Scavenger Hunt

September's gentle light has a way of illuminating flaws in your landscape. Yes, early autumn offers an abundance of fruits and vegetables to harvest, and many flowers keep going strong until frost, but somehow the eye is drawn to the barren space where the hollyhocks never emerged; lawn furniture, looking used and worn; that climbing rose, begging for a new trellis. It's time to embark on what I like to call the Great Fall Scavenger Hunt. Most people obsess over their gardens in the spring, and folks at garden centers and nurseries know it. They stock up on loads of plants, tools, fertilizers and other irresistible items, well aware that we, still partially dazed with winter delirium, will obediently march out and buy tons of merchandise at premium prices.

Scavenger huntLoad up the car with friends or family and take off on the ThirdAnnual Rallye 'round the County, a scavenger hunt that doubles as a Howard County tour. Discover historic sites and scenic spots in this challenging game that requires strategy, map-reading skills and teamwork. You'll get a detailed map, a clue sheet, T-shirts and a picnic lunch, and prizes will be awarded at a party to follow.The scavenger hunt begins at Circle D Farm, 15535 Carrs Mill Road in Woodbine, Saturday at noon and continues until 4:30 p.m. The party will be held at the farm from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets for the scavenger hunt are $24 for adults and $6 for children ages 3 to 16 and include the price of the party; tickets for the party alone are $15. All tickets must be purchased in advance.

Annmarie Garden events Visit Annmarie Garden in Solomons anytime this week and through the end of the month to take part in several fun and creative summer activities. Tomorrow through Aug. 20, visitors of all ages and artistic abilities can draw on the wooded garden pathway at the second annual Sidewalk Chalk-a-thon. Annmarie Garden will also present various other activities through summer, including a scavenger hunt. Annmarie Garden is on St. John's Creek at 13480 Dowell Road in Solomons.

NEW YORK -- A man loping down Fifth Avenue in a furry jackalope costume the weekend after Halloween usually wouldn't turn a head in New York. But curious police stopped the hybrid mascot that Saturday night, and underneath the antlers found A.J. Ortiz Jr., 16, who was late for a scavenger hunt. "They let me go after a while," he said. "But you know what's worse? I had to sign up to be the school mascot to get the costume. I have to wear it for the rest of the year." Ortiz is part of a loose network of hundreds of New Yorkers who meet through the Internet to play games every week in the city's streets: capture the flag, manhunt - a glorified version of tag - and, most recently, the scavenger hunt.

At an Earth Day celebration tomorrow,visitors can swap plants, make bird feeders, join an environmental scavenger hunt, pick up trash or hike a planned nature trail.The Phoenix Coalition, an environmental organization of faculty, staff and students at Carroll Community College, is sponsoring the celebration.Activities are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the college, 1601 Washington Road.Tomorrow marks the coalition's second Earth Day celebration. The first program, held on a week day in 1996, drew 40 people, said Geneva Walsh, coalition president and an instructional technician at the college.

It wouldn't be Christmas in Harford County without a visit to the annual Christmas Train Garden sponsored by the Jarrettsville Volunteer Fire Company. The train garden is up and running at the firehouse at 3825 Federal Hill Road in Jarrettsville. The train garden, celebrating its 30th anniversary, is open to the public. There's no admission charge. There is a scavenger hunt for pieces inside the gardens. If someone can find the snowman with the bird nest hat, then they will receive a voucher for Keyes Creamery.

In the "Local Landscape Scavenger Hunt" exhibit at Galerie Francoise, the term landscape is taken pretty loosely. It includes everything from closeups of trees by Carolyn Lyons Horan to the side of a building with a Sunny's Surplus sign on it by Greg Otto, to essentially abstract works by Bonnie Printz and Laura Wesley Ford.And that's OK. A little variety never hurt, and this show makes sure we get plenty. We also get some variety in terms of aesthetic satisfaction. Some of these works have more to offer than others, but almost all avoid being cliche-ridden.

Nearing the end of the Port Discovery scavenger hunt yesterday, John Carreras and his 10-year-old daughter Renee were almost finished with their list uncovering names of African-American inventors. They were in an exhibit called Miss Perceptions Mystery House, where they found a child-sized version of an ironing board and learned that Sarah Boon invented the contraption in 1892. A few steps away was an umbrella stand, and a clue that said W.C. Carter made the first one in 1885. "You learn a lot through the exhibits," said Carreras, who along with his wife, Tina, drove from Severn to Baltimore's children's museum for its "I Have a Dream Weekend" honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., which runs through today.

Nearly 100 children gathered yesterday in Manchester for the local park foundation's annual Easter egg and scavenger hunt, turning Pine Valley Nature Center into a playground for youths eager to take part in the springtime tradition.Some youngsters got to the center long before the eggs were hidden in mulch piles and under trees. The early arrivals waited eagerly while the eggs were hidden by members of a local Boy Scout troop.The event was so popular that organizers ran out of eggs for the little ones to find in less than 20 minutes.