September Swan Song...

Can it be true?  Tomorrow is October???  Anyway, as the Old Bay begins to fade (see post below) from the fingers, we can turn to the usual Friday task of “to do” and other tidbits of this and that..

(Too Much) To Do:


The high season of festivals and “stuff” is upon us. Headlines this weekend include the Wine Festival at Sotterley featuring Maryland wines, local food and crafts. Although Sotterley Plantation took a big hit from Irene, the fields where the fest will be was pretty much unscathed so it should be a great weekend. With all the damage to the property, supporting this event will provide much needed funds, and you get to drink wine and eat good stuff too!

The other big event is the annual Blessing of the Fleet focused around St. Clements Island (where the colonists first made landfall), and Colton’s Point. Two days of music, tours of the Island, and a lot of family activities. I see there is a stuffed ham demo tomorrow at 1:30.

Smatterings of other stuff to do would include an Open house at Point Lookout, Summerseat is also having an open house. The Lore Oyster house on the Solomons will be holding classes on Oyster shucking, and feature “the giant fabric oyster “Rock. E. Feller”.

The weather is supposed to be autumn like, clear skies, no storms with names heading our way, so I don’t know what to say. Pick something and get out and enjoy our Southern Maryland, where there is nothing to do..

Did:

Every time I go to a Brian Ganz piano event, I swear I won’t mention it in the blog. Goodness knows, I have recounted enough of them in an attempt to get you interested. Well, I went, and I fail. Last night I attended the first evening edition of one of his Piano Talks. Brian has a way of explaining the music, and teaches you to hear things you (especially me) might not catch. He spoke about his first piece, Chopin’s Mazurka in B flat minor, Op. 24, No. 4 (how these things get named might be a subject of a future talk!) for a good 20 minutes. He talked about cadences, which in plain engineering talk is how pieces end. A familiar one is the “Amen” at the end of a hymn. He showed us the 4 -1, the 5 – 1, the 6 - 1, the 2 - 1, and his favorite: the 3 – 1. He also talked about modes (scales), intervals, and played examples of each. The then explained how Chopin used all of them in the piece, and said there would be a surprise at the end. He then played the piece which was beautiful (I thought a Mazurka would be crashy, after all it’s a dance), and at the end, sure enough, it ended on a single note (which in my rudimentary knowledge I would call a “seventh”). It just hung there… and then stopped. Chopin did not give “resolution”.  Brain said a sign of his genius.

He then went on to play a couple of Franz Liszt pieces (this year is his 200th birthday – Franz, not Brian). The second was an Etude after Paganini (no. 3, “la Campanella”). It was an astonishing piece, seemingly having more notes going on than ten fingers could produce. We were all exhausted when he finished.

Anyway, there I go again, but having this kind of talent available to us is a gift, and we should take every chance to experience it. Next opportunity is a week from today (the 7th) at noon. Chopin appears to be the subject.

Just a nice thing:

Yesterday, I was home and decided to take my lunch on the patio, with the gray lagoon now slumbering for the winter. So I prepared my (lately) standard (half) sandwich. Starting with single slice ofPepperidge Farm Original White bread cut in half, I put some Dijon (Gray Poupon) on one half, and butter on the other. Then I prepared three slices of (Boar’s Head) Pastrami (more lean than others for some reason), some (Boar’s Head) Imported Swiss, and assembled the sandwich: slice of pastrami, slice of cheese; pastrami, cheese; pastrami, cheese. And put the other half slice bread on top. Rounded out the plate with some Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips, and voila! Lunch. I selected a Heavy Seas Classic Lager, and headed out on the pool deck/patio. There was a lovely breeze that held down the insects, and brought out the sailors. It was a lovely clear day with gorgeous clouds

And the sailboats were enjoying the breeze as well

So I just sat and enjoyed an hour (and a second beer) or so of watching the world go by. These are the good times to be on the water. Even the view of the bridge was nice.

Funny, as I approach my 70th birthday, having these quiet moments for reflection and just enjoying simple things somehow are more meaningful. Do it.

Didn’t matter how I was

DFL(unch)

A Crabby Tale..

Alert readers will remember that earlier this summer a friend and I rekindled an experience (verging now on tradition) of picking crabs at a local crab shack (The Sea Breeze). During the summer visit, our server (Rose) said to return in September and October when they would be really “heavy”. We decided to do that.. So, with MFO in Wisconsin (not a fan of picking anyway) we decided we would follow Roses advice and drove over on Monday night.

There are certain requisites to be an authentic (Southern Maryland) traditional “crab shack”. First you must be “on” the water, with either a clapboard (the original Evans for instance) or plain cinder block building (Courtney’s) with plenty of neon beer signs and banners, preferably NOT for froo froo beers. Sea Breeze certainly qualifies there (with plus points for the scraggly palm trees).

The interior must have plain tables covered with brown paper

And the little caddy for napkins and malt vinegar, napkins and stuff.

There HAS to be the white placemat with local advertising on it when seated by the young lady (in a "house" tee shirt).  You bet:

The first order of business is to provide liquid refreshment and tools for the food. Beer MUST come in a pitcher (or long neck) and HAS to be a brand from the neon signs in the window. So a (plastic) pitcher of Miller Light was delivered along with frozen mugs, a knife, and a "whacker" (technical culinary term)

Our order consisted of a basket of Hush Puppies (there’s a story here, for later consumption) and a dozen crabs. The puppies arrived, in a configuration of tubes (I need to research this) and were a nice prelude to the main course of Callinectes Sapidus, more popularly known as hard crabs.

The crabs were some of the largest I have had the pleasure of being served

wow..

Of course the meat does not come to you, you have to go to it. It is not easy. Over the years I have finally evolved a technique that occasionally produces that elusive “crab lollypop” of a perfectly positioned lump of delicious crab meat. It’s the holy grail of crab picking.

And through the process a large amount of detritus is created, it’s not for the faint of heart.

The process is more rewarding when the crabs are big because the little pockets and crannies which conceal the meat are larger. These were some of the best crabs in my memory. The meat was sweet and very “crabby” tasting. We did our duty.

Extra Factoid.

A few years ago, an alert birder discovered that a Kelp Gull had adopted Sea Breeze as its winter home. Its normal range is far southern South America, so this one got some wires crossed. Once the bird received blessing as indeed being a Kelp Gull, people from all over (like national) came to get the bird on their “life list”. It developed an affinity for shrimp picked from the bins at Sea Breeze, and earned the nickname Shrimpy. It has not returned for the last few years, so most likely succumbed or unscrambled its navigational system. The local ornithology folks honored Shrimpy (and the Sea Breeze) with a plaque that is on display in the restaurant.

What a great experience. Nice firendly atmosphere, nice people, and great LOCAL food served appropriately in a “just right” setting. Run from the chains and find these places..

And for picking crabs, we don’t care how you are

DFD

Besides, you can’t pick crabs without wearing various bits of them, and your fingernails will smell like Old bay for days..

Boats and Titleists...

There is some sort of time compression going on. Just a few hours ago it was Friday and now I am informed that it is Monday…


On that Friday a few hours ago, MFO was successfully deposited at BWI and eventually made it to Onalaska, WI, where she currently remains visiting her mother (MFOM?) and sister (MFOS?). Back here in my bachelordom, the weekend was, well, the weekend. Rain, clouds and lack of enthusiasm resulted in the Feeder not attending the County Fair. It was what the locals call “fair weather”. And really, this will be about the third (?) in a row that I/we have not visited. Are we getting to be “locals”?

So, the feeder took advantage of our location to watch the practices and actual races of the Solomons Off Shore Grand Prix races. Big loud, really fast things are always fascinating and these are no exception. Geico is apparently very big in this arena as there were several entries in different classes. The actual races are kind of hard to watch because several classes are racing at once and it’s hard to know who’s racing who..

The other thing that occupied my time was watching various golf events on TV (oh no, here he goes again!) This weekend had both the Solheim Cup (kind of the women’s Ryder cup) and the men playing for that elusive and stupid FedEx cup.. okay, one last

Rant

The USA women were playing the European women in Ireland. I found out that the Euros have not won since 2003, and were not favored to win again this year. In the end, they did win the cup, and I was kind of happy for them. Probably good for the game. And for stodgy, between the lines old me, I really didn’t care much for our team. It seemed to me they thought they were entitled to win, showed up for each match dressed in some sort of gaudy costume that was a variation on the flag. And besides that, they had little flags painted on their faces. On every hole the loyal American fans chanted U-S-A!, U-S-A!, U-S-A!, after every shot, good or bad. On the final day, it was obvious that it was a lot closer than the Americans had figured, and it got down to the final singles matches. One of them was a high profile match between Michelle Wie and Suzann Pettersen. Now, alert readers will remember that Michelle was dubbed by that famous media to be the female Tiger Woods when she came on the scene at age 16 or whatever, and I have criticized her in the past for trying to qualify for men’s events (failing miserably). Well, on the final holes she sunk a rather long putt, and danced across the green, arms flailing, fist pumping, quite the antics. Well, Suzann calmly watched and proceeded to birdie the final three holes to take the match, and ultimately win the cup. I just don’t like heroics and showing off regardless of the sport. Those little decals looked pretty good when they were winning, not so much at the end..

And then I moved to the FedEx cup coverage of the final round of the Tour Championship. In the end, it was exciting, but the stupid media (those guys again) spent untold minutes trying to figure out who would win the cup with that stupid point system. It changed with almost every shot. If Haas makes this putt, he’ll go to first unless Baddeley holes out from the rough, or Mahan falls into the hazard. Just awful. With a hundred different scenarios as play progressed, it would have been possible for the winner of the tournament to NOT also get the FedEx cup. Mercifully it worked out that Bill Haas and Hunter Mahan went into a playoff for the whole enchilada. Both were nice guys, but Bill Haas won, including a wonderful shot from the water hazard. It’s nice to see nice guys. Phil of course was all over the course spraying tee shots and the long putter was erratic. Anyway, thank God that’s over for another year..

Lastly, our “new” McDonalds is open. Yippee. People still continue to drive into the old one..

And who cares if they are

DFD

Fast Friday..

Been a bit since we've chatted, but kind of a dull week.   But busy weekend begins with a busy Friday. MFO is once again heading for Wisconsin, but this time on great silver bird, so the Feeder will provide escort service this morning to get her to the aerodrome..


So a bit abbreviated report this morning, and nothing much about food today. The “to do” list is large this weekend probably headlined by the annual St. Mary's County Fair. There are those that believe that it “always rains on fair weekend”, and it appears that they will be justified this year. Rain and some boomers are expected to hang around all weekend.

Also this weekend is the Offshore Grand Prix Boat Races, to be held right out our back door between the digs and the Solomons. It’s an event that features those humongous boats with closed cockpits and fins that travel faster than you think they could over water. Like anything else that is big, loud, and really fast they are fascinating to watch. Kind of like airplanes on the water. The official races are Sunday afternoon, but there are practice sessions Saturday. We did notice somebody roaring around last evening.. So, that’s another thing to add to the list maybe. Miss Geico is pretty impressive (the boat, don’t know if there’s a person)

I spent an “interesting” day yesterday down at Historic St. Mary’s City. They annually have a “Home School Day” with special rates and programs for the homeschooling community. MFO was to help with check in, and I of course manned the Chapel.

I am always glad to help the City, but I think someplace along the way I confessed that I was probably second only to W. C. Fields in my love of children… they are not my favorite visitors to the chapel.

So, after setting up camp around ten I settled in to face the homeschoolers. Sure enough a pack of them (they seemed to be in packs yesterday for some reason) was charging up the path from the Visitor center with the littlest one in front of the group of about 8 or 9. Getting ready, I watched as he approached the path to the chapel and…….. passed the entrance and just kept going as did the followers. Here’s this beautiful Chapel that sticks out like a… (pick something) and they didn’t even give it a look. I can’t say I was terribly disappointed, but it is rare that people pass the Chapel without at least sticking their head in. Oddly enough this phenomenon occurred for the rest of the day with more than half of the roving bands of children and exasperated parents. It could be that they were going to the re-enactor’s civil war exhibit just up the path from the Chapel. Nothing like guns to attract kids.

There were a few groups that did come to the chapel, with varying amounts of interest. Mostly they liked the building and didn’t care too much about the history. After trying several tactics to engage the kids, I finally found that the Piscina (the hole in the wall where the water from cleaning vessels used in the service is dumped) the little drawing showing all the graves in the chapel field was popular, as was the photo of Anne Wolseley’s leg bone. And, as usual the amazing acoustics of the chapel were very popular for screaming contests..

I did, however learn something that may alter my patter from now on. I usually talk about that slide that shows the (red) graves and the chapel foundation by saying something about the use of “ground penetrating radar”, which, while accurate is kind of over the head of most people, and especially kids. Today I said the “ground penetrating radar” to a group of them and was met with blank stares. Where upon the lady herding them spoke up and said “It’s like when the doctor ran that thing over my belly and you saw your brother!”. Ah, the light bulbs went on….Brilliant!! So maybe my “it was done with ground penetrating radar” could be replaced by “Sort of a sonogram on the ground”.

As the afternoon wore on, the roving bands seemed to diminish and I struck camp and came home.

An early look at today’s Enterprise reveals a nice article on the North End Gallery in Leonardtown which recently celebrated their 25th year of existence. Time does move on.

And the featured restaurant is a “new” Sushi place (Kobe Bar and Grill) up in Waldorf for all you fans of that particular cuisine, for which you can count me out.. I will eat the “raw fish” variety (which has a name) but the rice stuff wrapped in seaweed is not attractive to me.. Probably need a personal guide sometime..  There was no explanation why a sushi place (primarily seafood) is named for beef.

So, after finally working in something about food, it’s almost time to saddle up for the BWI run.

but i will also throw in the usual reminder to

DFD

Kings and etc.....

A weekend with tons of football, another thrilling golf tournament leading up to the FedEx cup, necessitated a day of recovery yesterday. So to catch up...


Sunday afternoon the Bottom Feeder transformed himself into King Oyster, and made a regal appearance at the Taste of St. Mary’s over in Leonardtown. Once you get over the initial “I look like a fool” feeling, it’s kind of fun. I always enjoy talking to people and this provides a great chance for that. Kids love me/King Oyster. At one point a couple of charming little girls sort of worked up their courage and asked if they could have my autograph. “I don’t have any paper”. Oh, no, we want you to sign our arms.. and King Oyster obliged. In the course of conversation (with adults) of course I always bring up the Oyster Festival – the raison d’être for King Oyster. I am continually amazed that I get responses like “I’ve lived here (20) years, and never have been to it!”; or worse “I’ve lived here (20) years, what’s that?”.

After working the crowd for a while, I transformed back into the Bottom Feeder, and made the rounds of the food tents with a fistful of the little red tickets. The booths were mostly occupied by the chef or owner of the particular establishment and it’s always fun to see them. I left the trusty Canon in the car so don’t have any images, but we did enjoy the food. Somehow a lot of the dishes leaned to spicy, as there was the Bison Chili from Café Des Artistes, a Jerk Chicken from Chef’s Bistro, Island Bar and Grill had blackened rockfish, etc. I certainly didn’t sample all of the things that were there, and I purposely avoided the Stoney’s truck. Stay over in Calvert, please (although yes they were entitled). There was only one place that offered Oysters, I believe it was Clarke’s Landing. King Oyster gave them special commendation. As the Geezer’s were getting ready to play, the rains arrived and ushered King Oyster and the Bottom Feeder back to the confines of the digs. And the wide screen.

These kinds of community events are always fun, and worth getting out of the house for. Upcoming events of note would be the County Fair this weekend, the Sotterley Wine fest the following weekend, and the famous Oyster Festival on the 15th.. wish there was something to do..

A letter

There was a letter in the mail box yesterday addressed to me, with a return address of the Beaux Frères Winery in Newburg, Oregon. Hmmm, what’s this? Turned out to be another example of the creativity of those clever marketing folk. The letter began with: “Dear wine (and freedom) loving Marylanders”. It then went on to congratulate me on the fact the Maryland legislature passed a law allowing direct ship from an out of state winery to my home. And just by coincidence “your cause for celebration finds us in the midst of our 2009 vintage release”, and how they would be glad to ship me some wine at reduced shipping (if you buy 6 or more bottles). They appear to be an exclusive Pinot Noir house and they were offering three labels of ’09. The price list was included for my benefit. Pinot’s always are pretty pricey, and their “cheapest” bottle of the Willamette Valley was $50 and the other two were $80 and 90. But, if you were willing to buy 6 bottles you could get the Willamette for $300. Oh, wait… how about the 1.5L (two bottles) for $100.. Hmmm… They also included a little card with tasting notes from the Wine Spectator along with a list of their ratings from 1991 through the present release. Scores ranged from 90 to 95. Of course Wine Spectator is famous for rating 90% of wines in the world at ~88 or above. Helps with that marketing you know… and finally the letter was signed by (sic): Michael Etzel (wine grower and freedom advocate). What a selfless guy..

There are many facets and opinions on the “new” law, with some valid points on either side. I do, however appreciate the opportunity to talk to a knowledgeable “wine guy” at a store, maybe get a taste, and learn about a particular wine or maybe a suggestion or two.

Another Anniversary

Not a hurricane, but the one year anniversary of the start of last year's trip to Ireland. What wonderful memories are associated with that trip. We’re probably going to join pretty much the same group for a trip to Scotland next year..

And we will have to pack to be able to

DFD