SUNSET AFTER THE LONG RAIN

I love the sunsets, but you need to be here to appreciate the afterglow. The time is 6:35 PM, almost dark in one corner of the skyline. The area where the sun set has vivid colors of rainbow shades.
Tomorrow I'll walk over and check our plants.

IMAGES COURTESY OF DR. ROMAN JESIEN, MARYLAND COASTAL BAYS PROGRAM

In order for you to get the full benefit of the picture of woman sitting on the shore, please click on the picture to fill the screen. Although sitting you can see that she was still sinking. Had it not been for the matting I think she would have had problems. Earlier that day and further toward Harbour Drive she did start to sink and had to be pulled out by two very strong men. Notice also, the phragmite density. It looks like a jungle. If I were driving heavy equipment I wouldn’t dream of attempting drive in that; there’s is no way of knowing the depth of the water or what could be lurking in there. (I have a vivid imagination.)
I mentioned to you, that before we could lay the matting the entire area had to be leveled. We also pulled the algae that were close enough to reach onto the shore because it is an excellent natural fertilizer.
Even Nature is cooperating by giving us this much-needed rain.
Yes, that is Jim Mathias former Mayor of Ocean City and now our Delegate to the Maryland House of Delegates. He has been our strong supported for a long time.

She came to Ocean City to attend the Maryland State Teacher’s Association meeting held here every year. She attended the morning session then spent the rest of the day, along with her family, planting the shoreline. She will be able to tell her class she did something constructive to help combat Global Warming. That’s true! This pond cleans the very air you breathe.

DR. ROMAN JESIEN

Here is the MAN! He not only showed us how to plant he planted all day, and then helped to clean the area. The caption on the last picture should be….. Sure feels good to stand.

Click on the picture and see those phrag vines growing into the water. By the way. Japser has the hook for pulling them up.

REALLY QUICK SAND
Don't you dare laugh! I took my handy-dandy phrag hook to where all the vines are growing out into the water. I saw Jasper working out there and knew he would help me if I got stuck AGAIN. I've already lost one pair of sneakers. I tested the sand for firmness and it seemed stable enough until it sucked me in up to my knees. I managed to get the one leg out but the other leg was getting sucked in fast. Jasper didn't dare get too close to me because he didn't want to join me in my predicament. That didn't work! He came around, grabbed my leg and pulled. Out I came, minus the shoe. He dug down until he found my shoe and hung both of them on a pole saying he would squirt them off when he watered the plants. I sure hope no one saw us wrestling in the mud! He was laughing at me walking home in my wet, sandy socks saying, Where's your camera, Vera?

We’ve put up a yellow barrier at the beginning of Bahia at Harbour hoping to keep out all people, especially those riding in/on something. To some people it does look inviting for a drive. And they have. People do some strange things!

Here we are with wonderful photos to share with you and Google is having problems. Check back and I will keep trying.

Carpeting a shoreline
One hundred foot rolls with large pns to hold it in place. Mary Knight and Steve Borkowicz working together.

THE GREAT PLANTING DAY
Look in the left hand corner or this photo to see the matting that was rolled out and pinned to contain the sand so it won’t wash into the pond. We used 15 rolls containing a 100 feet to a roll. After the entire area was carpeted and pinned into place thousands of aquatic plants were put into the ground. Before that could be done a hole had to be cut into the matting, to accomdate a hole dug deep enough for the roots of the plant. The volunteers began work at 9 AM and didn’t take a break until close to 1 PM when they stopped for lunch.
Our Councilwoman, Mary K. Knight, Was the first to arrive that morning and she WORKED at everything from carpeting, pinning, planting and clean up. She is tireless. Thank you, Mary!

THE SHORELINE PROJECT FOR BAHAI IS FINISHED
I met with Goody Hill and the news isn’t good. They have gone as far as they can and the shoreline project is finished. The sand is so wet they can’t bring in equipment without it sinking. There was enough sand already at the site to finish if it could have been cut in as planned. The further down Bahia you go the wetter the sand. The plan was to have the sand slope, much like a beach to allow the waves, (yes, the pond has waves) to roll up gently when the wind blows.
We hope we can hold down the sand with jute matting and plants with sturdy roots.
We thank Goody Hill for all the time and effort they put into our community. I know they are as disappointed as we are that this project wasn’t finished as planned.
Dr. Jesien, Maryland Coastal Bays Program, walked the site and said to plant, this project was finished. I presented this to the Executive Board of the Montego Bay Civic Association; they support the planting and agreed that the project is finished.
Look at the picture above it was taken yesterday morning. If everyone would help this could be the most beautiful place in Ocean City. That saying, “Ask not “ doesn’t just apply to large government, it applies to everything. There is something you can do. Be a pond keeper.

!!!!!!!!!
****** PLANTING FOR WALKERS POND
Plans have changed and we ARE PLANTING , and need your help. I hope to see you 20 October at 9 AM. If the weather-man is correct it will be warm and sunny so wear a hat. Lunch will be served at my house after the planting. This is going to be fun! Let's meet at the pond on the Harbour Drive side.
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On Oct 16, 2007, at 7:18 PM, mmknight@comcast.net wrote:
I try not to bother all of you but most of us have Verizon Wireless. If you don't want Verizon to give your cell phone number to telemarketers etc, please read further.
Mary


All
FYI - if you have Verizon Wireless service, please continue reading -

Verizon Wireless will share customer data with outside firms if customers do
not "opt out" of this option within 30 days... you should have gotten a
notice in your bill about this (but, if you are like me, you never read it).
You can opt out of the sharing by doing the following:

Call 800-333-9956.
you will be asked to supply the 10-digit cellphone number, the billing zip
code for the account and the last 4-digits of the account holders SSN.

If you don't make this call, Verizon Wireless will share your information.

WHAT YOU SEE WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR EYES
I walk around the pond at least once a day, most days twice. On most days we find someone with whom to chat. Yesterday morning was particularly beautiful, especially because two fountains were spouting water, almost all the algae was off the surface of the pond, butterflies were fluttering from flower to flower and the air smelled clean and good. I spoke of what a beautiful place this is to the man walking his dog. His reply was something I didn’t expect: He said he had never noticed because he only looks at his dog. It was as if I had introduced a whole new world to him when I pointed out the things I mentioned to you.

Later that day I took my two great-grandsons for a walk. (Ages 5 and 3) They notice everything! They wanted to know the names of the flowers after I showed then the parrotfeather bush. They ran their hands over the plant and decided it was soft just like feathers. I told then we were going to look for fish by the outfall pipe because there are little clear pools there where fish congregate. Little boys! The one said look at that big crab swimming, and sure enough it was, and it was big! Then another one showed up. I’ve never seen this before; the one spread out its pincer claws and the other did the same. They had to be 12” from claw to claw. I thought it was going to be a male supremacy battle, but instead both of then used their back legs and the sand went flying and both were gone under the sand. That happened in seconds, so fast in fact, the boys asked where they went. I would love to be in their school on Monday to hear the story they will tell the class.

THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY
Not only is Walkers Pond on the migratory path for birds and waterfowl but also the Monarch butterfly rests here before flying off to Mexico. Imagine that fragile creature over August-October, flies from Canada and the USA to over winter in coastal southern California to the Transvolcanic Mountains of central Mexico. Females lay their eggs along the migratory route. This migration takes up to three generations of Monarchs to complete.
Other Monarchs stay in one area their entire lives. 
It takes about a month for the adult to develop (from egg to pupa to adult). 

The life span of the adult Monarch varies, depending on the season in which it emerged from the pupa and whether or not it belongs to a migratory group of Monarchs. Adults that emerged in early summer have the shortest life spans and live for about two to five weeks. Those that emerged in late summer survive over the winter months. The migratory Monarchs, which emerge from the pupa in late summer and then migrate south, live a much longer life, about 8-9 months. 


You can imagine my delight to see thousands of these beauties flitting from flower to flower Monday morning. There are rewards for being a pond watcher. They were gone when I came back with my camera. We can send a man to the moon, yet no one has figured out how these butterflies know the route to take for this migration. Remember those butterflies that I saw will not be the ones that come back. What a beautiful metamorphosis.