Colonial

See the historic village of Jerusalem come to life as the Colonial Craftsmen Weekend is held in Kingsville on Saturday and Sunday. There will be 18th-century demonstrations of craft-making and cooking, and participants will be in 1770s garb as part of a living history encampment. Talk with historians and see blacksmiths at work, while the children go on a treasure hunt. There will also be guided hikes of Jerusalem Village, and food and drink will be sold.Colonial Craftsmen Weekend will take place Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Jerusalem Mill, Gunpowder Falls State Park, 2813 Jerusalem Road in Kingsville.

I would like to thank Councilman David Marks, the Greater Towson Council of Community Associations, the West Towson Community Association, Nancy Hafford and Scott Jenkins for their assistance in stopping the proposed increase in density at The Colony at Kenilworth. Aimco, the owners of The Colony, have consistently refused to maintain their property in a way that is conducive to comfortable living in Baltimore County. They have refused, until just recently, to communicate and cooperate with Towson University's Student Life organizations to help control their large student population.

The town of Leesburg, Va. will step back in time 200 years at the annual "August Court Days" Saturday and next Sunday. August was time when the court was in session and a time for much socializing and merrymaking.The streets of Leesburg will be blocked to traffic and transformed into a street fair of colonial times with a town crier announcing the day's events, wandering minstrels, mimes, troubadours, and over 100 craftspeople. A reenactment play on the courthouse lawn recalls local events in 1791.

In "Going to St. Ives," Colonial Players offers a powerful story about two women becoming acquainted over tea — a discussion that touches on dictatorships in post-colonial Africa while offering insights into the plight of two grieving mothers reminiscent of classic Greek drama. The first act of Lee Blessing's drama is set near Cambridge, England, where two powerful women meet. World-renowned British eye surgeon Dr. Cora Gage has invited May N'Kame, empress of an African country ruled by her ruthless son, for a consultation to consider the benefits of laser treatment for glaucoma.

Heritage Day at the 1719 Hans Herr House in Lancaster, Pa. on Saturday is a celebration of our Colonial past. Special attention will be paid this year to the bicentennial of the Lancaster-Philadelphia Turnpike and the founding of the Reber Wagon Works. There will be an exhibit of historic wagons from the museum's collection.Craftspeople will demonstrate the Colonial skills of broom-making, weaving, carpentry, wood-carving, blacksmithing and baking. There will also be workshops on decorative paper cutting and Colonial clothing.

The 1990s are looking very good to the seventh-graders at North Harford Middle School in Pylesville. After all, they don't have to worry about being accused of witchcraft, getting whipped if they misbehave in school or giving up french fries because potatoes are thought to be poisonous.These are just a few of the things the modern-day students have found out about their Colonial counterparts."They didn't get a lot of Christmas gifts like we do," Amy Penny said. "They got spinning tops, cards and marbles."

"They haven't found Emmanuel Drue's kiln. But sweat-drenched archaeologists - amateur and professional - who have been digging for the past week and a half at what might be the earliest Colonial pipe-making operation, have turned up just about everything else. Scraping through centuries of dirt for the sixth summer in a field east of Annapolis, they are unearthing everything from the rare to the mundane as they search for Drue's kiln. Drue, a tobacco planter whose artistic pipe-making was a sideline, died in 1669.

Some of the nation's top 3-year-old trotters will compete at Rosecroft Raceway tomorrow night. Two divisions of the Colonial Trot, each worth $123,175, are featured.The first division is a well-matched event, with the Lindy Farms entry of UConn Don and Beaurina ruling a 3-1 favorite over Anders Crown (7-2) and Downtown Man (4-1).In the second division, Crown's Invitation, already a winner of 13 races this year, was made the 6-5 favorite.Also on the 13-race card are two divisions of the Colonial Lady Trot.

THE WEATHER was perfect, the troops in the two encampments brave and the apothecary's instruments gruesome.Colonial Day at Montpelier Mansion on Sunday was terrific.Built in 1783, Montpelier Mansion was the perfect setting for this re-creation of Revolutionary-era life.The British and the Loyalists looked stunning in their scarlet uniforms trimmed with silver piping.Complimented on his uniform, an officer replied, "These are no good in battle, but they do get us the ladies."At the time, the gentleman in question was surrounded by three adoring children and a young woman -- all in Colonial dress.

FORT WASHINGTON -- Two divisions of the Colonial Trot headline a 13-race program at Rosecroft Raceway tomorrow night.The $122,032 first division of the Colonial, for 3-year-old trotters, will be the sixth race, and the $122,033 second division will be the 12th.BThree divisions of the Colonial Lady Trot, for 3-year-old fillies, also are scheduled.The first Colonial division figures to be well-matched, with Jeanne's Somoli, Columnist and Armbro Iliad as favorites. Super Arnie is the 7-5 morning-line choice in the second division.

Towson achieved its preseason objective of qualifying for the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. But the Tigers didn't do it with the kind of flourish they might have been hoping for. Towson (7-7 overall and 2-4 in the CAA) is in the midst of a four-game losing streak - capped by Saturday's 6-3 loss to conference foe St. Joseph's, a program that had yet to beat a league opponent. That all changed Saturday as the Hawks shut out the Tigers in the second and third quarters.

Towson's recent struggles haven't derailed the team's chance of qualifying for the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. Despite three consecutive losses to league rivals Massachusetts, Penn State and Drexel, the Tigers (7-6 overall and 2-3 in the CAA) can clinch the fourth and final berth in the conference tournament by defeating Saint Joseph's (4-9, 0-5) this Saturday. Coach Shawn Nadelen sounded slightly chagrined at the team's enviable situation. “I guess it's a fortunate situation for us to be in,” he said Monday morning.

After missing the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament last spring, Towson is currently tied for fourth place with Hofstra. (The top four teams in the conference standings advance to the tournament.) The Tigers (7-5 overall and 2-2 in the league) can improve their standing by defeating Drexel (5-7, 3-2) this Saturday. Coach Shawn Nadelen wouldn't go so far as to call Saturday's game a must-win scenario, but he said it's imperative that the team snap a two-game losing skid. “It's just a must-win in regards to ourselves trying to realize what we're capable of and trying to play Towson lacrosse for 60 minutes,” he said Wednesday.

The folks at Colonial Players have found a foolproof recipe for feel-good entertainment at "The Spitfire Grill. " The players' current musical presentation is based on TV writer/director Lee David Zlotoff's 1996 Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award-winning film. The musical version won the Richard Rogers Production Award in New Jersey before opening on Broadway in September 2001. It closed after four weeks, a victim of 9/ll. Over the past decade "The Spitfire Grill" has spread its uplifting message of renewal and redemption, reinforced by its intriguing score, to a growing number of appreciative audiences.

The question had been nagging for almost the entire half-hour spent seated at the kitchen table of Mary Veiga and Jeff Lipkin's home in Baltimore. Just as the urge to know the cost of a thick, pure slab of marble on the kitchen counter is about to trump politeness, the answer is freely given. "The counter is painted to look like white marble," explained Veiga, 44, a decorative painter and muralist who also dabbles in trompe l'oeil , the painting style designed to trick the eye. "I like to keep with the style of a house; otherwise it doesn't make sense.

Announcing a run of Neil Simon's "Chapter Two" through March 3, Colonial Players' February newsletter points out that 51/2 years have elapsed since its last staging of a Simon play. Memories of the company's October 2006 production of "Jake's Women" make us wonder why it's taken so long for a Simon play to reappear at this venue, where audiences can share the life experiences of eminently recognizable characters created by the contemporary stage's most successful playwright. Well established in a 20-year writing career by 1973, Simon dealt early that year with the loss of Joan Baim, his wife of 20 years, Later that year, he met and married actress Marsha Mason.

For the second time in five years the August Court Days Festival in Leesburg, Va., has been named one of the top 20 events for the month of August by the Southeast Tourism Society. The festival will take place Aug. 19-20 in the courthouse area of Leesburg's historic district.In Colonial times August was the month when county judicial courts held session, bringing an influx of visitors to town. Farmers came to sell their produce, itinerant peddlers offered a variety of goods and services, and street musicians found an enthusiastic audience.

Parts of Charles County's Zekiah Swamp are every bit as inhospitable as the name suggests, choked with tick-infested woods and boot-sucking wetlands. But as archaeologists are discovering to their delight, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries Zekiah was a growth center for the young Maryland colony. The site of a 1674 courthouse was found last summer. Excavations this month have uncovered what might be traces of the "summer house" that Gov. Charles Calvert built to dodge his political enemies.

Temperatures climbed into the 50s and gentle winds buffeted those who had gathered outside Mount Clare Mansion to celebrate its reopening and affiliation with the B&O Railroad Museum. While bystanders waited for the official ribbon-cutting ceremonies to begin last week, they reveled in the spectacular view of Baltimore from atop the gently sloping hill where Mount Clare, built in 1760, stands overlooking Southwest Baltimore's Carroll Park. The Monumental City Fife and Drum Corps, dressed in colorful period costumes and wearing tricorn hats, serenaded those waiting with a selection of peppy 18th- and 19th-century airs.