CAMBRIDGE — Poplar Street will have a new look starting April 1 — no cars, and more tables.

“We are pleased to announce that at our last city council meeting, we authorized the city manager to enable the closure of Poplar Street from 3 p.m. Thursday all the way though 6 p.m. Sunday evening,” Commissioner Chad Malkus (Ward 5) said. “This small street will become a Downtown Promenade. Please plan each week on it being closed from Thursday afternoon through Sunday evening.”

Mr. Malkus’ statement said restaurants will be able to to have more attractive and semi-permanent dining installations because they won’t have to bring them in each night.
Retail shops and services can treat each day like a street fair and set up tents or displays and racks on the street.
“And our citizens can park in our nearby lots and spend each weekend strolling downtown,” he said. “While we are starting to see the light at the end of the COVID tunnel, there is still a long way to go and everything we can do to expand business is a good thing for Cambridge.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: This event has been postponed out of respect for the loss of three lives in Thursday's fire on High Street.

Firefly Music Festival to return in September
It appears there will be a Firefly Music Festival this year. The Dover music festival on Monday posted on its website new dates for 2021 as being Sept. 23-26 at the Woodlands of Dover International Speedway.
No other information was immediately available. This would be a return for the event as it was canceled last year due to concerns over the coronavirus.

Spocott
Step back to the 1800s at Spocott Windmill & Village, located a few miles west of Cambridge, Maryland. The site features Maryland’s only post-style windmill (notable for the way the entire structure can be rotated into the wind) and buildings from the 1800s including a one-room schoolhouse, country store, small home, and doctor’s office.
The grounds and several of the buildings are open dusk to dawn daily for self-guided tours, information from Dorchester Tourism says. Under “fair winds,” the mill is still operated from time to time, usually during an Earth Day celebration in April and then the same day as the Beckwith Apple Festival in mid-October.

There has been a succession of windmills at this location dating to the 1700s. A similar working windmill stood near the site until it was knocked down by the blizzard of 1888. This replica, built in 1972 by noted boat builder Jim Richardson (namesake of the Richardson Maritime Museum in Cambridge), contains the original grinding stones and interior steps. The exterior steps provide a glimpse of nearby Gary Creek.
Groups are welcome, at 1663 Hudson Road, west of Cambridge.

Daffodil Days
Come out and enjoy a beautiful celebration of the tens of thousands of daffodils planted and displayed in the historic, waterfront town of St. Michaels! Visit the town’s outside vendors for potted daffodils or daffo-dilly gifts. Walk the town to enjoy the boutiques and restaurants along the way.
Grab a map for a self-guided tour to see how the community organizations and businesses have joined in to support this celebration of daffodils! For information, visit tourtalbot.org.

Adkins Arboretum
April 3, 10-11 a.m.
Explore the Arboretum’s diverse plant communities on a guided walk led by an Arboretum docent naturalist. Explore the bottomland forest and upland paths, meander through majestic beech trees, traverse the native meadows, and follow the narrow Tuckahoe Creekside path.
Guided walks are free for members and free with admission for the general public. Tours begin at the Visitor’s Center and last approximately one hour. Contact: AdkinsArboretum.org or 410.634.2847 ext. 0
Tubman Museum Music Series
The Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center, along with Camp Harriet, will be offering a live music series of blues, jazz and more. On April 10, enjoy music by the Dave Cole Band from 6-8 p.m.
Dave Cole is a music educator from the DC area. His style of blues is passionate and mesmerizing. He will perform, among other selections, his rendition of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Wade in the Water”.

Performances are free to the public but they are kindly accepting donations (Suggested Donation is $20.) Proceeds benefit ongoing music and educational programs at the museum. Space is limited, RSVP to 410-228-0401.

Along the Way
“Along the Way” is Main Street Gallery’s Show for March/April.
Alexander Goldsborough’s twin loves of travel and photography shine through in “Along the Way” his new show at Main Street Gallery. The Eastern Shore photographer has chronicled the sights and scenes of his most recent cross country journey in a series of stunning photographs on view during March and April at the Cambridge artists cooperative.

“Along the Way” opened on March 4, and runs through April 25, and the 13 members of the Main Street Gallery co-op will be showing their work as well. There will be an artists’ reception from 5-8 p.m. on April 10.
Patrons may also see the exhibit by appointment at 410-330-4659. Visit mainstgallery.net.

Bay-wide cleanup events
Trash is everywhere throughout the region’s watersheds — floating in ditches and strea.m.s, littering roadways, dirtying parks, and fluttering through farm fields. In April, ShoreRivers and volunteers will host community trash cleanups to help rid towns, streets, and parks of litter before it reaches waterways.

These events are part of the annual Project Clean Stream, a Bay-wide cleanup organized by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. Thousands of people across the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed — six states and the District of Columbia — will work together to clean the shared water resource.
“This is a great way to get outside and make a tangible difference in for own rivers while being a part of the larger effort all across the Bay,” a statement from organizers ShoreRivers said.
Project Clean Stream cleanups:

• Saturday, April 3 at 9 a.m.: Unionville Road on the Miles River
• Saturday, April 10 at 8:30 a.m.: Fox Hole Landing on the Sassafras River
• Saturday, April 10 at 9:30 a.m.: Turners Creek on the Sassafras River
• Sunday, April 11 at 1:30 p.m.: Wye Mills on the Wye River
• Saturday, April 17 at 9 a.m.: Sassafras Natural Resource Management Area on the Sassafras River
• Sunday, April 18 at 9 a.m.: Greensboro Community Park on the Choptank River
• Sunday, April 18 at 1 p.m.: Chestertown rail trail on the Chester River
• Saturday, April 24 at 9 a.m.: Easton Point Marina on the Choptank River
If you are interested in volunteering to take part in any of these cleanups, please contact Laura Wood at lwood@shorerivers.org. Trash bags and gloves are provided; volunteers are encouraged to bring water, a mask, and wear appropriate attire. To plan your own Project Clean Stream event, visit allianceforthebay.org/project/project-clean-stream.