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?

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.

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!

January, just as I remember it.

Silent and sleepy Sunday.

These are aquaculture oysters, started in a lab at Horn Point – remember passing the little lunch box labeled “Jon” with a baggie of brown goo, that felt like some kind of drug deal? Here’s the photo of these oysters just two years ago, when they were tiny specks of larvae. 4 million tiny specks, to be exact.

Tossed into bubbling buckets with oh-so-many siblings, finding the right moment to “strike” upon pieces of pulverized shell, these oysters were started in captivity in Johnny Oyster Seed’s upwellers, on Broom Island, on the other side of the Bay.

Months later, they ended up in  Johnny’s “Revolutions” here on the Eastern Shore. And two years later, they ended up in my kitchen sink. Last evening, to be exact.

The big ones – and dang! These are big! – are best for chowders and such. Last evening we made some oyster grinders, like we used to eat at the Broadway Oyster Bar in South St. Louis. First, shuck ‘em, saving their milky liquid.

Chop them up, saute in butter with onions and a little something else – I used some yellow squash. Add some cayenne pepper and for Maryland’s sake, some Old Bay (salt). Slide the buttery goo onto some chunks of Lighty’s delicious bread from Hoboken, and pop in the oven at 400 for ten minutes till they bubble. That oyster milk and butter soak in and….yum.

O yea – good. Savory. Succulent. Satisfying. CRUNCH.

For more information on how to grow oysters, find the SEARCH box at the top right of this blog, and type in “Growing Oysters” – or – line down on the right side of the blog to the CATEGORY “growing oysters”. There are at least a dozen or so posts over the past two years about growing oysters. And if you want to try it, email me – we can get you started. Check out Johnny Oyster Seed’s website.

The old bridge was falling apart. I’m not kidding. I recall reading that one of the underwater bridge surveyors was able to swim underneath one of the piers holding up the bridge.

What?

YES. He swam between the part of the bridge that was sunk into the bottom of the inlet, and the pier holding up the bridge. Given that millions of people visit the Delaware and Maryland seashores each summer, I guess those new bridge tax dollars were freed up pretty quickly after that discovery. Whoa.

The new bridge doesn’t have any structural elements going into the water at all, it’s purely a suspension bridge. Pretty cool. Good thing, because if you look at a map of this area, you see how small the inlet is in comparison to all the water around it. The tide pours in and out of that tiny inlet twice a day. If you stand there, watching the fishermen on the jetty, you see how serious that water is. Heading out in a small boat to the ocean through this inlet is SCA-RY! Here’s a map, so you can see.

And finally, a view going over the bridge. The beaches up ahead are just part of Delaware’s natural seashores. Did you know that Delaware has protected 17 miles of its shoreline from development? Pretty impressive. These beaches are accessible if you’re surf fishing, or walking, but you’ll find no gigantic mc-mansions along here. Thank you to whomever had the foresight years ago to protect these beaches! And if you want to see what it COULD look like, go south to Fenwick Island, or worse yet – Ocean City, Maryland. But that’s a topic for another day (hint = yuck).

First, this one belongs to my young neighbor, God love him – hard-working young man. His truck is maybe 10 feet tall, gigantic. Heckuva motto.

And then this one, trucking on down Rt. 50 the other day. It’s a little blurry, but I think you can read it. What on earth is this supposed to mean? And why would you put it on your truck? Perhaps there’s a culture lesson here, but I’m not gettin’ it.

Can you imagine being lucky enough to be remembered like Mr. Moody is remembered?

“A good man and true.”

Whoa….. Simple words, but powerful.

This cemetery, like so many other historic African-American cemeteries on the east coast – could easily disappear.

Luckily, there’s a group working to save it.

Read the full story here on the Talbot Spy.

A different kind of beautiful.

I’ve been longing to add video and audio that might give you a glimpse into our County here in Maryland – Talbot County – and into the world of our local watermen and the Bay, and seafood, and what’s happening here - right now – right in front of our eyes. I’d love for you to hear this local dialect, words directly from the mouths of my neighbors – this last group of fishermen, clammers, crabbers, oystermen.

It wasn’t too long ago, that scientists stated in their reports to the government, that people who hunt and fish for a living will slowly perish. Times are changing, folks. Between the pollution and the runoff, and the heat of the water, and the parasites and the many impacts on the survival of water species…..the economy and the pressure from Asia and such….we’re in the very midst of it all right now.

This really is the last generation of men working the water independently, as their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers did before them. One or two giant corporations will take over seafood in our little Bay in the future in a blink of the eye, just like they took over agriculture in our country. Amazing, what changes our generation is seeing, right now, right before our eyes.

And luckily for us, just today, I got permission from Annie Escobar to share this incredible video with you, right here – on A Chesapeake Journal: not only is the videography stunning, the storytelling is absolutely stellar. See for yourself, and click here.

And to learn more about this fantastic group, “Listen in Pictures”, documenting with video – click here. Thanks so much to all of you, Listen in Pictures, for your fantastic work and for letting us sharing this piece of our own culture, right here, right now.

Damn. Important. Stuff.

(and if for some crazy reason, the link didn’t work for you – click here – http://listeninpictures.com/video-premiere-the-last-waterman-of-wittman)