The County workers here deserve a lot of praise and credit. They have been working 12 hour shifts around the clock for 9 days now, clearing the streets and roads, and removing huge piles of snow so that people can attend church, return to school, and move around safely. Day and night, the little bobcats have been piling the snow up so that front end loaders can put it in dump trucks to be taken somewhere else -- wonder where that is? Working night and day... ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) Elsewhere, things are calmer and more peaceful. I took a long walk in the very colds temps... boy, was I "invigorated" by the time I got home. I wanted to get down to the water to see how things were looking, but like last time, the snow and icy roads kept me from getting down to the water's edge. Still, it was so pretty... I took some pictures to send to out of town friends who used to live here but have moved on to warmer climes. I thought -- oh, my friends on GS may be so tired of seeing pictures of snow, and even more snow, in Maryland... But then, I thought you might like to see how my town looks, so I'm putting them on anyway. This walk is in the other direction from the one last week. This is the creek on the other end of the neighborhood and a few little scenes along the way. There is a park in the center of the neighborhood. In warmer weather, the children play baseball, softball and lacrosse there and sometimes there are little get togethers for residents. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) I slip-slid along for a while, since the smaller roads are really still very icy... ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) Along the way, I met a Robin. We had a nice little chat about the state of things. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) He is thankful for his down coat.... He and his friends seemed to be finding things to nibble where the grass was uncovered but my guess is they are looking forward to warm temps even more the rest of us. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) Now here are some scenes of the water -- from as close as I could get.... It is a tributary off of the Patapsco River just at the mouth where the River meets the Chesapeake Bay. It is about 6 blocks from my house if I were to walk there directly, but I have been taking the roundabout way. It is tidal and brackish so it would take a long stretch of really cold weather for it to freeze. I have seen ice over this creek only a handful of times, except for just around the edges. Anyway, here it is: In the distance you can see our little bridge out of the neighborhood... ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) And here is the bridge from a little closer place... I drive over this bridge at least twice a day... it says welcome home to me. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) Here are some other scenes from my walk.. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) As I walked along, I was struck by how quiet and still it was, good for thinking and clearing my head. Of course I couldn't help but remember things from childhood since these are the places where I did many of the important things children do... crabbing, fishing, swimming (when I was not supposed to...), collecting rocks and other things... Here you can see the end of the bridge nearer to the shore. Some of the boys used to jump off of it when we were kids... yikes... nope, not I! But we did used to slink our way around the bulkheads looking for softcrabs. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) Another little park in town.... This soil was full of clay and used to get really boggy after rain. I remember once trying to run through it because I was late for dinner and losing both of my shoes in the mud up to my ankles! So much for a shortcut! ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) This is the path down to the community pier, which was called Pat's Pier, one of our crabbing sites. This picture evokes strongly happy memories for me... walking with my best friend with our crab nets and a crab pot or basket between us. We crabbed with chicken necks and white cotton string tied to the pier. We were Master Crabbers, if I do say so myself. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) The sun was getting lower as I walked and I was really cold at this point, but I walked a little faster down the big hill to take a look at the water from a different place. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) Now, if you look way, way in the distance, (and you know what you are looking for), you can see that bridge that I showed you in the beginning of my walk. If you were to draw a line straight up from the top of the post sticking up in the right foreground, that's the general area of the bridge. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) This was one of my favorite places as a kid. I rode my bike here often and sat and watched the sunset. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) It's pretty neat because we get the sunrise over one creek and the sunset over the other one! ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) I really wanted to catch a pretty sunset (for Eileen!) but by now I knew I needed to start moving again... it was cold and I had a bit of a walk ahead.... I hope you enjoyed our walk! I know I did! Oh, that is me in my hood on the right, by the way. ( photo / image / picture from daisybeans's Garden ) See you again soon!
Oh Daisy I can never get bored of photographs of snow. It's just the 'real' stuff that I find palls a little after trudging through 3 feet of it for weeks on end. I wish our council would utilise dump trucks to take the piles of snow away once they've snowploughed it into the roads. Here they simply leave it to melt away and it causes so many problems to drivers as it reduces the width of the driving area by half. I hope you don't mind but I've snitched six of your photographs as the sunsets on the snow are just beautiful. Erm ... make that seven as I've also pinched the first one of 'your' robin. You know I enjoyed my walk with you so much that I think I'll go back and see everything again!! :-D
My, oh my, oh my...wasn't that just the nicest walk. You knew all the best places, didn't you. This show had a little bit of everything. It was quite nice to see that robin of yours--ours are miniscule compared to yours. Those childhood favs of yours are fun to see in the winter. What a fine place to grow up. I liked that tunnel-like place that looks like it led into a thicket. I liked the sunsets over the water and that cute little look-through of that colonial-looking church. All very nice, but when I saw that last picture, I was sure it was you fresh from the hairdressers' with a new coiffure.
Thank you for taking us along on your walk. I was so nice to see your neighborhood. It looks beautiful covered in snow. It is amazing to see how high the snow is piled up in the parking lot. My favorites are the shots of the water and the sunset.
I think we are really fortunate that the county did such a good job. And yet some people still complained... What else could they want? Some people just like to complain I think. I hope your snow melts at the right speed so as not to flood things. I'm flattered that you'd pinch a pic from me, Eileen. Of course, Sjoerd, the term is "hat-hair" and I can't do a thing with it. My favorite pic is the path to the pier too. Happy memories there. Gail - the height of these snow piles is hard for me to capture. They're big... glad you liked the walk.
Thanks Daisy. I know I should really have asked you first but couldn't resist saving them into my special file as soon as I saw them.
Daisy that is a wonderful place. Back in 1979 we visited your area. Our oldest son was thinking of going to the Naval Academy and he wanted to tour the place. He did get an appointment but decided he'd rather go to Cornell University on an ROTC scholarship which he also had. But, we had the best seafood ever along the bay. I drove across the bay on a really high huge bridge which I did not care for at all. You are living in a great area of our country and I enjoyed all of the pictures. Thanks! dooley
(Eileen -- never need to ask). Dooley, I'm so thrilled that you've been to Annapolis! That was the Bay Bridge you drove over and the only thing better than driving over it is sailing UNDER it! And you're right, the seafood is memorable. Thank you so much for your comments. (PS - Smart kid you have there!)
Wow, Daisybeans! All of your pics are wonderful, but even more so you shared a pic of your life. Thank you.
What a wonderful walk and such lovely little stories and memories to go with it. Thanks for letting me tag along.
"Hat Hair", hmmm? I'll bet it's all the rage there. Say, you know that "path to the pier foto"? When I saw it for the first time I got quite a little shock because it looked so familiar (in a way). I couldn't place it immediately. I felt so sure I had been there before, when my brain was telling me that it was totally impossible. I was in a place in Indonesia once called Bukit Lawang. I went there to see the orang utans. I can't remember why, but I was late and missed the group, so I had to go alone (it was quite a distance), so down I went to the river and stood in this flat-bottomed boat as a man poled it across the river. I stepped out on the other side and asked where the animals were and he said, "Just follow the path". It was a muddy bank going upwards some 20 feet. Once I got over that bank and scrambled up and down rocky hills in that jungle. I suddenly came to a place that looked just like that path of yours...the only difference being that it was bamboo trees leaning in a sort of "church arch"-like tunnel rather than deciduous saplings. I took a slide of that, it made such an impression. I just stood for a while looking at the scene. It was so beautiful; it was intriguing and looking very mysterious...and a little menacing. I dove into that dark tunnel and headed off on an exciting journey to find the primates Who wewre quite a bit further into the jungle. My adrenalin was really pumping that day! I will end the story here because it was about the appearance of the path entrance. It was an odd feeling...sort of like peculiar dèjá vu.
Oh, I really enjoyed the walk also. But I'll bet my toes were warmer than yours! It would be interesting to see all the same shots again, in the spring. Hint..hint. Yes the clean-up crews did an amazing job. I think it was in DC that the mayor didn't want the snow dumped into the river because of all the salt and contaminants. Instead he chose for the dumping to be in a huge parking lot right next to the river. Duh...where did he think the melted snow would go? :-? Can we say 'bozo'??
wonderful walk daisy and beautiful pics! makes me miss the water! i related to your 'crabbing' times. as kids we used to go crabbing in Maine, too. we used a string with a saftey pin on it with a piece of clam or muscle, dangle it ove the edge of the pier or boat and when the crab grabbed it, we'd haul them up! YUMO!
Aw, you guys can walk along with me any time. I would love it. I appreciate all of your nice comments about my little town and my silly memories. It was a special place to be a kid. I don't think the kids who live here now appreciate it at all... Sjoerd, you'll have to tell us the rest of the orang utan story some time. That path winds to the left and then back around to the right to get to the water. In summer it was pretty dark and shady in there. Your comment reminded me of a time when my friend and I were walking down the path (it was lined with crushed oyster shells back then) with a metal crab steaming pot between us.... and it was very quiet... very ...very ...quiet and we were listening to how quiet it was, concentrating on keeping our footing on that slippery slope... when all of a sudden a frog or something jumped in front of us and startled us both. Well, we both screamed and jumped and that crab pot went flying, banging and rolling down the path, clanking and clanking with the two of us running behind. Neither of us were scared of frogs, but we thought it might be -- who knows what, maybe an orang utan? I still laugh, thinking about how we must have looked. Oh gosh. KG -- Yeah, Washington DC's mayor didn't get high marks for his handling of the snow situation in a lot of respects.... I'm not sure about the mayor of Baltimore City either. Depends on if they can get the kids (SAFELY) back to school tomorrow. Netty, I'm totally loving everything I see and learn about Canada on the Olympics coverage! Bunkie -- I have to say, the safety pin for crabbing is a really nice touch. Very high tech! We just tied the string to the chicken neck. The butcher in our town used to give them to us kids for free. You really had to have a good tehnique to nab those guys with the crab net before they let go and swam off -- I'll bet you remember! YUMO is right. How did you cook the crabs you caught, Bunkie?
