Oatlands

The garden at Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg is said to be Virginia's premier historic garden. Next weekend it will be the site for the 12th annual Oatlands Garden Fair, with three days of garden-related activities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.A standard flower show will take place Friday and Saturday, along with a photo art show, hands-on demonstrations, landscaped doll houses, garden vendors, a working potter and spinner, and carriage driving exhibitions (Saturday...

Lighthouse celebration at marine museum Follow the lure of the lighthouse Saturday to the Calvert Marine Museum's fifth annual "Winter Lights: A Celebration of Chesapeake Bay Lighthouses." Throughout the all-day festival at the museum on Solomons Island, visitors can tour Drum Point Lighthouse, one of only three remaining cottage-type screwpile lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay, and Cove Point Light, which has served mariners on the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent River for nearly 170 years.

Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., ushers in the Yuletide season on Saturday. "Christmas at Oatlands" brings back the holiday atmosphere of the Victorian age, when this 18-room mansion was home to two generations of Virginia's Carter family.The Christmas tree is a local pine trimmed with paper chains, popcorn, cranberries and small paper lanterns. Arrangements throughout the house make use of laurel, magnolia leaves, pine cones, nuts and fruits. They are made by hand as they were in the 1880s, using greens and other natural materials gathered from the estate.

Midsummer Village FaireFor a weekend celebration including a summer solstice concert, puppet shows, militia muster, strolling musicians, arts and crafts, food and children's activities, attend the Midsummer Village Faire at Historic St. Mary's City.Sponsored by the Neighbors on the Historic Townlands, Historic St. Mary's City, St. Mary's College of Maryland and Trinity Parish, the two-day event also includes narrated river cruises along the St. Mary's River. And you can learn the fine art of creating a traditional Southern Maryland stuffed ham and other tasty morsels during cooking demonstrations.

Ready or not, it's time for Christmas. Holiday celebrations already appear on this week's calendar. One of the region's first great houses to welcome the public to view its holiday decorations is Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va. "Christmas at Oatlands" begins Saturday and continues through Dec. 30.This year the mansion has changed its theme from a Victorian Christmas to one of the Edwardian period. The year is 1903, and electricity lights the world. Those who had electricity in their homes were proud of their modern convenience, so swags of lights replaced candles in holiday decorations.

A day in the country filled with diversion awaits those who visit Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va., Saturday or next Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.The main event is the eighth annual Sheep Dog Trials, which attract sheep dog handlers from such faraway places as California, Kentucky, Canada and Scotland. The two-day competition is the third leg of the nationally sanctioned Virginia Triple Crown. Using only whistles and hand signals, handlers will direct their dogs to herd sheep, cattle and even ducks.

Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va., bids weekend visitors "cead mile failte" (a hundred thousand welcomes) to its first Celtic Festival Saturday and next Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guests can stroll among Oatlands' 260 acres, tour the 1803 mansion and formal gardens and spend time in the picnic grove, where storytellers will tell tales of the "auld" country.Four stages of continuous music, dance and acoustic entertainment will be presented throughout the two days. Celtic Thunder, one of the country's best-known traditional Irish bands, national Scottish harp champion Sue Richards and the North American champion Irish step-dancer Regan Wick are among the performers, along with Scottish bagpipers, a prize-winning Welsh choir, champion fiddler and a youth group performing the music and dance of Galicia in native costume.

Among the first of the great houses in the region to celebrate the Christmas season is Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va. The holiday season at Oatlands opens on Saturday and continues through Dec. 22.Decorations throughout this classic revival mansion re-create a Victorian Yuletide, with kissing balls of aromatic boxwood and arrangements of magnolia leaves, pine cones, fruits and nuts. Much of the material used is gathered from the plantation grounds, and the decorations are reconstructed from descriptions in a diary of Elizabeth Grayson Carter Beach, who was born at Oatlands in 1867.

Next weekend Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., will be the site of the largest historical equestrian event ever held in the United States. "Hoofbeats in History" commemorates the 130th anniversary of the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry engagement of the Civil War.Visitors will see a complete interpretive program each day, with dozens of military demonstrations, maneuvers, lectures and portrayals of daily camp life -- including inspections, the...

It's beginning to look like Christmas in some of the region's great houses. Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., is among the first of the great houses to show off its lavish holiday decorations. "Christmas at Oatlands" opens Saturday and continues through Dec. 20 with tours offered daily (except Thanksgiving Day) from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sundays.This 18-room mansion captures the holiday atmosphere of the 1880s, reflecting the taste of the original owners. The large tree -- in the parlor will be trimmed with paper chains, popcorn, cranberries and paper lanterns, and mantels and doorways will be draped in greenery and natural materials from the estate.

IF THERE IS a common mortal view of heaven, it's often a halcyon place of green pastures.Even though most of us now live outside the rural setting, there's an atavistic yearning for the pastoral fields as the idyllic ultimate home. Pastoral, as in sheep herding, amid the splendor of the grass.Every spring, I take temporary leave of my diurnal bounds and escape to green pasture and still waters for this terrestrial preview of the eternal. The setting is an historic ! two-centuries-old estate in northern Virginia called Oatlands, replete with preserved mansion and outbuildings, less than an hour's drive from Woodbine.

IF YOU are concerned about crime and other quality-of-life community issues, the Linthicum Shipley Improvement Association meeting on Wednesday is a must.The meeting is at 7: 30 p.m. in the Band Room of Linthicum Elementary School.Capt. Emerson Davis, commander of the Northern District Police Station, will discuss the recent spate of armed robberies and other crimes in his speech, "In what ways can the police department help our community?"Also invited are state Sen. C. Edward Middlebrooks and District 32 Dels.

READY FOR a trip? If you want to get away for only a day, or a little longer, there are two nice trips being planned.The Friendly Thyme Herb Club is planning a day trip to the Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va., for a tour of the house and elegant gardens and to attend the Goose Creek Guild Herb Fair and Sale. The bus leaves at 8 a.m. May 18 from the Ferndale Senior Center and will return at 6 p.m.Oatlands is a stately mansion built in 1804 by George Carter and occupied by his family until 1897.

Edwardian ChristmasHoliday preparations are under way in many of the great mansions around the region, and one of the first to open forChristmas tours is Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va."Christmas at Oatlands" begins Saturday and continues through Dec. 30. Visitors will step into a holiday party setting of the Edwardian era. The year is 1903 and electricity now lightens the world, or at least the homes of the affluent. Each of the mansion's 15 rooms is ablaze with light. White Christmas trees were also very much in fashion in 1903, and in the drawing room stands a 12-foot Christmas tree decorated in cotton snow, silver pine cones and white icicles.

Summer is coming to a close, but there's still time for a trip or two, and Labor Day weekend offers several choices.On Sept. 2 you could travel to Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va. Draft Horse and Mule Day will be celebrated there as a tribute to the American workhorse, once the mainstay of the American farm. Workhorses and mules will compete in trail classes, team log pulling, jumping competitions and cart and wagon obstacle courses. During the horse pull, you'll see teams pulling a sled carrying more than 6,500 pounds.

The Celts will return to Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va., for the second annual Celtic Festival next weekend, rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The plantation's 260 acres of rolling green hills, shaded glens and beautiful gardens provide a perfect backdrop for the festival, which features the cultures of Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Galicia (Spain) and Brittany (France).Here festival goers will find lively Celtic music, Irish dancers, Welsh choirs, Scottish games, storytellers, artisans and many others.

As summer draws to a close, events jam the calendar, making Labor Day weekend a good time to go daytripping. Begin on Saturday with Draft Horse and Mule Day at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va.This is one of the big events of the year at Oatlands. Teams of Clydesdales, Percherons and Belgian workhorses will compete in obstacle races, big log pulls and carriage driving demonstrations. One of the fun events is the mule-jumping contest, in which trainers try to coax mules over a fence. A working blacksmith will demonstrate horseshoeing, and visitors can enjoy free pony and wagon rides.

Edwardian ChristmasHoliday preparations are under way in many of the great mansions around the region, and one of the first to open forChristmas tours is Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va."Christmas at Oatlands" begins Saturday and continues through Dec. 30. Visitors will step into a holiday party setting of the Edwardian era. The year is 1903 and electricity now lightens the world, or at least the homes of the affluent. Each of the mansion's 15 rooms is ablaze with light. White Christmas trees were also very much in fashion in 1903, and in the drawing room stands a 12-foot Christmas tree decorated in cotton snow, silver pine cones and white icicles.

Ready or not, it's time for Christmas. Holiday celebrations already appear on this week's calendar. One of the region's first great houses to welcome the public to view its holiday decorations is Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va. "Christmas at Oatlands" begins Saturday and continues through Dec. 30.This year the mansion has changed its theme from a Victorian Christmas to one of the Edwardian period. The year is 1903, and electricity lights the world. Those who had electricity in their homes were proud of their modern convenience, so swags of lights replaced candles in holiday decorations.

The 15th annual Needlework Exhibition will take place Friday through Oct. 23 at Oatlands Plantation near Leesburg, Va. Needlework artists from the Eastern seaboard will participate in the exhibition, which includes adult, junior, amateur and professional categories. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday; 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The fee is $6 for adults, free for under 12, and includes tours of the mansion and gardens. Oatlands is six miles south of Leesburg on U.S. 15. Call (703)