Pond

The demise of a large triple-trunk poplar in her backyard 18 years ago created the opportunity for Diana Curran to build her water garden retreat. "It was my husband's idea," says Curran, a dance teacher at Bryn Mawr School. "He said, 'Why don't we get a pond?'" They started with a hole and a mound of dirt. A contractor graded the earth and helped build a stone wall around the pond. Once the pond was filled, Curran began planting around it. She started with unmarked plants she bought at an auction and spent two seasons figuring out what she had purchased.

Two senior enlisted leaders with an elite Navy dive unit could face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of two sailors at Aberdeen Proving Ground in February, and others could be charged, the Navy said Wednesday. The chief warrant officer and the senior chief petty officer, whom officials did not name, also could face charges of dereliction of duty in the deaths of Diver 1st Class James Reyher and Diver 2nd Class Ryan Harris. All were members of the elite Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2, which is based in Virginia Beach, Va., but has made frequent use of the UNDEX Test Facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Ray Lewis works as a motivational speaker in his free time. The Ravens' fearless leader has been seen many times barking last-minute instructions and words of wisdom at his teammates before they take the field. And this week, Lewis is in London “for a three-day minicamp with the London Warriors of the BAFA National Leagues,” according to a report by CBSsports.com. The Warriors brought in Lewis to hype them up in anticipation of their upcoming game against their crosstown rivals, the London Blitz.

The operators of Cook Volkswagen in Fallston are looking to expand the vehicle storage lot for their Route 1 (Belair Road) dealership, but the property developer must resolve outstanding issues with state and federal agencies and work out an agreement with neighboring homeowners before they can proceed. Members of Harford County's Development Advisory Committee - which reviews developers' site plans and provides recommendations to the Department of Planning and Zoning - recommended during their Wednesday meeting that the owner and developer of the property, listed as 2110 Bel Air Road LLC of Aberdeen, come to a resolution with the county, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Army Corps of Engineers before the site plan could be approved.

On February 11, 2008 MARY W. (nee Wright), beloved wife of the late Robert B. Pond, Sr., beloved mother of Dr. Robert B. Pond Jr. (Angela), Mary Jo Winter (Dr. John), Bertie B. Pond, William W. Pond (Peggy), Dr. Edward W. Pond (Laurie) and Margaret P. Shifler (Dr. David). Sister of Margaret O'Dell (Earl). Also survived by 18 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Services at Westminster United Methodist Church, 162 E. Main St., Westminster on Saturday at 2 P.M. Private interment in Poplar Springs Cemetery, Franklin, Va. The family will receive friends Friday 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 P.M. at Myers-Durboraw Funeral Home, 91 Willis St., Westminster.

Baltimore County fire crews rescued a woman who lost control of her car Monday morning on the outer loop of Interstate 695 near Towson, drove off the road and landed in a pond. A fire dispatcher received a call shortly before 11:30 a.m. that a vehicle had gone off the highway between the Dulaney Valley Road and York Road exits, landing partially submerged in a sediment pond. Emergency crews from Texas Fire Station 17 and Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company 30 extended ladders down to the car and helped the woman climb out onto a platform.

The neighbors said they'd heard the screams for years. Shouting in the middle of their quiet Bel Air neighborhood. Cursing and threats so loud they could be heard a block away at night. Late Monday, the conflict between father and son ended violently — with 16-year-old Robert C. Richardson III accused of murdering his father, Robert C. Richardson Jr., 58, and then dumping his body in a pond behind a relative's house. Police say the son confessed to the crime and told them where to find the body.

A man's body was found Saturday in a frozen pond in Edgewater after a woman noticed shoes at the scene, Anne Arundel County police said. Lt. J. D. Batten Jr., a spokesman for the police department, said a woman went to the police department office in Edgewater and told officers that while she was out walking her dog she saw a pair of shoes at a storm water retention pond near Riverton Place and Stepneys Lane. She said she knew the shoes hadn't been there the day before because she had walked along the same path.

The U.S. Army has reassured county officials that explosions in a 60-acre pond planned next to the Bush River will not threaten residential ground water supplies near Aberdeen Proving Ground.But a community activist who sits on an APG environmental advisory panel worriesthat any further development in the area could change the quality ofthe Perryman aquifer that serves homes in the U.S. 40 corridor.Helen Richick, a member of the Technical Review Committee that oversees plans to clean up polluted APG "Superfund" sites, said Thursday that she will ask Army, county and state officials for a meeting toexplore whether contamination from the base could affect drinking water.

The man-made 2.5 million-gallon pond at Patterson Park is being drained to allow for $1 million in renovations to the city park in Highlandtown. Officials decided to get rid of the water while the weather is still mild enough to transfer the fish, frogs and snapping turtles that live in the pond. While a state Department of Natural Resources truck stood by yesterday with an oxygenated tub to haul away whatever crappie, catfish, carp and bluegill survived, locals strolled by to watch the water drop by nearly imperceptible degrees.

This is cracking me up. A father has started a Tumblr collection of photos of his toddler crying with captions that explain why he's crying. My two favorites so far: "He asked me to put butter on his rice. I put butter on his rice," and "I wouldn't let him drown in this pond. " Check out more here: http://reasonsmysoniscrying.tumblr.com/

Two U.S. Navy sailors who died diving in the Super Pond at Aberdeen Proving Ground in February accidentally drowned, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Monday. Further details about how the men died will not be released for two to three months while the medical examiner's office prepares its final report, said the office's spokesman, Bruce Goldfarb. The sailors were Diver 1st Class James Reyher, 28, of Caldwell, Ohio, and Diver 2nd Class Ryan Harris, 23, of Gladstone, Mo. They were based at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Va. Another person died at the Super Pond in January, less than a month before the deaths of the two divers, prompting the U.S. Army in early March to close the facility indefinitely.

Shaped like a teardrop and carved out of the eastern bank of the Bush River, the UNDEX Test Facility at Aberdeen Proving Ground has earned the nickname "Super Pond" for its unusual properties. Viewed from above, the man-made pond looks much darker than the nearby waters of the Chesapeake Bay. That's because it drops 150 feet to a flat bottom, where, out of view of the public, the military tests missiles, torpedoes, sonar and the effects of explosions on submarines and boats - all within walls that can withstand the equivalent of 4,100 pounds of TNT. It's also where Navy divers practice salvage missions.

Aberdeen Proving Ground's "Super Pond" has been closed indefinitely while investigations continue into the deaths of three divers in the underwater explosion test facility in the past month, the Army announced Friday. Col. Gordon A. Graham, commander of the proving ground's test center, ordered the shutdown Tuesday, the day two Navy divers died while in the man-made impoundment. Graham had ordered a "safety stand down" after a diver's death Jan. 30, but the Navy dive operation went ahead because it had already been scheduled, according to a proving ground news release.

The U.S. Navy on Wednesday identified two sailors who died at Aberdeen Proving Ground's "Super Pond" less than a month after another death at the installation that is still under investigation. The sailors are Navy Diver 1st Class James Reyher, 28, of Caldwell, Ohio, and Navy Diver 2nd Class Ryan Harris, 23, of Gladstone, Mo. They were of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Ft. Story. in Virginia Beach, Va. The Navy characterized the deaths Tuesday as an "accident. " The deaths follow another deadly incident at APG's Super Pond in January.

Two Navy divers died in the Super Pond at Aberdeen Proving Ground on Tuesday, less than a month after the death of another diver at the same location. Officials at the Army base in Harford County released few details late Tuesday about the incident, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. at the Unexploded Ordnance Range pond. The man-made body of water is also known as the Super Pond. A Navy spokesman said the families of the sailors had been notified, but officials were withholding their names for 24 hours in accordance with Navy policy.

Gardner Pond, a longtime professor of liberal arts at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County, died Saturday of a heart attack at his home in Baltimore. He was 65.A politics and philosophy professor who taught at Essex for 36 years, Dr. Pond played a major role in guiding the growth of the school over three decades.During his tenure, the eastern Baltimore County school mushroomed from a tiny institution with temporary buildings to a modern campus with more than 10,000 students.

What appeared to be a human leg bone and partially attached foot were found about 3 p.m. yesterday at the bank of Friend Pond near Route 24 and Jarrettsville Pike in Forest Hill, a spokesman for the Harford County sheriff's office said. The amount of moss and detritus covering the bones suggested they had been in the water for at least several months, spokesman Edward Hopkins said. He said that strong winds from Tropical Storm Isabel could have dislodged the bones. Police were awaiting test results of the bones' age, Hopkins said.

Two people died as a result of a diving accident at Aberdeen Proving Ground on Tuesday afternoon, the Army confirmed. The deaths were said to be two Navy divers who were working in the installation's Underwater Explosion Test Facility, also known as the "super pond," where a civilian diver employed by the Army died in an accident on Jan. 30, several Harford County emergency response sources said. One source said the divers were in cardiac arrest when they surfaced and had been working in the pond on air hoses, not self-contained breathing units, and were tethered to each other.