This is Edgar, a Ravens pillow pet and the newest member of the MDP family.   He’s excited about Sunday’s big game.

To the mdp family: happy holidays.

This has been your mdp photo that is artsy for the sake of being artsy. It comes to us from the bridge over loch raven reservoir.

I recently got a new camera lens with the ability to focus on a very small area.  with the weather all crazy, its been kept inside.  As i needed something relevant to mdp, i present this orioles t shirt

This isn’t  a picture from sunday’s race but a picture of a few random cars speeding past the day  before the streets closed.

Ok one more bridge shot since I’m so late today.

Red Wolf from the Salisbury Zoo for your weekend enjoyment.

A shot of some Jet Ski’s at dusk in Ocean City

Not more chicken, but more shots of Perdue stadium. This view will cost you 12 for the whole game.  However, be warned because that net isn’t exactly taut.  It’s not recommended that you lean forward in these seats.

I found this shot the other day of the bridge over the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry.  I really enjoy it for some reason

MDP had a great time at a minor league ball game this Monday.  Don’t know if this shot is enough to reveal where it was, but I’ll let you guess until tomorrow.

Ok we will continue to sporadically post some more shots from Taylors Chapel, but we’re going to post a less depressing Friday sports shot.

I always enjoy seeing these baseball shaped plaques along Eutaw street, which denote where players have hit balls over the right field wall.   This has always been a favorite despite the fact it wasn’t hit by an Oriole becasue it seemed like such a feat at the time to not only hit a ball over the wall, but over the flag court and the street and to hit the warehouse 8 feet above the ground.  Granted this was at the All Star home run derby, not a real game, but still….

A few weeks ago when we visited Mt. Pleasant Golf Course, we skipped past a significant landmark.  However, that’s exactly what happens every time you enter Mt. Pleasant golf course, you pass by Taylors Chapel.   The chapel was built in the 1853 by the Taylor Family, who owned the Mt. Pleasant Plantation.   The chapel is significant because it’s one of only two such private chapels left in the City of Baltimore.  It’s also important because its interior is decorated with frescoes which remain in tact today.

If you correctly identified the sliver of a train station in Tuesday’s picture as Dorsey, then you deserve a hand.  

If you have ever exited onto russell st. from I95 you have likely passed right past this very stack.  It belongs to a trash incinerator and power gernerator located just south of the Ravens stadium.  Where did the name Resco come from for this plant?  It stands for Refuse Energy Systems Co.

This is one of the newer engines in the MARC fleet.    I believe that despite its new looks it is actually a refurbished engine that the MTA purchased a few years back from another transit system.  bonus points if you can pick out this location.

This morning was a bit of a rushed period of time at the MDPhotoquarters.  So luckily I have had this one saved for a while. If you’ve ever seen the ad campaign for 1877bayspan you’ll probably get the joke in this title.  Otherwise, it’s just another picture from the Salisbury zoo.

From the memorial to Maryland soliders at Antietam

This picture and yesterday’s picture show what is left of the Wye Oak.  Located in Talbot county, just a few miles off of Rt. 50, the Wye Oak was at one time a significant attraction.   Formerly the largest White Oak tree in the United states, it was struck by lightning in 2002.    It was 460 years old at the time if the lightning strike.  

Just to put this tree’s age in scale, today’s picture, like all of the  pictures on this site is 700 pixels wide.  That isn’t even close to capable of the resolving power to show you all of the tree’s rings. 

The tree was able to achieve 460 years of life thanks to care of the many owners and the state, which eventually took ownership of the tree and built a park around it.  It was indeed sad for many when the tree was destroyed. 

After the lightning strike this section of tree was moved 20 yards west of the tree’s original site and placed in a gazebo for visitors to see.  Part of the tree also went to making a new desk for the governor.  

To read more about the tree you can go to the state’s site for the tree here.

Time to move onto a new subject.  Today is just a teaser. Any guesses where this came from?

The trash piles were in the middle of the Rock Creek Trail.  Thanks to a park clean up effort, any number of odd and unusual things were cleaned out of the creek.  The tires are to be expected, but who put a toilet, a muffler, a 50 gallon oil drum, and a baby carriage in the river?   There was also a washing machine and any number of small and unusual one off items that I didn’t picture here.

These piles of trash showed up a most unusual place…..

Ok, this has nothing to do with the zoo, this is a fish that my mother knitted.  I figured she would get a kick out of seeing it here and maybe I could get a meal out of it.  I actually took this picture with the intent of posting it on april fools day, but that passed and I had forgotten about the picture.  So here it is today.

Next Monday we will slowly move out of the animal kingdom on MDP.

I had never heard of a Patagonian Cavy before going to the zoo.

That’s the cool thing about the Salisbury zoo, it may not have a panda, but it has a wide range of animals that you just don’t normally see; like a Bison or a Rhea, or a Patagonian Cavy.  What’s a Patagonian Cavy?   Well it’s a a rabiit-like animal from South America. If that sentence isn’t enough for you, here’s a wikipedia article.

We’ll just declare this to be zoo week here at mdp.  Since I have such an abundance of these pics, I might as well use them.   If you are ever in Salisbury you too can stop by and see some of these guys.

Today we have Prarie dogs.

The Salisbury Zoo is one of the few free zoos remaining in the country.  At least that’s what the signs outside of the park tell you.  According to its website it was started in 1954, not as a zoo, but as a display of a few animals in a city park.  Since then it has grown to a full fledged zoo.

You can come and go as you please every day but Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The staffers were very friendly and plentiful…  In fact you would really expect this kind of place to have to be funded by admissions charges.

With the loss to the Tigers, there’s no post about the Birds today. However, there is still a bird.

This guy, though he seems exotic, is a Marylander.   In fact he lives in Wicomico county.    More tomorrow.

Today, March 25 is Maryland Day.   For those who need a refresher, here’s a link to last year’s MDP celebration.

I understand that there is a possibility for snow this weekend.  I hope that doesn’t deter you from enjoying some barbeque because with the Self Indulgent Annual MDP Picture of the grill, the summer fire cooking season is officially open.

Well this is a repeat post of sorts. I had pictured this building before but not this wall.   Bonus points if you can figure out the building.   Sorry for the Delay this morning. I was extremely busy at work and couldn’t get away to post anything.

Here’s another shot from Spring Training.

I like this shot from spring training mostly because of this one

MDP missed its chance to see the moon at it’s fullest on Saturday but shortly thereafter it was high enough in the sky to clear the trees and MDP brought out it’s camera.   It turns out that the moon is a lot brighter than you’d think. It takes some effort to get the right exposure.

Last time we had a picture of Sykesville, it was from the other side of this building.  I like this cart, so now it gets to be the center of attention,

Yesterday, I was thinking about the Paw Paw tunnel, which is the 1/2 mile tunnel carved through a mountain in Western MD for the passage of the C&O canal.  The tunnel consists of the canal passage and a four foot tow path. It’s not lighted and it’s longer to get through than you think it will be.  Traveling through his century and a half old marvel of engineering was both exciting and scary.

What was on my mind yesterday was this sign below.   You almost have to wonder if it was a joke.  Where is this traffic?  Is it pedestrian traffic?  Will some rogue kayakers try to go trough the canal?  More importantly, who is going through the tunnel that is concerned about delays.  Are there people who use it to walk to work?

Becasue of my late start to today’s daily photo, we’re taking a picture from the photochive, which, of course, means a picture of a train.

Since I’m a little delayed this morning, here’s another shot from Brunswick where the town meets the snow covered C&O canal.

You know by now how much MDP loves a good bank building.  Not as much as a train, but close.

Welcome to Brunswick, MD.  I can’t describe how anxious I’ve been to go to Brunswick for the last year. There’s just always been something in my way.   This past Sunday, I had all the time in the world and I set my sights on the Potomac shores just west of Frederick.

The mural in today’s picture state’s that, “The future of Brunswick is rooted deeply in our past.”   I can’t say anything about the future, but modern day Brunswick, while a remarkably functional town in and of itself, shows many signs of it’s history.  That history, as you might guess, is deeply entwined with the history of the B&O railroad.  In fact, according  to the town’s webpage, the railroad even gave it the name Brunswick.

During the civil war the town was called Berlin, just like the town we’ve already visited on the eastern shore.  It was the point where Meade’s troops finally crossed into Virginia after Gettysburg, after they missed their chance to attack Lee’s troops who were stalled further north.

So this week we’ll see some of Brunswick.

With all the time this website devotes to trains, it’s almost comical that there has never been a post about the metro.  After all, a significant portion of the Metro system’s tracks are located in the state.   In addition a significant portion of the systems subsidy comes from the State of Maryland.   So here we have one train that just entered Maryland and one train on its way out.

I’ve posted a picture of the glyndon bank before.  This lamp and plaque are definite throw-backs to a time when a bank needed a certain appearance to convince its customers of the bank’s solid financial standing.

While this bank building has been converted for use by other industries, there are still a few of these old buildings that are continuing with their original purpose.  When I have the option, I like to patronize those branches more than the modern ones.

Ok I was in a rush this morning and I didn’t get a chance to post the picture I wanted.  So, luckily for the mdp community, it seems as though there’s always a backup picture of  a train available.  Here MARC #73 comes into Gaithersburg.

I’ve been holding onto this shot of the C&O canal for a while.   The depression in the ground running diagonally across the picture is the canal itself.  What interested me when I saw this picture was the drainage ditch running through the canal.   It didn’t make sense to me to have two giant holes in the sides of your canal.  I quickly assumed that this ditch and the walkway covering it were built after the canal went out of service.

I wanted to know more about the extent to which alterations like this have been made, but I’ve found nothing.  I’ll keep looking.

Because this site has moved just a little bit away from it’s roots of combining photos with a healthy dose of Maryland trivia and/or history, I’m trying to take opportunities like this one to add more content to the MDP experience.

This shot is very similar to the one from the other day, but I really liked the jet trails in this one and I hope you do.   With the conclusion of these holiday beach scenes, your dose of trivia will be in regard to the bay itself.  It’s deceptively shallow and difficult to navigate.  There are a great many points in the coastal bays with three feet or less depth.   I was shocked to find this out when I saw a chart of the bays at a friend’s house.

Eventually, on MLK day two folks ended up taking a walk down the otherwise abandoned beach.

An item of interest for future MDP posts: I was watching Outdoors Maryland last night and they discussed how the Jetties at the inlet for ocean city have impeded the North to South movement of sands across the shore.  It has caused more sand to be eroded from Assateague as there is nothing coming from the north to replace it.   Look for some jetty pictures in the future.

This Art Deco workforce seems to have an unparalleled combination of strength, determination, hope, and acceptance of their lot in life.   They are sturdy, hardworking Americans.  These workers come to us from a sculpture embedded in the walls of the Greenbelt Community Center, formerly the town’s elementary school.

The building, which features many architectural embellishments of it’s day, as features a series of these reliefs depicting the preamble of the Constitution.  This particular frame is depicting the result of the Government’s promotion of the general welfare.

The artist of these sculptures is named Lenore Thomas, a sculptor for the WPA.  I’ve tried to find examples of her work outside of Greenbelt, but can only see a reference to one more sculpture located in Maine.

Today’s picture comes from the Summer, which seems like it was way more than just 4 months ago.  This is the Patapsco river, as seen from Patapsco Valley State Park, which is an excellent place to find some isolation.   This time of year, it’s still popular as a spot for mountain biking.  Later this week, we’ll discuss something else significant about the park.

It seemed fitting as a followup to last friday’s shot to show a real life Western Maryland Diesel engine…or at least part of one.

This site has featured many train pictures, but I don’t think it’s ever featured a model train.  So as one last holiday shot and as a farewell to 2010 we have this model (not to scale) of a Western Maryland coal train.