Beauty Is In The Eye of The Beholder

Perhaps that person that calls Walkers Pond by derogatory names and sees nothing beautiful here has never seen anything beautiful because his eyes won’t allow that.

Sunset
Planning to come to Fager's Island? Don't forget to bring your camera so someone can take a picture of you with your honey with a magnificent sunset for the backdrop. The sunsets in Key West are nothing compared to ours.
Remember, this is a fundraiser for the Maryland Coastal Bays Program. A very generous benefactor will give two for every dollar that is made. Plus that this party is a gift from the Fagers. Yes, there are good people in this world

Another sunrise on Walkers Pond a photo by Frank Guillen.

Fager’s Island 2nd Annual Charity Cookout benefits Coastal Bays

Great entertainment, fantastic food and a time to kick back and have some fun will mark the Fager’s Island 2nd Annual Charity Cookout to benefit the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.

The blowout, Sunday, Oct. 7 from 4-8 p.m., will feature a $6 barbeque dinner, live music, live animals and a slate of both live and silent auction items. All funds raised through the event, including a modest cover and 50/50 raffle will go directly towards to the Maryland Coastal Bays Program.

Auction items include several ‘marquee’ items including a boatlift and its installation valued at nearly $5,000 (donated by Hi Tide Marine Construction). Other special auction items include $1,000 towards a hardwood flooring project (donated by OC Floor Gallery), Raven’s tickets (donated by Comcast Spotlight), a unique “meal-a-month” package from various local restaurants, a 12- hour fall cleaning service by GitRDone Cleaning Services and many more unique items.

With Ocean City being a seasonal town, Michelle and John Fager envision this party as a time for residents to celebrate the summer while having a purpose and meaning behind the party. “It’s like a reunion. Around here you work, work, work all summer and haven’t been able to see your friends,” said John Fager.

A lot of the restaurant’s success is attributable to Fager’s Island unique location on the Coastal Bays and the Fager’s created their charity cookout out of a sense of gratitude.

The Maryland Coastal Bays Program has worked for the over 10 years on efforts to protect and manage the back bays behind Ocean City and Assateague. The Program is currently involved in a number of land conservation efforts and is restoring the Bishopville Prong of the St. Martins River to again allow fish to reach their historic spawning grounds. The Program is also working to remove sewage outfalls into the Coastal Bays and is leading a tri-state effort to assist Delaware and Virginia in planning for a greener shore in the future.

Perhaps most exciting is the Program’s effort to reinvigorate its environmental education program. This Maryland Coastal Bays Program has hired a full-time education coordinator to kick start school-age education programs this summer, renew its Upward Bound work with disadvantaged students, and begin outdoor education on the 570-acre Cherry Point Farm.

The party is open to everyone and kids are encouraged to join in the fun. Fager's Island is located at 60th Street bayside in Ocean City. For more information on the event, please call Evelina Erickson, development director, at the Maryland Coastal Bays Program at 410-213-BAYS. There is no RSVP required.

Autumnal Sunrise

Welcome to the first day of fall. I was ready for old Sol this morning and he didn’t disappoint me. Wearing a long sleeve cotton sweater felt good too.

I have two dates I want to remind you about, and one date for you to have fun. Actually two dates for fun ---
1. October 7, 2007 10AM, the Montego Bay Civic Association’s regular monthly meeting. If you care about Walkers Pond you will be there to show your support.

2. October 20, 2007, 10AM, PLANTING!! We’re hoping for a good turnout to plant the new shoreline on the Bahia side of Walkers Pond. We will have close to 4,000 plants to put in the ground, which means we will be working in groups. If you have never planted anything before, have no fear the very best person, Dr. Roman Jesien, will be there to show us what to do. (Plus that, he’s fun.) After we plant we will celebrate with an Oktoberfest, an old-fashioned, outdoors, friendly gathering with good food.

3. Back to October 7, 2007 Fagers Island holds their 2nd Annual Charity Cookout to benefit the Maryland Coastal Bays. A modest entrance fee of $10.00, and $6 barbeque will all go directly to support the bays. The event features live music, live animals, a silent auction, a marquee live auction, and a 50/50 raffle. Again, all dollars raised will be matched 2-1 by an anonymous donor. Michelle and John Fager are also donating thousands in advertising, food, and staff time for this event.
Time 4 -8p.m.

I’m so excited about these events; I hope I see you at all of them.
Vera

MORNING HAS BROKEN
Dr. Jesien, Science Coordinator for the Maryland Coastal Bays Programs collected samples from Walkers Pond just this past Monday to send to Horn Point for study. The following paragraph is the findings, the second paragraph; Dr. Jesien explains to us what this mean.


"Hi Roman, I looked at the samples briefly today under the microscope.
Lots of green filamentous algae and some cyanobacteria and lots of
interesting cells, but no obvious populations of harmful algae. I'll
look more carefully at preserved samples later in the week. Thanks for
the samples. diane"

“cyanobacteria are creatures that sometimes behave as bacteria and sometimes
like algae, in other words, when they need food, they use the sun for
photosynthesis to make food, when food is plentiful they act like bacteria
and use the organic molecules in the water. They are common in highly
enriched areas, like your pond.” Jesien

The photos are my contribution. Sunrise on the pond is worth getting out of bed while it’s still dark. The colors of a sunrise are such a fleeting thing, like most good things in life, all too soon the moment passes.

I hope you noticed the progress being made with the shoreline. When we have enough sand trucked in, which is soon, the excavator will start doing the real work of contouring and rebuilding the banks.

Mark your calendar for Saturday, October 20 ---- 10AM. PLANTING TIME!!
This will be our own Oktoberfest with planting instead of harvesting. We plan to celebrate after the planting with lunch. Send me an email –1vm.mccullogh@verizon.net -- telling me you will plant with us.

GOODY HILL IS BACK AS PROMISED
I'm so sorry that you're not here to see the man maneuvering that bobcat over the piles of sand and pushing it up Bahia. You'd be begging him to let you have a go at it. He hasn't seen himself on the blog yet because he doesn't have a computer. He says he's been such a good boy Santa is going to bring him one for Christmas.

HOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL BAKE SALE
That book should be written by Pam Massa chair for this years bake sale. This sale to raise money for Walkers Pond, was a huge success not just because so many people participated, but because of the enthusiasm and hard work by Pam. Pam, the mother of 5 school age children has been working tirelessly for weeks to make this event successful. When you raise $1,420.00 that is SUCCESS! Many thanks to all the people that baked and all the people that worked at the sale today. Great job!

Thanks to Phyllis Mossmiller, Chair of the Montego Bay Community Yard Sale, the event was a total success! You can thank her too for the pictures of of the yard sales.

I think it is so nice when a community comes together in such a friendly way. I happened to be at the bake sale as people were bringing in things to be sold. There was chatting, laughing and everyone was in such good spirits. It made me think that perhaps Walkers Pond will be the catalyst to bring us all together. The exact date hasn't been set, but sometime in October we are going to plant aquatic grasses on the new Bahia shoreline. If planting is too strenuous for you, come anyway and watch. When we arrive at a firm date it will be posted on this blog as well as at the Montego Bay Office window.

GOODY HILL
Even though it’s Saturday they were here as promised. It took hardly any time at all for the bobcat driver to spread 8 truckloads of sand down Bahia.
Let me assure you that the shoreline will not be that wide! A lot more sand is coming in and when they finish delivering and spreading, then an excavator will arrive to restore the eroded banks up to the asphalt. They then will cut in while creating an elevated slope to the water's edge. Wave action can then move gently instead of having a raw place to erode.
Isn't this exciting! Thank you Goody Hill!

OH, GOODY!!
Goody Hill that is! The first three loads of sand came in today for the Bahia shoreline. Fantastic!

                                         THE DUCK BLINDS

Here we have a sample of two types of duck blinds. The rustic looking one I think gets more protection which will also makes it look like part of the trees. Pine boughs, perhaps. The one that looks like a house may have more creature comforts but to me, it looks like cheating. Too comfortable. Pretty interesting, going to all that trouble to build a hunting house to be used such a short time in a year. The primal man must hunt.

                                        NOW YOU KNOW

Often when when I walk Franki around the pond in the early morning, and I see all the egrets feasting, I wonder where they nest. Click on the page to enlarge the picture so you see the egrets in the tree. There were many more but they flew off when they heard the boat approaching. From a distance it looked like trash bags had festooned the tree .... then off they flew. It's a whole different world around those little islands in the Assawoman Bay. Some have well used sandy beaches, some have duck blinds that really took imagination to build. I'll post two pictures of them at a later time.