Birds & Bears & Beers

I will probably never live this down. Yesterday morning I posted what I thought was a perfectly normal question and I got some curiously irreverent answers.

Should I stop feeding the birds during our local beer season? I feel bad about letting the birds down.

It honestly took me several minutes to figure out the problem.

CORRECTION: Should I stop feeding the birds during our local BEAR season? Gotta love my witty friends, lol.

The past week has been full of alternating stories of smoke-filled air and bears on the move in Columbia/HoCo. The following is the first page of a Google search for “bears Columbia Maryland”:

The advert for Build a Bear and the link for Hammond Golden Bears football made me smile.

But the question remains: should I discontinue feeding the birds? Am I creating a needless bear hazard? On the other hand, what does it do to all the birds who have been relying on the feeders?

Yes, I’ve heard that one actually shouldn’t be feeding birds in the summer at all, only in the winter. (I did stop putting out suet.) But the birds keep coming, and I enjoy watching them. Am I encouraging “feeder dependence” merely for my own amusement? As I confessed to a friend yesterday, I have an extremely hard time feeling as though I’ve let anybody down. I’ve even managed to be guilt tripped by stuffed animals.

I’m open to your advice on this. If you feed the birds, do you stop in the summer? If not, do you bring in all feeders during - - ahem - - Bear Season? When do you put them back?

Speaking of beer, I got some delightful responses to yesterday’s request for local beer names. Look for a post about that soon. One of my friends, responding to my “Beer Season” blooper, declared that “Beer Season is forever.” That must be true, because the folks from Hops & Harvest Festival started running their promos for this year’s event the minute that Wine in the Woods was over.

If you’re planning ahead, the Hops & Harvest Festival will be on October 7th in Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods.

If you have any advice on Birds & Bears, you know where to send it.

Village Green/Town² Comments

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else. Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog