It’s that wonderful time of year, when the sweet scent of fresh strawberries entices you at farm stands and the pint baskets of the ruby fruit shines brightly in the displays of other, long-traveled fruit in the grocery stores.

For a lot of us, picking your own strawberries is an annual celebration, a family outing, and an economical way to stock up on enough fruit to last until next spring. Strawberry season is a major event in England, with people spending all day in the fields. Of course, that’s probably because strawberry season coincides with the three weeks every year it isn’t raining in England. But I have a formal strawberry serving set I bought while I lived there. It’s a large white ceramic bowl with a holder for a small cream pot and another for sugar. Trouble is we ate so many strawberries while cleaning them that we never had enough to justify using the set! Oddly, the Brits had never heard of strawberry Daiquiris. In correcting that omission, I feel I did my part to cement Anglo-American relations.

Not only are they delicious, but strawberries are a health food, rich in Vitamins C and K, potassium, manganese, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. But listing all of that scientific stuff takes too much fun out of simply enjoying this gift of spring!

If you are salivating at the thought of strawberries & cream, strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, strawberry jam, strawberry bread, strawberry cake, strawberry sundaes, strawberry Daiquiris, strawberry pie, chocolate-dipped strawberries, strawberry trifle, strawberries in champagne and strawberry sorbet, here’s help in finding where to pick ‘em. The folks at Mid-Shore Life, an on-line site about activities in central Delmarva, did the legwork and found all of the places that offer P-I-Y.

http://midshorelife.com/article/where-pick-strawberries-eastern-shore From what I can tell, there are no pick-your-own strawberry places on Virginia’s Shore for which I offer them my sincere sympathies.

Is it Memorial Day Weekend already? Wasn’t I shoveling snow just last week? Now I’m swatting the first mosquitoes of the season and starting my annual search for an effective fly spray!

You'll be putting a lot of miles on your hybrid trying to get to all of these: lots of weekend-long festivals celebrating the Shore’s nautical heritage, Civil War history, and the eons-long spawning of the Horseshoe crab. Plus several arts festivals that should not be missed, and a few local customs -- blessing of the fleet in Crisfield and a reunion and reenactment of life at the Fairmount Academy.

If you are planning an event on Delmarva with broad or unusual interest, contact me.

MAY 26:

Sun, Surf, and ’65 Concert, Milton. Part of the weekly free Wednesday night concert series. This one features music from 1965. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and sing along. 7 pm.

MAY 28-30

Horseshoe Crab & Shorebird Festival, Milton. A weekend of wildlife exhibits and activities, vendors, train rides, arts & crafts, plus free shuttles all day to the beach at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge to watch the horseshoe crabs swim ashore to spawn. Friday night, a FREE performance by the Delaware Comedy Improv Company. (Donations accepted) www.historicalmilton.com/events.html

Chestertown Tea Party Festival, Chestertown. No, this is not a gathering of Ron Paul supporters. A real step back in time as the colonial town celebrates Maryland’s tea party in 1774 with a weekend of re-enactments, skits, displays, demonstrations of colonial crafts, swordplay, music, Punch & Judy puppets, “Toss the Tory.” Reenactment of the Tea Party is Saturday at 2 p.m. Something happening every minute.

http://www.chestertownteaparty.com/thefestival.htm

Oxford Fine Arts Fair, Oxford Community Center. 40 regional and national artists showing works in painting, sculpture, & photography. Lunch and strawberry shortcake for sale. $5. www.oxfordcc.org

MAY 29

Art on the Farm, Barrier Islands Center, Machipongo. Fantastic open-air air show on the grounds of the center. Dozens of artists displaying their works while local musicians play bluegrass and old time country music, nurseries sell their spring plants, children roam through the petting zoo, and the wineries of the Virginia Shore uncork their wares. www.barrierislandscenter.org

Guided walks through Adkins Arboretum, near Ridgley. Guided tours through the grounds, concentrating on recognizing native plants and promoting their use in gardens and landscaping. 11 a.m. Free

Fairmount Academy Festival, Fairmount (near Crisfield). A day in the 1800’s. Old fashioned spelling bee, ‘class,’ entertainment, folk dancing, seafood. www.visitsomerset.com

Delaware By Hand Show & Sale, Lewes. Delaware By Hand is an organization of near 170 craft artisans in Delaware. This is an annual show on the grounds of the Zwaanendael Museum in the heart of Lewes. Clay, metal, jewelry, sculpture, glass – an amazing, wonderful display of creativity. 10-4 www.delawarebyhand.org

MAY 29-30

Seaford Heritage Weekend, Seaford. Civil War reenactment and encampment, demonstrations of period crafts and life. Antique car show, mansion tours. www.seafordchamber.com

MAY 30

Soft Shell Spring Fair, Crisfield. Featuring Crisfield soft crabs & crab cakes, arts & crafts, live entertainment, Waterman’s Hall of Fame. At the city dock. Noon-5 p.m. Free. www.crisfieldchamber.com

Blessing of the Fleet, Crisfield. 4 p.m. at Robert Reed Park on the waterfront.

Drum Circle on the Beach, Lewes. Held every other Sunday through the summer. Drummers and dancers informally gather to play until the sun goes down. Join in or just watch. Free.

The skies over Cambridge will be filled with airplanes on Saturday, May 22. But they won’t be the familiar small planes landing at Cambridge Airport. They’ll be antique bi-planes heading for the annual antique aircraft fly-in at Horn Point Aerodrome.

Sponsored by the Potomac Antique Aero Squadron, it will attract upwards of 200 classic antique flying machines, using the grass runway at the University of Maryland’s Horn Point Research Center. The landing strip has been there practically since the Wright Brothers took off at Kitty Hawk. Some of the planes are old enough to have touched down since then, too. There will be vintage military aircraft, some homebuilts, and even a few experimental aircraft, but – by and large – these are planes that Waldo Pepper would admire.

The planes start arriving on Friday. The formal fly-in and informal air show runs from 9-4 on Saturday. There’s judging of antique (pre-1946), classic (1946-1955), contemporary, military (through 1955), and custom aircraft. In case of rain, everything shifts to Sunday.

Directions to Horn Point:

(from the north) Route 50 South over Choptank River Bridge, proceed 3/4 mile through Cambridge, make a right at light onto Crusader St. Go 1 block and turn right onto Washington Street. Go 3.1 miles to fork in the road at Long's Grocery (former gas station), veer right onto Horn Point Road. Go 1.6 miles and Aerodrome will be on your right.

(from the south): Route 50 North, make a left at the light onto Crusader St. Then follow the directions as above.

If you are using a GPS, the co-ordinates the pilots use are: 38 35.4N 76 08.2W