Anna Pasqualucci painted a window screen at the opening of the Highlandtown Farmers Market Saturday morning. The market will be held at the corner of Bank and Conkling streets 8 a.m.-noon every Saturday through November 1, and features fresh local produce, meats and eggs, coffee, and local arts and crafts.

Photo by Jacqueline Watts

The Toyota Beach Volleyball Tour took over Rash Field at the Inner Harbor last weekend. Next stop for the tour is July 26-27 in Ocean City. 

Photo by Bill Lear

by Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

Ah, summer camp. Sports, arts and crafts, swimming, nature hikes.
Now, picture it without the letters home to Mom and Dad, because for many of these campers, there is no home. Not one that is located at a permanent address, anyway. Homeless shelters, relatives’ houses and friends’ homes have been these kids’ bases for years.
But for now, they’re happy campers, enjoying summer freedom in the big outdoors.
Welcome to Camp

by Colleen Wolfe
soboblog@baltimoreguide.com

There’s one thing that I see as indisputable about living on the peninsula. We have so many great organizations in our neighborhoods that there is always something going on. From church suppers to Easter egg hunts, Halloween parties, neighborhood clean ups, sports leagues, festivals and the myriad of other activities that go on in South Baltimore on any given day there is no end to the fun. If you have ever helped to organize a

by Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

Everyone into the pool.
No, not that kind of pool. The betting pool. For the pool team from Highlandtown.

The 8-ball pool team that plays at Lears II in Highlandtown will be making tracks for Las Vegas to compete for the $25,000 prize in the 2008 American Poolplayers Association’s (APA) 8-Ball National Team Championship.
The

by Lynn Williams
maindish@baltimoreguide.com

As I write for a downtown newspaper, I usually don’t make a practice of venturing too far into the wilds of suburbia for a review.
One thing lured me out to York Garden, though – how many times does one get to eat at an Indian-Mexican restaurant? And one with a lunch buffet, at that? All I can eat of two of my favorite cuisines: how irresistible is that?
The restaurant, formerly the

Park Talk: Want to meet Wanda Durden, the new acting director of the Baltimore Rec and Parks Department, and talk about your ideas for the park? On Wednesday, July 16, come to the Patterson Park Pagoda at 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday, Aug. 20, come to the Carroll Park Mansion House at 6:30 p.m. Info: 410-396-7900, www.baltimorecity.gov/recnparks.
School CEO: On Wednesday, July 16 from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Museum, 1417 Thames Street in Fells

The Allen Center
1404 S. Charles St., South Baltimore
410-685-6224

Monday, July 21, 9:30 a.m., trip talk, free.
10:30: Card games and dominoes, free.
12:45 p.m., bingo.
Tuesday, July 22, 9:30 a.m., trip talk, free.
10:30, special program, free.
1 p.m., conversations with Hilda, free.
Wednesday, July 23, 10 a.m., Yoga class, free.
10:30 a.m., sewing and knitting class, free.
12:45 p.m., Bible study, free.
Friday, July 25, 10:30

You could spend a good part of this weekend in Little Italy, and what’s not to like about that? Start on Friday evening at 7 with the neighborhood’s celebrated outdoor movie series. There will be entertainment and political speechifying, and finally the traditional festival kickoff, “Moonstruck.” That’s Mr. John Pente, the 98-year-old “Mayor of Little Italy,” whose third-floor bedroom serves as the projection booth. Then on Saturday morning there is the Clem Florio Memorial Bocce Tournament, which gets rolling at 9:30 a.m. at the courts next to old St. Leo’s School.
Photo by Harry Connolly

Kelly Flores, a Spanish teacher at Patterson High School, indulged in the fine traditional Baltimore sport of chicken-necking at Hull Street Pier on Saturday.   

Photo by Bill Lear

By Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

Organizers in Southeast Baltimore say they are close to submitting an application to the city to establish an off-leash dog park in Patterson Park. And those in Sobo may be even closer to putting one in Latrobe Park since they are already working out the Memorandum of Understanding process with the city.
Both groups say they have support from the nearby neighbors regarding the establishment of a canine-friendly area.
“We have gone

by Colleen Wolfe
soboblog@batlimoreguide.com

The city has quite a bit of wildlife, and it’s not the frat-boy beer-guzzling type you see stumbling around the streets of Federal Hill in the wee hours of Sunday morning. I mean the feathered and furry kind.
Delegate Brian McHale, a Locust Point neighbor, says that the Maryland Port Administration is transforming one of Baltimore Harbor’s most polluted sites into a haven for wildlife and nature. The Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center

by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com

Clem Florio, the horse handicapper, professional boxer, sportswriter and bon vivant, died in May of cancer at the age of 78. When he was alive you could generally find him at the bocce courts in Little Italy.

When Clem Florio was in Baltimore, you could generally find him at Little Italy’s bocce court most evenings.

Photo by Harry Connolly

So what better way to celebrate Florio’s

By Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com

The opening of a city-run homeless shelter in Butchers Hill was uneventful, says the president of the neighborhood association, and residents are watching carefully to see that the operation remains relatively trouble-free.
“So far it has been a non-event,” said Barry Glassman, president of the Butchers Hill Association.
Mayor Sheila Dixon’s office told the association last month that it would establish a shelter for 75 men and 45 women at the Ralph J.

By Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

Venus vs. Serena didn’t raise eyebrows at Wimbledon. In fact, to get back to eyebrow-raising territory in tennis, you pretty much have to rewind to Arthur Ashe in the 1960s and 1970s.
And before that — at least in Baltimore — there was the seminal integrated tennis match, held on the whites-only clay courts near the Conservatory in Druid Hill Park. A total of 60 years ago on Friday, as a matter of

by Lynn Williams
maindish@baltimoreguide.com

There’s a reason food critics like to give a restaurant a month or two to “settle in” before posting a review. A friend who lives just around the corner from Fells Point’s new Riptide By the Bay tells me that when it opened in May it was a whole different sort of place. Chef Reinaldo Padilla was in charge, with a fine-dining menu that included pork osso bucco with polenta as well as classy seafood

School CEO Talk: On Wednesday, July 16 from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Museum, 1417 Thames Street in Fells Point, Dr. Andres Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, who will explain how volunteers and business professionals can help enrich city schools and support students. All are welcome at this session, entitled, “Improving Education in Baltimore Schools,” which will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a networking reception, cocktails, and light fare. Registration is required. Info:

The Allen Center
1404 S. Charles St., South Baltimore
410-685-6224

Wednesday, July 9, 10:30 a.m., Informal activities, free.
12:45 p.m., Bible study, free.
1 p.m., Pinochle, free.
Friday, July 11, Trip to Dollar Tree and lunch on your own, reservations required.
Saturday Community Bingo on Saturday, July 12. Doors open 9:30 a.m., games begin at noon. Need a ride? Call for availability, 410-685-6224.
Upcoming trips:
Aug. 13, Atlantic City, $25, accepting

The Dundalk Fourth of July Heritage Parade steps off at 8 a.m. Friday and winds through Historic Dundalk. The Heritage Fair follows Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Dundalk Heritage Park.  

Photo by Mary Helen Sprecher

Want to enjoy Baltimore’s Fourth of July festivities? Make tracks for the following.
At AVAM: On Friday, July 4, the American Visionary Art Museum, 800 Key Highway, holds its AVAM Visionary Pets On Parade event, with registration starting 9:30 a.m. and the event beginning 10 a.m. Owners and pets can enjoy a lap around AVAM’s campus prior to the Pet Talent (or lack thereof) Show. Each entrant has the opportunity to take the stage and perform a real (or