Garden Party

Well, the quinoa salad was a hit at the garden party. I think. At least the bowl ended up empty, which is great because my refrigerator is stuffed with greens and with leftovers. One thing I realized today: I can keep up with making a dish every day (maybe) but usually there are also leftovers, too. My husband was heading out the door to work out today and mentioned that he might "grab something for lunch" and I told him that really, that might not be okay today -- or for the rest of the summer.

Well, the quinoa salad was a hit at the garden party. I think. At least the bowl ended up empty, which is great because my refrigerator is stuffed with greens and with leftovers. One thing I realized today: I can keep up with making a dish every day (maybe) but usually there are also leftovers, too. My husband was heading out the door to work out today and mentioned that he might "grab something for lunch" and I told him that really, that might not be okay today -- or for the rest of the summer.

THE GARDEN PARTY gives kids an annual day of fun while raising money for Spring Garden Elementary School. All activities and games are geared to elementary school children, and the community is welcome. Sponsored by the PTA, the Garden Party will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 7 at the school, 500 Boxwood Drive, Hampstead. Erik Kuhn, co-chair with Kelly Gray, said "countless volunteers" are helping stage the event that includes games, food, kids' karaoke, face painting and color hair spray and an outdoor petting zoo. Helium balloons will be given away.

Vultures have moved into a very tall tree above our house and car. To say there are "bird droppings" is an understatement. Not to mention our house looks cursed. What can we do? Many bird dispersal methods won't work because the vultures are perched so high. The keys are timing, persistence and diversity. Notice what time they congregate and be ready to preemptively target them at those times, every day, until they leave. Subject them to loud noises such as an air horn or distress calls.

Children are the basic ingredient at Spring Garden Elementary for the annual Garden Party Games, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 26.Crafts and food to please children of all ages will fill the school cafeteria. Visitors can bounce a rubber chicken into a pot, win a fancy cake or bid for a pizza dinner with a favorite teacher.The garden party will be in the school cafeteria at 900 Boxwood Drive, Hampstead. The event is fun and it benefits the school's students as one of two annual PTA fund-raisers.

Springtime has come to Spring Garden Elementary in Hampstead. On April 3, the first Spring Garden Garden Party will be sponsored by the PTA. Any child from any school can come for games, food and fun.Under chairwomen Carole Riddle and Carolyn Smedick, a committee of eight people will coordinate the days' activities, assisted by "lots and lots of moms and dads who've volunteered to work," said Mrs. Smedick.From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the school cafeteria-gym, children can choose from 10 games set for varying skill levels.

THERE'S A garden party going on in town, and wallflowers are getting the attention. That's because the "wallflowers" are flowery paintings and photographs by two east Columbia artists, Robynn Searight and Jerry Weinstein. The exhibit, called "Garden Party," is at Artists' Gallery in the American City Building through Aug. 31. It is the first collaborative display between Searight, a watercolorist, and Weinstein, a photographer. "We really complement each other," said Searight, an avid gardener who lives in Kings Contrivance.

FAMILY GAMES AND food tuned to the tastes of pre-school through fifth-grade children are the highlights of activities during the sixth annual PTA Garden Party, to be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the gym of Spring Garden Elementary.Carnival-style games at 25 cents per ticket are designed for all ages. Pizza, hot dogs, lemon sticks, pretzels, snowballs, soda and baked goods will be available.Children's crafts will include making bead necklaces and name bracelets. This year, face painting has been expanded to the full face, if desired.

Something new and exciting will take place in the Linthicum community soon. Step into the past with the Woman's Club of Linthicum Heightsas they sponsor a Victorian Garden Party from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, May 3.The clubhouse grounds, at 110 North Hammonds Ferry Road in Linthicum, will look a lot like the turn-of-the-century as theladies promenade in their large picture hats and lace finery amid Victorian-style decorated tables.The public is invited, so mark your calendar and join them in a day that is sure to be one of fun, friendship and nostalgia.

LONDON -- It seems now like an age ago, earlier in the summer before all this marital strife hit the headlines. It was a perfect English summer's day for the Queen's Garden Party. It only rained twice.The Baltimore Sun was invited, and arrived eager to see the royals in their natural habitat, to rub shoulders with a few of the Queen's intimates.There were nearly 9,000 such intimates at the party. But it's a big place, Buckingham Palace; nobody could have felt crowded.And since it was a garden party, the guests were deployed across the fragrant camomile lawn that fans out behind the palace.

Sunday, Oct. 14 Festival The Department of Recreation and Parks' annual Arts and Music Festival concludes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Quiet Waters Park, 600 Quiet Waters Park Road in Annapolis. The event features various exhibitors offering goods in leather, pottery, textiles and other media. There will also be food, demonstrations, musical performances and antique appraisals. Admission is $6 per car per day. Free parking. Information: 410-222-1777. Monday, Oct. 15 Political forum The American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters and the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Maryland are co-sponsoring a Congressional Candidates Forum from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, 611 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd.

The second annual Charm City Farm & Garden tour is scheduled for July 28. The tour will take participants, by bus or by bike, to community-managed green spaces. Both tours will end at the Vollmer Center at Cylburn Arboretum for a party open to tour guests and urban gardeners featuring local music, food, lawn games and more. Awards will be presented to exceptional gardens and farms throughout Baltimore. Also, a produce-judging contest will present awards for remarkable fruits, vegetables and flowers.

b intern Becky Quinn chimes in about what tickled her funny bone this week.  Hint, it was not the Dundler Mifflin billboard. "Community" : Troy and Abed's housewarming party turned into a weird parallel universe with dice rolling, lost body parts and death?! Yes, in the end, Jeff loses an arm, Troy loses his larynx (but is equipped with a delightfully high-pitched stoma) and PIERCE IS DEAD. Abed comes equipped with goatees so that the study group can fully commit to evil.

Gay Pride festivals are in season. Washington's Capital Pride was last weekend, and so was Philadelphia's. Chesapeake Pride is coming up in mid-July at Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds. But this weekend, it's time for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Baltimoreans to celebrate. The Baltimore Pride festival , which officially kicks off Friday and ends Sunday, includes an opening garden party, a performance by Deborah Cox, a block party, a high-heel race and the annual parade.

OUTSIDE A TENT ERECTED AT TIDE Point Waterfront Park, the 60-degree temperatures gave a hint of the spring weather that was on its way. Inside, the atmosphere was one of anticipation. Scheduled to open in August in Southwest Baltimore, the SEED School of Maryland is a new statewide college preparatory public boarding school for students from under-served urban areas. This evening's party, "An Urban Garden Party," was its opening celebration. "This is a fabulous get-together. A very young, hip crowd ... a lot of people are coming out for the first time, learning about this organization," observed committee member Mikey Monaghan as she surveyed the area.

The F/A-18 Hornets were the life of the garden party - in fact, one party after another enlivened an entire waterfront block. In the plush Ferry Farms neighborhood, just across the Severn River from the Naval Academy, hundreds of spectators were invited to watch the annual performance of the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy's precision flying team. The aerial performance is a Commissioning Week ritual, followed by the flyover today at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium as a supersonic sendoff to the 980 graduating midshipmen.

In a scene reminiscent of "Where the Wild Things Are," the top floor of the Rouse Building in downtown Columbia will be transformed into a garden tomorrow night.Baskets of pink ivy geraniums and red and white fuchsia will hang from a trellis over the banquet room doors.Twelve weeping cherry trees and red azalea will anchor the corners of a dance floor. Four southern magnolias, measuring 6- to 8-feet high, will serve as a room divider.The occasion for this vegetation is the 11th annual Columbia Foundation fund-raiser, which begins at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

Gay Pride festivals are in season. Washington's Capital Pride was last weekend, and so was Philadelphia's. Chesapeake Pride is coming up in mid-July at Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds. But this weekend, it's time for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Baltimoreans to celebrate. The Baltimore Pride festival , which officially kicks off Friday and ends Sunday, includes an opening garden party, a performance by Deborah Cox, a block party, a high-heel race and the annual parade.

COLLEGE PARK - The post-game celebration consisted of a few fist pumps and handshakes, and several satisfactory smiles, all as a muted chant of "Final Four" was barely audible at Comcast Center. It was the type of reaction you might expect from a Maryland team that did not want to be in this situation two weeks ago, but now is just happy to be winning basketball games again. Thanks to a tough defensive effort in the second half and the persistence of junior forward Nik Caner-Medley, the Terrapins put away Texas Christian, 85-73, yesterday afternoon before 10,608, advancing to Madison Square Garden and the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament for the first time since 1972.

Planning a garden is like planning a good dinner party: Balanced diversity of both participants and menu enhances the experience for everyone involved. It also means that, instead of resting entirely on one frazzled host or overworked gardener, success is the result of collaboration. "The organisms in a garden form a community of interconnectedpopulations whose whole is far greater - and far more interesting - than the sum of its parts," note Steven B. Carroll and Steven D. Salt in Ecology for Gardeners (Timber Press, 2004, $29.95)