"(????) is the place for me"

For those of you old enough to remember (or are trivia freaks), “Green Acres” is the “place for me”. It definitely was yesterday. As county folk know that’s the name of a nursery out near Loveville. I used to frequent it for plants and flowers, but when it changed families, it sort of fell on hard times and I quit going there. On a tip that it “was back” I went out there again to seek some Basil that doesn’t taste like anise, along with hopes of finding a certain variety of ornamental grass I needed to complete the beds around the Grey Lagoon.

Since I hadn’t been there in over a year, I was a bit uncertain about the exact route from the Route 5 side, so took the Maypole road over from Leonardtown. I was delighted to see that there is still a “rural” road around that hasn’t been sullied by timber hackers, or populated with vinyl coated dwellings. It passes through woods, open fields, marshy places, with actual wild life and birds. Anyway, finally arrived at Green Acres and started my hunt. They had very many plants and little buildings full of flowers, hanging baskets, and vegetables. And, much to my surprise several 4” pots of virulent, robust, Panicum Virgatum “Heavy Metal”. Also got the Basil (they must have had ten varieties), and then thought I’d see if they had some Russian Sage which I decided I needed more of. My first search didn’t uncover any so asked one of the young ladies if they had some. Instead of the no eye contact Lowe’s type response of: “I dunno, if we do, they’re over there”, it was “I think we do, let’s go see!”. She walked me to a place that was right under my nose at one point, and said “yes, here they are!”. What a treat. Besides a great array of growing things, they have a very nice selection of ceramic pots, such as you pay hundreds of dollars for from Frontgate for very reasonable prices. So, bottom line was that I got all I wanted, and it had a very nice bottom line.

Another place for me…

Is St. Mary’s College. Last night, I went down to St. Mary’s Hall (second time in 6 days) to join my “audience in residence” friends to listen to this year’s final recital of Brian Ganz’s students. It featured about a dozen of his students, this time not only piano but also voice, clarinet, and violin. For some of them, this was their last performance, while others will be around to treat us again in the future. Again with the caveat that I am not musically adept, I heard what I perceived as a couple of little flaws here and there, but I did remember that the word “student” means you are learning. A special treat for me was to be able to hear Jonah Yeh again. Some people “play the music” but some are able to “be the music”. I think this applies to Jonah. I can’t wait to see where his career will take him (assuming he doesn’t branch off to his other love, baseball). I hope he remains local so that we can follow his abilities. During a short intermission, Brian introduced each of his departing students, said some very nice and personal words about each one. You can see it’s not just a “class”, but very close to family. A real treat to be able to observe.

Which got me to (uh oh) thinking. I am currently reading a book called “Hidden Kitchens” (feeder highly rated) by NPR’s Kitchen Sisters, who seek out little food enclaves associated with say, NASCAR garages, street people with george forman grills, the Chili Queens, political rally back rooms, and so forth where good and interesting food is turned out for small groups in unlikely places. In a way, last night’s concert can be considered the same thing. The college has many of these little relatively unadvertised recitals and performances that are really gems. I’m sure COSMIC must have similar events. They are chances to see tomorrow’s musicians mature and explore their talents. Gotta find out more about them.. Nothing to do in St. Mary’s County… yeah, right.

FYI

There’s a nice article about the latest Slackwater book in today’s enterprise.. for those who have been under a cultural rock, it’s the latest in the series of journals about environmental and cultural change in Southern Maryland. It’s edited by Julia King an anthropologist at the College. Previous editions have centered on watermen or tobacco farmers, but this one concentrates on the economic and cultural changes of the 60’s and 70’s. You can get it at the college book store.

DFD