s what a mute swan looks like – below. (Boy, I wasn’t even close. What was I thinking?) Photo courtesy of wildanimalsonline.com.

But – whatever. My point (whatever it was) still stands.

Ahem.

Summer in winter

I’ve been saving my last half pint of blackberry jam for some cold February mornings, and begged Kevin to not eat it all in one afternoon, but to make it last a few days……savor the sweet flavor of summer berries.

I picked these wild blackberries on hot July mornings, while the sun was low. I’d carry my red plastic strainer outside and starting at the bottom of the berry bushes, work my way up and around the property line, ringing the marsh. As the weeks of berries proceeded, I’d find more honeybees and giant garden spiders in those bushes. Once, I grabbed a bee with my bare hand (allergic!), and quickly threw it to the ground. With flowers and fruit thick, there was bounty a-plenty for all of us, birds, bees and me.

I remember the feel of the cool dew on those blackberry mornings, and the smell of the marsh at low tide. Coffeepot on, Zip by my side, Kevin reading on the porch, in his pjs.

Honestly, the memory is as good as the actual moment.

I wouldn’t eat too many while picking, mostly because I wanted to save them for this. February mornings. With peanut butter on toast.

Just like today.

February?

Really?

It was in the 60s yesterday, the first of what’s usually the most miserable, lonely, grumpy month of all. Shhh! Maybe winter forgot to visit us this year. I am totally willing to go along with that.

The best part of the day was late afternoon, when we hung out on the dock, telling stories about our adventures of the day. Sitting, listening to the sounds of the water, we heard voices……voices laughing! A taste of spring!

The second best part of the day was a quick visit to Claiborne landing, which always makes my heart soar. And a drive down one of the most beautiful lanes in America. Lucky? O yea.

Grateful!

The problem with the Treaty of Ghent…

…is that nobody really remembers it. Or cares much, anymore.

There. I said it.

See, Maryland is all in a tiff these days about plans for this year’s bicentennial celebration of the War of 1812. Seems the War isn’t getting enough attention, funds are not being raised as anticipated, and in general, there’s just not the buzz that the state-wide promoters were hoping for. The War of 1812 is, well…..old news.

Duh.

In an age when news is made, told, distributed and forgotten in the flash of an eye, a 200-year-old war just seems like ancient history. It’s not like Grandpa has stories about it, or Auntie has a still-broken heart as a result of the War of 1812.

And anyway….people are a little sick of war these days.

Crummy timing for a bicentennial party, Maryland.

It’s bad enough that they’re shoving it down our throats. When I got new license plates for my used car last fall, I tried to refuse the plates commemorating the War of 1812, asking for the plain standard – the white plate with an italicized “Maryland” in the center – a class act, as far as license plates go.  But nope, you gotta pay extra for the old plates. Seems that starting last year, every single Marylander gets license plates with bombs bursting in air whether they want it or not.

“You’re gonna make me glorify a war from two hundred years ago?” I asked the DMV worker. “Yes, Ma’am” she replied. “I’m a pacifist”, I tried. She just looked at me.

So, no wonder few are pitching in for War of 1812 parties. I feel like I’m commemorating it every time I sit in traffic and look at those license plates all around me. Even the celebration is old news.

How about we just give up, and move all that 1812 party money into the VA to help today’s veterans? God knows they could use it.

And in case you forgot – the Treaty of Ghent was the peace treaty ending the War of 1812, signed by the United States, Great Britian and Ireland. It was signed on December 24, 1814 in Ghent, which is now Belgium.

A gift?

Spied on the windshield of a truck parked on a road nearby –  a single, tiny bufflehead.

A gift from a friend?

Probably.

Among the loveliest and most abundant of our local winter waterfowl, these tiny sea ducks winter on the Chesapeake before heading north to their mating grounds in Alaska and Canada. Wikipedia tells us that bufflehead have evolved to this small size in order to fit the nesting cavity of their “metabiotic” host, a woodpecker, the Northern Flicker. With a fast metabolism and a need to constantly feed to sustain their tiny size, it’s easy to spend a solid hour just watching them dive, popping up minutes later at a distance that seems ridiculously far from their entry point. The birds feed locally on mollusks and crustaceans, aquatic plants and fish eggs.

An internet search for bufflehead recipes results in the repetitive use of the word “nasty” to describe their taste. Cooking suggestions include soaking in buttermilk, brining the bird breasts, and such. One wonders why you’d bother eating such a tiny bird if it’s so widely known as “nasty”.

Watching them, however, it’s obvious why people would want to hunt them. The diving and disappearing acts that they perform are mesmerizing, and aiming at such a tiny target must be a big test.  They’re great fun to try to shoot with a camera, and quite challenging at that. A big part of our local cultural heritage, waterfowl can be found on the supper table of many families on the Eastern Shore.  Food flies in to our communities, swims up, pops out of the ground, falls from the trees. Our Mayberry friends specialize in waterfowl – Alice cooked up some mallard not long ago that was to die for (oh wait, it did) and Renny cooks the most delicious goose you’ll ever taste anywhere.

I wonder what will become of this one.

Rise Up Coffee…..now roasting their own!

The best coffee in the world will soon be available in Easton – in a cute little commercial building that Tim and Abby Cureton are fixing up on Dover St. The building is sweet and Jim Richardson of Claiborne just put up their new sign. It looks terrific!

But even better – now, in this new building, they’re roasting their own! We’ve had a few samples – and they’re all fantastic. Tim hopes to open at the end of February, and will offer both indoor and outdoor seating.

The new Easton location marks the third Rise Up site on the Eastern Shore, in addition to Salisbury and St. Michaels. These entrepreneurs are proving that no matter what the economy is doing, people always need and want coffee.

One more cool thing about Rise Up is their commitment to the Peace Corps. Rise Up sends care packages to Peace Corps volunteers around the world. How cool is that?

When you’re in Talbot County – or Salisbury,MD - you’d be wise to slow down long enough to seek out and try the tastiest coffee in the world.

Out of thin air

…they appear on my drive…. Large (red oak?) leaves. One at a time, but only three times this winter, only one each month or so. Every time, I stop and look around. Whoa. Where did YOU come from?

No evidence of the tree that shed this hefty leaf. Every tree in my view is bare. All the leaves on the ground are shriveled, tiny, gray, half-gone.

BIG! About the size of my size nine foot. Waxy, thick, handsome, leathery – where on earth do they come from? I took a walk in the woods behind the house – nope. No trees with leaves like this, none on the ground.

I walk to the end of the road – nothing.

I look across the cove, out to Harris Creek. I suppose that once airborne, they float here on their own, self-winging, wafting through the air to my drive. I wonder how far they travel?

And you, Mr. Floater of January’s end – how long have you been aloft? Did you just break free?

Easton’s Rails to Trails

We took a walk the other day down a few blocks of Easton’s Rails to Trails – where the Purdue grain elevators are still in operation, moving corn and beans to Delmarva’s chicken operations. Part of Easton’s industrial past, the trail slides through what are now residential neighborhoods, as well as commercial and industrial ones.

I look forward to walking the entire length of the trail. Soon. But this is the part I’ve been itching to see first. Maybe it’s a desire to reconnect with the 25 years that I spent in the midwest, where grain elevators marked the edges of the Nebraska landscape, or the surprise of huge elevators right smack in the center of the City of St. Louis. Maybe it’s my love for industrial buildings in general, I dunno. But this walk was a treat.

Griff’s Fishing Report – Virginia Beach

Well, as you can see………there’s been some fish around Virginia Beach this winter!

Yup, that’s a whale. Our friend Griff, who’s mostly a kayak fisherman (man, you guys are gonna see some great stuff!) has offered to put us on his distribution list. Which means that every time he goes fishing, he’ll send us a report. This is a guy that fishes ALL THE TIME. He’s in Virginia Beach right now – at the bottom of the Bay, but often fishes in the Chesapeake.

Here’s what he said last week – “It’s been a while since reporting but fishing has been pretty good and the scenery even better!….sometimes a little scary! The only frustrating part is watching the Gannets diving while having coffee…..and not being able to go fishing because the Bay season closed Dec 31st.”

Griff says “The gannets and whales were from yesterday afternoon, around 40th to 65th street, you can see the hotels in the background. we didn’t catch any fish but it was a beautiful afternoon! Credit those pictures to “Jetski Brian”, here are some of his words: I went fishing for Striped Bass on my jet ski off of Virginia Beach today. I did not catch any fish even though the birds were diving and the bait was thick. I did not see any caught around me but I did hear a few were caught today.”

He goes on – “I had an exceptional day primarily because I was treated to several whale shows in the ocean today. I had six whales within sight most of the afternoon. One of them was splashing its fin and fluke for everyone to see. I see whales almost every winter but I have never seen this many consistently. No fish for me today but some great memories once again!”

Here’s Griff with some friends and their flounder catch last summer. He said -” We’re lucky in that we live in a high density area for dolphins and it never gets old being out fishing in the kayak, where it’s very quiet, and hearing the blows from the dolphins before you see them then watch them swim by.”

Think about that. You’re tooling around in a kayak, and you hear blows from dolphins before you even see them swim by.

Whoa!

Stay tuned for more fishing reports from Griff…… and one more look at a whale tail – WOW!