All Creatures Great and Small

We try to follow the rules of polite conversation around here at Harford Road, Hon, so in general we stay out of politics and religion. But there is the occasional exception, such as when we encourage you to get out and vote in the general election in November, and those kinds of civic duty tings.

And if you have a companion pet and you are so inclined, you should stop by the Blessing of the Animals:

Blessing of the Animals
Episcopal Church of the Messiah
5801 Harford Road

Sunday October 3rd at 3 p.m.

Delivery?

So we had a less than stellar experience the other night when we ordered delivery from a new (to us) place. It took an hour on a week night, and when we called to inquire about the status of the delivery, the woman who answered simply said "All the deliveries are gone" and hung up on us. Guess she doesn't like repeat customers, and we're happy to oblige.

Surely you have a favorite delivery place on those nights when you're just too beat to cook dinner. If you know of someplace that I didn't include on the poll, please let us know.

image by frankstoen

First Fridays in Hamilton

(image: The Hamilton Gallery)

It's never too early to start planning for Friday, right? Well, somehow July has already flown by and it's already time for First Friday at the Hamilton Gallery. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I have not been in their new space yet -- quit bitchin' and start visitin', right? And if I didn't already have reservations that involve a fishing pole and some wiggly worms, I'd be there this Friday, because I love a good gallery opening!

But for those of you who will be around on Friday, consider stopping by. Here's the info from the Hamilton-Lauraville Mainstreet website:

The Hamilton Gallery Guest Artist Series
Presents Guest Artist Photographer
Tom Snyder

On exhibit until August 31

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, August 6, 2010
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Why? Because it's Hamilton, hon!

Yes, there were lots of cool craft vendors at the Hamilton Street Festival, such as the one selling the door draft snake eating a Barbie doll. There were also lots of bands like the 4 Footers, below. For a nice collection of photos from the day, check out commenter Trev's Flickr site.

Hamilton Festival 2010 -- it's today, hon!

The Hamilton Festival may be the worst promoted festival on the planet, but then again, maybe that just goes with the understated attitude of this neighborhood in general -- Lauraville gets all the attention, and Hamiltonians are generally okay with that.

Yet, it would be nice to support this festival and maybe turn the spotlight up Harford Road just a bit to let people know that cool places like Hamilton Tavern and Clementine are actually in Hamilton, not Lauraville. Neighborhood associations up this end of Harford Road seem to move forward in fits and starts -- I've seen lots of progress and just as much backtracking in my mere 7 years here. And one of the reasons we started this blog was to keep our little identity alive by encouraging neighbors here in Westfield to communicate, albeit virtually.

But, I digress. My point is, the Hamilton Festival is TODAY people, and we should all go down to the intersection of Hamilton and Harford between 11 am and 8 pm today. I said it was terribly promoted, and I mean it. I have no idea about specifics, and didn't even remember it was today until I saw a #19 bus going down Glenmore this morning (because Harford Road will be closed off).

(click for slightly larger image)

Art, food, beer, crafts? What more do we need, people? It's a beautiful day, the humidity's low -- I'll be walking down there later this afternoon. Hope to see you there, hon!

Although there doesn't seem to be any one place to find out everything about the festival, the Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street site does have some tantalizing bits such as a map and list of the craft vendors, and a stage schedule listing the bands playing. C'mon. it'll be fun!

Snowballs!

Walked up to Walther Gardens and bought a blood orange with marshmallow. Yum!

Seems like only yesterday ...

We were trapped underneath 3 feet of snow! Ah the good 'ol days!


What are you doing to cope with the heat these days? Let's share our ideas here!

New Local Meet Up Group

A new Meet Up group for people in their 20s and 30s in the Hamilton/Lauraville area just started up. Join and tell your friends!

It's Back!

Crop Circle Sighting in Hamilton

It's hard to believe we haven't posted anything before about this great local effort happening right along Harford Road, namely, the Hamilton Crop Circle. Their mission:

Provide fresh organic produce to local businesses, and integrate young people into the sustainable practices related to growing organic produce to promote a peaceful lifestyle.

Hard to argue with that, right? But maybe also hard to imagine how they might get it done. Well, these folks are nothing if not creative, and one of the coolest things have done is to start a rooftop garden at the Hamilton Tavern.

Yep, you read that right:


But this is just one of the many cool things they're doing. They're also working with several other Harford Road restaurants to collect food scraps for compost -- Chameleon Cafe, Zeke's Clementine -- and they donate food to Our Daily Bread, the largest food provider for those in need in the state of Maryland. Check out their blog, Hamilton Crop Circle, and consider sending them a buck or two if you can ...

Keep Your Cool and Have Fun Too!

Did you know that May is "Family Wellness Month"? Me neither! But what a great idea! So here's an item for next month's calendar, but you'd might as well put it down before your summer schedule fills up, right?

Come to Druid Hill Park on Saturday, June 5th from 1-4 p.m. for The Family Tree’s Keep Your Cool Family Fun Fair. Enjoy a fun FREE afternoon with your family - rides, games, food, entertainment, giveaways and information on how to have a safe and healthy summer as a family. For more information, go to our website at www.familytreemd.org and click on events.

Check out the web site. Some pretty good stuff going on over there ....

Bike Bills on May 6!!

On Thursday, May 6, the Baltimore City Council will hold hearings about bike policy.

In other news, the spill in the Gulf could rival the Exxon-Valdeze spill in environmental devastation. The irony is that the rig was rented by BP, the most environmentally responsible of all oil companies.

Long story short: oil is dangerous; biking is good. Please contact your City Council Representative Robert Curran to encourage his support of any and all bike-friendly measures! It only takes a minute, and I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of oil.

My 'Hood Rocks and My Bike Rolls!!

Man oh Man, does my neighborhood ROCK or what????
So, as you know, I’m a bike-commutin’ fiend, but regular readers of Salamander Points know how I took my stove apart and couldn’t put it back together until all the screws finally just disappeared and now I don’t feel like it’s on my to-do list anymore; I’m not mechanically inclined.


Thankfully, Beth’s DIY and NOGLI hosted a Bike Tune-Up event in her back yard! Friendly people from Velocipede were there, and they fixed my bike all up, including changing out my pedals, and all for free! Beth promises she’ll do this event again next spring, and I’m psyched!
If you see a yellow and blue blur ‘round town, it’s me on my newly-tuned bike!

Ma Bell lives

Right turn on red -- after STOP

From Investigative Voice:

Right on red tickets net city millions

A word to the wise: I've seen workers doing something to the camera at Christopher and Harford. Not sure what they were up to, but it always pays to follow the law.

According to the story,

Thus one in every three drivers snagged with a $75 fine might be guilty of simply or slightly pausing or nosing out a foot too far, offenses that have netted the city roughly $3 million so far this year.