Fells Point Rides the Rising Tide

By Van Smith

Baltimore, April 13, 2020

We’re a month into locking down in our homes due to the COVID pandemic, and taking a walk is a treasured experience. Today’s brought me down to the Baltimore harbor in Fells Point, where I expected few people thanks to the rainy day. It was noontime, just past high tide. Very few people were about, but water was everywhere. The captioned photos below tell more of what I encountered: a watery Fells Point, thanks to increasingly high waters borne on high tides on the Patapsco. Check out the third photo below – Thames Street is thorough inundated.

3CC07688-D11D-4B14-A6F0-736F21C8B133 — On Aliceanna Street, the tide comes up through a storm drain that supposed to convey stormwater into the harbor, but instead is conveying tidal water onto the streets.

2972579D-CD73-4B00-B319-571939D90442 — That’s a storm drain with the tide rising up out of it, on Wolfe Street in Fells Point.

46ABB9E1-D673-4C7F-92B3-DBB070C96DC4 — The foot of Thames Street in Fells Point, a place that often floods at high tide – more so now than in years past.

3759DC08-7FCB-4A8E-8B6F-88F4F17C78A7 — This fixed-dock marina now features a gangway that’s under the sea, thanks to more regular tidal anomalies brought on by sea-level rise.

31C246AE-0669-4C0A-BF00-760845BDCFE4 — This parking lot next to Aliceanna Street near the base of Washington Street in Fells Point is filling up with tidal waters from the harbor, thanks to an extreme high tide riding in on winds blowing up the Patapsco River.

Pandemic Poetry

by Rye Smith Pierre

Baltimore, March 31, 2020

“Corona”

Bored is what everyone says

When they’re stuck at home in their bed

Thinking of nothing but dread

Saying nothing about what was said

“Homeschool Haiku”

Hours of working

Siblings that play kind of well

Until they do not

“Gone”

The friends are gone,

The cousins are gone,

The friends of the cousins are gone,

They are all depressed

Due to one little germ

“Imprisoned”

I’m imprisoned in my own house

The government decided to do this to me

“It’s for your own safety,” they said

“It will be over soon,” they said

The big liars

Pie of the Times: Spam & Cheese Custard

1 12 oz can of Spam, in half-inch cubes

Half a head of garlic, diced

3 medium-sized shallots, diced

1 medium-sized onion, diced

1/2 cup of heavy cream

3 eggs

1/2 cup diced cheddar

1/2 cup of rice (before cooking) cooked in bone broth

2 pie crusts

Sauté the garlic, shallots, onions, and Spam until the onions are cooked. Beat together the eggs and cream with the salt. Line a pie dish with a crust and spread the rice in a layer over it. Add the sautéed items, toss the cheddar on top, pour the custard over the whole mess, then cap with the other crust and seal and pierce it. About an hour in a 395-degree oven, or until the pie is brown and puffy, will produce something resembling what’s in the above photo I just took. Good times! -Van Smith