Baa baa black sheep. Have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. And lots more at West Friendship's premier event of the year, the 35th Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.

This quality two-day event is held at the Howard County fairgrounds in West Friendship all day long May 3 and 4. "Always the first full weekend in May" is the organization's trademark saying and always the best of festivals is this observers impression.

A family event without compare, the Sheep & Wool Festival brings wool artisans and sheep farmers from across the United States. Two days of workshops, demonstrations, music, crafts, spinning, weaving, knitting, gourmet cooking venues and the sweetest lambs, goats, rabbits and (sometimes even exotic birds) on the East Coast.

Close to 300 vendors will be on hand having traveled from as far as New Hampshire and Vermont. Letty and Kelly Klein trek all the way from Michigan to participate in the festival and will set up shop in Sheep Barn 2.

"We are looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new friends," the Kleins said. "Stop by our pens and make yourself known."

Local participants include West Friendship's R.J. Caulder, of Breezy Willow Farm, who will sell her signature goats milk, herbal soaps and natural products in Booth A34 during the festival. Similarly, Rebecca Moy Behre and the artisans at Dayton's Greenbridge Pottery will be set up in their usual spot of Barn 4 Booth 9 with a huge display of pottery designed specifically for the Wool and Sheep Festival.

Don't miss the felted mural which the sixth-graders of Folly Quarter Middle School created during Art Day. The mural is being submitted in the Fine Arts Competition during the Sheep and Wool Festival. The middle school students were encouraged by their teacher Heidi Trout who submitted the mural to the competition on their behalf.

Sheep shearing, always a hit with youngsters, is scheduled for noon to 2 p.m. on both days of the festival. The shearing will take place on the stage outside of the main exhibition hall.

Bryan Bowers, considered one of America's foremost virtuosos on the autoharp will be among the strolling musicians at the festival. Crowd favorite is dulcimer artist Maggie Sansone who will perform Saturday, May 3, 12:50 to 1:30 p.m. at the pavilion.

The West Friendship Livestock 4-H Club spent the last weekend of April in full clean up mode as they raked, swept and hosed down their barn space in preparation for the Sheep & Wool Festival. The club is selling raffle tickets for a spinning wheel during the Festival.

This raffle is the main fundraiser for this local 4-H. During a recent club meeting, the membership was delighted with John Graybeal's talk on sheep breeding but the membership's collective hearts were won when Graybeal presented his bottle baby lamb which singularly charmed all in the room.

Local 4-H clubs will be involved with weekend sheep demonstrations and a parade of sheep breeds. Admission is free for this wonderful family festival. For a full roster of events, go to the festival's Web site at www.sheepandwool.org.

With all the news of local 4-H clubs and in particular the various clubs participation in the Sheep & Wool Festival, it was good to hear recently from Alexandra Miller, historian for the 4-H Hare Raisers Club.

Newly installed officers include President Leah Jennings, Vice President Megan Clark, Secretary Logan McDonough, Treasurer Ethan Trout, Historians Alexandra Miller and Mariah Grosko, Reporter Vickie Handler and adult leader and local veterinarian Wendy Feaga. This club has had a busy winter and early spring.

In February, Jennings and several of the Hare Raisers membership delivered beautifully crafted homemade valentines to the residents of Harmony Hall, in Columbia.

The club also honed their community service skills with setting up the show and judging tables for the Baltimore and Howard Rabbit Club's spring show which was held at the fairgrounds in West Friendship April 5. Winners who came home with ribbons and accolades included Christine Herriotts for her Angoras, Alexandra Miller for her red Mini-Rex and Rebecca Miller for her Netherland Dwarfs. This rabbit club meets on the second Friday of each month in the 4-H building at the Howard County fairgrounds. The meetings are at 7:30 p.m. and new members are always welcome.

Today is May Day. Did you leave a basket of flowers at someone's doorstep? This old tradition which was celebrated by the early European settlers has been lost in the shuffle of 21st century America. A lovely tradition in which one left flowers anonymously often with the ringing of a doorbell and a quick escape. I hope to reinstate the tradition with a few of my close neighbors.

All went well during the St. James United Methodist Church's annual spring fling in late April. The bake sale table, always a popular destination, was laden with sweeties beyond compare. But none was more popular than longtime parish member Charlotte Pattison's storied Cold Oven Pound Cake. This cake is so sought after that one parishioner requested a cake before the sale had even been announced. Pattison promised to set one aside for him and bake a few more for the sale.

Whittaker's Flowers, in West Friendship, will be open for several weekends this spring with what Dennis Whittaker calls, "The best of the old and new."

The 48 years and counting nursery has long been a mainstay for West Friendship gardeners, myself a loyal customer for 33 years. Native plants, vegetable packets, bedding plants and flowering planters are all for sale during weekends from now until May 26.

Whittaker will offer for the first time ever, a selection of Chesapeake native plants. This is your chance to fulfill an Earth Day promise and buy locally. The nursery is on Route 144 and open on Saturdays and Sundays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Every time I drive by Roxbury Road and see the "For Sale" sign on the former home and gallery of Tatiana Sellinger, I wonder how she's is doing in her new home in Santa Fe, N.M. I recently heard from the potter and she is doing just fine. All settled in now and still throwing those exquisite pots only now it's not a Howard County sunset, but a New Mexico one that shines on her fabulous art pottery. Sellinger is still going strong with her pottery and welcomes old friends to go to her Web site at www.tatianaltd.com.

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