Get Your Feet Wet The Wye House Featherweights Shore Talk Quick Six

Get Your Feet Wet

Wade-In at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center

Visitors and local representatives assess water quality.

On Saturday, June 2, the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center (CBEC) in Grasonville will host its ninth annual Wade-In Festival. There, you'll have a chance to join in the fun as festivalgoers and local representatives wade into the Bay together. Participants walk into the water slowly, so as not to churn up sight-obscuring particles resting on the bottom. Carefully they note the point at which their white sneakers become obscured. A measurement is taken, revealing its “sneaker index.” The festival attracts attendees from all segments of the community—farmers, politicians, business owners, and local folks of all ages. In short, those people who enjoy the water unite to focus on observing the health of the Bay and its connecting tributaries. (If you don't want to get your feet wet, it makes for great entertainment too!) The activity promises to alert citizens to the importance of eliminating pollution from our waterways. The source of so many of our pleasures, the Chesapeake Bay provides Marylanders with recreation, jobs, food, beautiful views, and more.

In addition to the Wade-In, you can enjoy a kayak or canoe excursion. There will also be plenty of informational booths on hand offering displays and literature that feature the latest conservation advice, such as Bay-friendly methods of lawn and septic care and ways to prevent shoreline erosion. Receive instruction on native habitats or learn how to oyster garden. Be sure to pack a lunch to enjoy a peaceful picnic next to Lake Knapp .

This popular CBEC event gives you the opportunity to become better acquainted with and deepen your appreciation of native plant life and animals. Knowledgeable docents will guide bird walks so that you can observe and learn about our feathered friends whose existences are dependent on the Bay and its surrounding habitat. The air will be filled with the lilting bluegrass and old time country music of the Bay Country Gentlemen.Rail hikes, following the path of a defunct railroad, provide scenic views of nature, and children's games entertain kids as well as instruct them in Bay basics. At the Scales and Tales exhibit, kids can enjoy an up-close visit with birds and reptiles.

Similar festivals will take place in May and June throughout the Bay region. Each Wade-In reflects the personality of the specific region hosting it; for example, the Patapsco-Back Wade-In offers demonstrations using a secchi disk, a scientifically valid tool to measure water quality, and on the Choptank River , the town of Oxford incorporates an extremely popular cardboard boat race into its festival. Despite the local variations of the Wade-Ins, the traditional Wade-In remains unchanged.

The What's Up? Guide to Getting There

What : 9th Annual Wade-In Festival

Where : Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center, Wildfowl Trust of North America , 600 Discovery Lane , Grasonville

When : Saturday, June 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (rain or shine)

Early Bird Prize : The first 200 people receive free tee shirts

Admission : Free

Information : (410) 827-6694, cbec@cbec-wtna.org , or www.wildfowltrust.org

Who Makes It Possible : The Wade-In is hosted by the Wildfowl Trust of North America, Inc. and Maryland 's Tributary Teams, and is sponsored by Atlantic Broadband, Queenstown Bank of Maryland , and Centreville National Bank.

Schedule

10 a.m. Booths open

10:30 a.m. Canoe & kayak excursion & kids' program

11 a.m. Live bluegrass, bird hike, & raptor program

11:30 a.m. Kids' program

Noon Acknowledgements ceremony, science fair awards, & tee-shirt design award

12:15 p.m. Wade-In & ½ mile geocashing hike

12:45 p.m. Rides to the Salt Panne

1 p.m. Wade-In, led by local representatives

1:30 p.m. Seining at the Salt Panne

1:45 p.m. Canoe excursion & bird hike

2 p.m. Festival ends but feel welcome to stay and explore the 610-acre campus

Bernie Fowler has a particular childhood memory that is so vivid, that he cherishes so much, he longs to bring it back to life. To those of us who prefer to let go of the past, such an aspiration may strike us as foolhardy or simply nostalgic.

But Bernie Fowler won't give up.

Before he served as Senator of Maryland, the now-retired Fowler spent much of his Calvert County youth in the waters of the Patuxent. He can recollect standing immersed chest-deep and looking down at his quite visible feet. Nowadays, murky water hinders such views, and a child who walks into chest-deep water would be lucky to see his or her thighs.

Almost 20 years ago, Bernie Fowler decided to do something about the state of the increasingly cloudy Chesapeake Bay and the tributaries that feed into it. He came up with the idea of a community Wade-In, a day when people got together and walked into the water to gauge the current level of visibility.

Fowler's inaugural Wade-In caught on, and over time, more regions began organizing their own annual community outreach and education program, no two of which are identical.

If you make your attendance at the fest an annual ritual, you may just find yourself in increasingly clear water, evidence of the Bay's restoration. And that would thrill Bernie Fowler.

2007 Wade-Ins

6/3 Lower Potomac Tributary Team & the Port Tobacco River Conservancy Wade-In, Chapel Point State Park , Chapel Point Road off Route 6 (near La Plata ), Port Tobacco Time TBA.

6/9 Upper Western Shore Wade-In , Anita Leight Estuary Otter Point Road , Abingdon. 2-5 p.m.

6/10 Patuxent River-Bernie Fowler Wade-In , Brooms Island . Time TBA

6/12 Lower Eastern Shore Tributary Team Wade-In , Cherry Beach Park on the Nanticoke River , Sharptown. Time TBA.

6/23 Choptank Wade-In , sponsored by the Oxford chapter of Boatbums International, to benefit MD Special Olympics, Oxford . Time TBA.

6/23 South River Federation's Sojourn and Wade-In , Edgewater Beach , Anne. Time TBA.

6/24 Lower Potomac Tributary Team's Wade-In at the Mirant's Morgantown Power Plant (near the MD 301 Bridge) Morgantown , Charles County . 2-5 p.m.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Carrie Decker of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (410) 260-8723

Tour, Toast & Taste at the Wye House

Triple treat fundraiser to preserve history and nature

By Bonna Nelson

The historic Wye House estate in Easton .

A triple treat awaits those attending the June 16 Tour, Toast & Taste fundraising event at the historic Wye House in Easton . For over 200 years guests have traveled through the brick pillared entrance, down the oak and beech lined lane and onto the large circular driveway that approaches the mansion which overlooks Lloyd's Creek and the Wye River .

Situated on 1500 acres and surrounded by other notable estates, the picturesque property has been the seat of the Lloyd family since 1658 when the first Edward Lloyd, a Puritan of Welsh ancestry, received a thousand acre land grant. He named the body of water adjacent to the property after the Wye River in Wales . Lloyd offspring have always owned, occupied, and maintained their ancestral home. At one point in the early 1820s the family held 42,000 acres of tobacco, wheat, and corn.

Since it was first built the Wye House has been a center for public and social life and hospitality in Talbot County and surrounding Eastern and Western Shore counties. For the Tour, Toast & Taste event, Lloyd family descendents again open their home and extend their hospitality to benefit the nearby Pickering Creek Audubon Center and the Historical Society of Talbot County, both in Easton .

Richard Tilghman, a twelfth generation Lloyd and a current occupant of Wye House says, “My family considers it our obligation to share our home to benefit the community. Wye House has been a stopping point on many home and garden tours that benefit local nonprofits including the biannual Talbot County Garden Club, Home and Garden Tour. And we always have academicians here studying some aspect of the estate, most recently University of Maryland archaeologists.”

“We are very interested in everything related to this property and in preserving the house and the family history,” says Richard's mother Mary Tilghman, an eleventh generation Lloyd who is working with the archaeologists. “We have over 400 boxes of Lloyd family papers which extensively document the history of Wye House and the surrounding area which are of great interest to historians.”

A tour of the Wye House is the first treat of the Tour, Toast & Taste evening. Some call the historic treasure America 's greatest family estate for its history, state of preservation, and the continuing distinguished public service of the Lloyd family. Beginning at 6 p.m., docents will show guests through the spacious first floor of the home built by the Lloyds in 1784. Wye House contains beautiful, priceless antique furnishings especially purchased for the home when it was first built, as well as furnishings that predate it.

The elegant 2-½ story winged structure, a dignified Federal-period style home with a Palladian portico, is entered through a fan lighted front door. In the main hall stands a grandfather clock dating to the early 1700s and a small cannon taken from the Lloyd's eighteenth century yacht. The furnishings in the south and north parlors and dining room have changed little over the past 200 years, even the arrangement of the furnishings are preserved as if in a museum, yet the home has a lived in feeling to it.

Adorning the walls in the impressive north parlor are four large maritime oil paintings of British naval battles ordered for Wye House in 1790 as well as gilt mirrors custom made in London . Throughout the house portraits of Lloyds embellish the walls and family heirlooms and memorabilia are visible.

The veranda at the rear of the house faces an expansive lawn, the bowling green , and the orangery, a large French Provincial style building with many windows. Temperatures are kept warm in the orangery to grow lemons, oranges, and other fruits. The orangery is thought to be the only one of its period still standing in Maryland . Several acres of gardens include aged boxwoods, holly, lilacs, and other ornamental specimens. And beyond the orangery stands one of the oldest graveyards in America ; twelve generations of Lloyds are buried there and one gravestone dates back to 1684.

The second treat of the evening, the toast, is the enjoyment of an array of the finest wines while strolling on the bowling green of the Wye House. Minstrels will entertain.

Under the tent the third treat includes tasting a selection of savory hors d'oeuvres to satisfy all palates along with the opportunity to purchase fabulous land and water dining experiences and to bid on enticing event packages during the live auction.

“Twenty-four gourmet dining opportunities will be available for purchase at the event,” offered Kathleen Kurtz, dinner committee chairperson. “A sampling of the dining experiences offered includes, the French Bistro Fare , a taste of France prepared by a celebrity chef flown in for the event from his restaurant, La Goulue, in Bal Harbor , Florida . The Cruise and Caribbean Evening includes cocktails and Caribbean dishes served aboard a 47-foot sailboat cruising on the Tred Avon and Choptank Rivers . Have a taste for Mexican? This event includes a tennis clinic with a tennis pro and a tennis game followed by margaritas and Tex/Mex cuisine—a Cinco De Mayo Margarita Tennis Night . Events will be held throughout the year following the gala fundraiser.”

Kevin Greaney, the live auction chairperson, says, “We have a terrific line up of live auction items, too, including a total Nantucket vacation package—a retreat to the island of Nantucket with airfare, accommodations and meals all included. Pack a bathing suit and some shorts and just go, everything is planned for you! For the sports fans there is a sports package that includes tickets to club level seats for Baltimore and Washington , D.C. area teams such as the Orioles, Ravens, Terps, Redskins, Nationals, and Wizards. And, sailing enthusiasts will want to bid on a sailing trip and lunch on the Tred Avon River aboard a log canoe.”

Close to Wye House, the 400-acre Pickering Creek Audubon Center, located on Pickering Creek, off Wye River, near the Chesapeake Bay and Easton, focuses on environmental education and outreach on both sides of the bay as well as wildlife habitat preservation. Visitors can stroll down nature trails, bird watch, canoe, and visit the children's imagination garden and an herb garden. Yearly, over 16,000 visitors, including all Talbot County school students, benefit from Pickering 's science classes, family events, and community programs.

The Historical Society of Talbot County (HSTC) is a complex of restored seventeenth and eighteenth century homes, museum with temporary exhibits, gift and antique shop, auditorium, and gardens in Easton . HSTC focuses on the preservation of artifacts and structures of Maryland 's Eastern Shore as well as living history education. HSTC collections include more than 10,000 artifacts. The complex is open for tours year-round.

Tour, Toast & Taste is an exciting and unique pairing of two nonprofits for the mutual benefit of both organizations and the community. Guests will be wined, dined, and serenaded while purchasing unique dining experiences and trips to benefit the missions of two Eastern Shore nonprofits engaged in preserving nature, landscapes, wildlife habitats, environment, culture, structures, and history.

Featherweights Descend on Federalsburg

By Donna Whicher

On Friday and Saturday, June 22 and 23, Eastern Shore residents and visitors can attend a poultry extravaganza. The 58th Annual Delmarva Chicken Festival kicks off with a pre-fest carnival at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 21, at Marshy Hope Marina Park in Federalsburg. The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday. Organizers are geared up to shower more than 20,000 people with a flurry of food, family fun, arts and crafts, and entertainment.

The annual fest dates back to the 1950s, and the location rotates among towns on the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia peninsula. It's been 13 years since Federalsburg, which is known as "The Poultry Capital of the World" and located in the geographic center of the Delmarva peninsula , last played host to the event. The first festival (1948) showcased the “Chicken of Tomorrow Contest.” During the early decades of the festival, chickens weren't the only attractions: lovely young ladies from the area competed in a beauty pageant and vied for the "Poultry Princess" title. Times have changed, and this year's festival offerings reflect those changes.

Why not find a 6-foot tall chicken to pose for photographs with? Or perhaps you want to take a spin on a carnival ride, collect some new recipes, or taste freshly made world-famous Maryland fried chicken. The fest will feature live music, a home and trade show, waterfront activities, car show, mini grand prix, talent show, and Delmarva's Giant Fry Pan-a 10-foot cooker that will feed over 9000 chicken pieces to hungry festivalgoers. A variety of food vendors as well as craftspeople will be on hand. Children's activities include educational poultry displays, a baby chick area, and "chicken capers" (fun and games), and kids should keep an eye out for clowns.

There's no rain date set, so let's all hope the sun shines and the sky doesn't fall that weekend. Admission is free and parking shuttle service to festival grounds will be available. The Town of Federalsburg and the Federalsburg Business and Civic Association host the event; the non-profit trade group, Delmarva Poultry Industry Incorporated (DPI), sponsors the event to draw attention to Delmarva's broiler chicken industry. For information call DPI at (800) 878-2449 or (302) 856-9037 or e-mail dpi@dpichicken.com

Schedule

Thursday, 6/21

6:30 p.m. P review night: carnival rides and games at special family prices

Friday, 6/22

10 a.m. Festival opens

10:30 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

10–4 Antique car, truck, and tractor show

10–8 Food concessions, including giant pan-fried chicken, home and trade show, arts and crafts show, c hildren's corner, baby chick display, and e ducational exhibit: “Chicken Myths and Facts”

11 Opening ceremonies

11–10 Carnival rides and games

12 p.m. MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

12 –1 Ty Bolden, g ospel

1–2 TBA

1:30 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

2–3 TBA

3 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

3–4 MTS FM broadcast on stage

4:15–5:15 Puppetry by Jack Forraker

4:30 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

5:30–7:30 26 th Annual Colgate Country Showdown

6 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

7:45–8:45 Federalsburg Community Choir, “A Patriotic Celebration of God and Country”

Saturday, 6/23

9 a.m. festival opens

9–1 Big Wheel Competition Registration

1 Big Wheel Races to b enefit American Diabetes Association

9–5 Classic car show and antique tractor show

9–9 Home and trade show, arts and crafts show, children's corner, baby chick display, educational exhibit: “Chicken Myths and Facts”

9–10 Food concessions, including giant pan-fried chicken , carnival rides, and games

10–5 National Child Safety Program : “Escape from Abductor”

10–3 Mini Grand Prix, Veteran's Drive

10:30 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

11–1 Innaugural Marshy Hope River Raft Race

11–7 Train Rides Aboard the MD-DE Railroad

12 p.m. MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

12–1 TBA

12:30–2 Chicken capers ( competition for kids of all ages)

1–2 Ray Owen b luegrass, oldies, and karaoke

1:30 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

2 Mini Grand Prix Main Race, Veteran's Drive

2–3 Lee Denny, oldies

3 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

3–4 The Hillbilly Rock and Roll Gospel Band

4–5 Over The Edge, c ontemporary

4:30 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station

6 MD-DE Railroad train ride departs Federalsburg Train Station .

5–6 Jerry Jones, gospel

6–6:30 Winner—26th Annual Colgate Country Showdown

7–8 Bird Dog and the Road Kings, country

8–9 Laura Bryna, country

9:15 Fireworks display

Entertainment will take place on the Main Stage unless otherwise noted.

Free parking at Frank M. Adams Industrial Park (Rte. 318), VFW Grounds (Veteran's Dr.), M&M Refrigeration ( Caroline Industrial Park ), designated lots along University Ave. , and Main St .

Shore Talk

By Amy Blades Steward

John T. Miller, 92, of Easton , Retiree – “After WW I, my dad went to Africa and began a career shipping premium woods to America . As a hobby, my dad made clocks, furniture, and cabinetry. I learned woodworking from him in his home workshop.”	Pam Showacre, 46, of Preston , Natural Health Consultant – “My dad was a weightlifter and taught me how to take care of my body, be goal-oriented, and have a sense of responsibility. Now I am one of the managers of a health food store.”
Michelle Hostetter, 43, of Oxford , Mother – “My stepdad taught me to laugh at the silliest things.”	Christie Towers , 19, of Easton , Student – “I learned from my dad that when it's cold outside my tires will look flatter because of the temperature.”
Larry Bruggeman, 60, of Denton , Retail – “My dad was a carpenter. He left for work at 7 a.m. and came home when the job was finished. I got my work ethic from him.”	Nikita Wilson, 19, of Easton , Nursing Assistant/Retail – “My dad is a pastor. He taught me to have faith in God and to trust him.”

The Quick Six: Sue Ellen Thompson

Loss can defeat us or serve as the impetus for positive change. Here, Sue Ellen Thompson …shows us how to mourn inevitable changes, tuck the memories away, then go on to see the possibility of a new and promising chapter in one's life.— Ted Kooser (U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006) on Thompson's poem, “No Children, No Pets”

Sue Ellen Thompson's poetry has garnered many accolades—her book, The Golden Hour (2006), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and her poetry was selected for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2006 . She has been invited to read in New England , New York , Washington D.C. , and Galway , Ireland , in addition to appearing on Garrison Keillor's National Public Radio show, “The Writer's Almanac.” She recently edited The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry . She's new to the Eastern Shore, having moved here from Connecticut , and her husband is the president of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels.

What's Up? Eastern Shore : What inspired you to become a poet?

Sue Ellen Thompson : I became a poet because I loved the intensity of the experience of reading a poem—its ability to convey profound emotion with just a few words or an image. I began writing it in my twenties, a period of great emotional turmoil. And nothing was more satisfying than being able to put some of that turmoil to rest by encapsulating it in language.

WUES : Which poets have had the most influence on you and your work?

SET: Having attended Middlebury College in Vermont , I grew up in the shadow of Robert Frost. I admired his directness and simplicity, his ability to use everyday language and to write poems that could be understood and appreciated by ordinary people. But I wrote my master's thesis on Wallace Stevens, another great New England poet who is the exact opposite of Frost in many ways. I do not pretend to have anything in common with either of these poets, but I think that as a young writer I was trying to find a place for myself somewhere between Frost's plain-spokenness and Stevens' wild imaginativeness.

WUES : I understand you recently moved here from Connecticut . Would you say a bit about your background: where you're originally from and what brings you to the Shore?

SET: I was born in New Jersey but spent my summers on Lake Champlain in Vermont , four years at Middlebury, and 13 summers at The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, which was started by Frost and is still affiliated with Middlebury. I can't remember a time when I didn't gravitate to northern New England .  After a particularly harsh winter in the 1970s, however, I decided I had to go "south" and find a more temperate place to live. I ended up in Mystic, Connecticut , near where my older sister was living, and really loved being near the water. I lived there for more than 30 years and never expected to leave. Then my husband was offered a wonderful job as president of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels. I had just published my fourth book and decided that if we were ever going to "make the break" and try something new, this was probably our last chance.

WUES : As a recent transplant to Oxford , what is most striking to you about the environs and the community?

SET: There are two things that have struck me from the very start about Oxford and its environs: the flatness and the friendliness. I'm so used to negotiating hills when walking or biking, and at first I couldn't believe there weren't any around here. But there are compensations: in addition to the great biking, there is all that sky, none of which is blocked by mountains. I've also been overwhelmed by how open and welcoming my Oxford neighbors are. I never really thought of New Englanders as being unfriendly, but I'm beginning to understand how they got that reputation.

WUES : Please tell us about your role as editor of The Autumn House Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (a collection of more than ninety poems by respected poets, including Phillip Levine, Rita Dove, and Tony Hoagland) and the thought process behind your choosing particular poets, and how you decided which specific poems of theirs to include.

SET: I approached the editing of the anthology as a way of bringing together poets whose work I loved and poems that you don't need to be a poet or have a Ph.D. in English to understand. I was looking for a combination of surface clarity and emotional depth, although there were certainly poets I couldn't afford to include because I had a very limited budget for permission fees. There were also certain requirements—I had to include all of the poets whose work had been published by Autumn House Press, I had to have adequate representation of women and minority poets, etc. But beyond these few guidelines, I was free to select the poems that I felt best illustrated what poetry should be: honest, clear, and deeply moving.

WUES : Do you have a specific subject in your poetry that you are deeply connected to, that is your favorite?

SET: I'm certainly not a nature poet, nor a political one. I gravitate toward human subjects, especially marriage and family relationships. This puts me outside the mainstream as far as academia is concerned, but I do not write for an academic audience. I write about ordinary things, for ordinary people—“poetry for poetry-haters," as my husband characterizes my work.

— Donna Whicher