Calm Reflections Photography shares beautiful photographs that can be placed on mugs, mouse pads, canvas, puzzles, T-shirts, coasters and prints. Joanna Macaulay makes souvenirs of St. Mary’s County for tourists and local residents. Information about St. Mary’s County attractions, travel, events and photography can be found at her site. She now does pet photography as well.

To buy my photos, photo cards, and photo crafts of wildlife, pets, holidays and more, visit my Zazzle Photo store at https://www.zazzle.com/store/calmreflectionsphoto






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To see my Flickr Photostream go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75311362@N08/





Featured Post

The Lonely Buck

I have been fairly busy lately with the Christmas rush, so I thought I would make a few posts about interesting sights that I somehow didn...

Monday, September 16, 2024

Point Lookout State Park Beach Trip

 We wandered down to Point Lookout to hear the surf and view the Bay from a different perspective.  

I grabbed a shot of a bird over the causeway and realized it was an osprey with a fish later. Many of the osprey have already flown south.

Nearby, someone had a sun umbrella disaster.  I don't know if it was fixable.  

We sat down to enjoy lunch and I spotted a few boats.  I didn't realize the fishing net posts had a bird on every post till later. 

We had a nice lunch and I walked down to the beach to see the Lighthouse from a distance.

Near the beach I spotted a songbird I didn't recognize.  Maybe a Vireo?



  

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Drayden African American School House

We visited the Drayden African American School House on Cherryfield Road in Drayden, MD. It was built around 1890 and used until around 1944. We were greeted by two pleasant docents on one of the Saturdays it was scheduled to be open, September 7th, 2024. The next opening is September 21st (the first and 3rd Saturday's April-October I believe, but check before you go. It was still in the original location and was used during segregation in the 40s. (Although I am not sure some schools are not still somewhat segregated) The building and contents were nicely preserved. The teachers were underfunded, the children's supplies were less than caucasian students received and school started late, so the children could work on the farm earlier in the day. About 30-40 students were cared for in grades 1-7. See also my blog post on July 26, 2022. For more information: https://www.stmaryscountymd.gov/Recreate/Museums/Drayden



Nice children's desks


Lunch boxes


Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass are on the blackboard.


Bowling pins and toys






Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Monday, August 19, 2024

Gilbert Run Park in July 2024

 On another trip to Waldorf, we stopped at Gilbert Run for a visit on the return home.  I like seeing the varied bird life and the pleasant water view.  Most of the birds I saw were hybrid geese.  They have unusual coloring


















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Monday, August 12, 2024

Local Photos

Here’s a few fun recent photos from my local area.  Birds and sunsets.
Loved the circles!




Great view!




Three


Here’s lookin at you kid.

Friday, August 9, 2024

Crises Week

I sort of forgot to make a post this week, with good reason!  My 1998 very reliable Toyota Corolla breathed its last near one of the busiest intersections in St. Mary’s County (route 235 and gate 1 for the base.). The oil light didn’t come on, but it ran out of oil after only 2 months and burned up the old engine.  I was just happy that no one hit my car in the heavy traffic without a shoulder.   He/She served me well for 25 years and was looking beat.  We traveled through rain, snow, sleet and hail, to mountains, cities and beaches.  There were several flat tires, and some maintenance issues, a drooping headliner and failing trim, but never a new engine after 272,082 miles.  I hadn’t yet researched what car to buy soon, but I have some money saved up to help.  It is keeping me busy!
And that wasn’t the only thing that happened this week!  My husband decided to rebuild our PC computer.  It needed a boost and was crawling.  My photo editing software didn’t work well.  Unfortunately, the new parts were not all good.  He replaced the new motherboard only to find out the new power supply wasn’t good.  Now we have to wait for that too.  In the meantime, the wifi and the Internet kept shutting off.
Most of my phone calls stopped working too.  After a call to Verizon (on my husband’s phone!) and a successful visit to Best Buy, it was fixed by switching off a single setting. 

Farewell my faithful vehicle.  You served me well and even posed a few times.