Washington Spirit defender Esme Morgan has been called up to the England Women’s National Team for the side’s upcoming friendlies, England Football announced today. Morgan and the Lionesses will take on China PR and Ghana in two international friendly matches beginning later this month.

Originally from Sheffield, England, Morgan has appeared in 18 international matches for the England senior team, making her debut for the squad in November 2022. The standout defender has been a mainstay of the Lionesses recently, helping the side capture its second consecutive Women’s Euro title this past summer.

England’s November/December Friendly Schedule:

• vs China PR | Saturday, November 29 at 12:30 p.m. EST (Wembley Stadium, London)

• vs Ghana | Tuesday, December 2 at 2 p.m. EST (St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, England)

Morgan has appeared in 39 total matches for the Spirit since joining the side last summer, seeing over 3,000 minutes of action. The defender has appeared in 30 of the Spirit’s 33 contests this year alone, helping the side advance to the 2025 NWSL Championship this weekend.

The Spirit will take on rival Gotham FC in its second straight NWSL Championship on Saturday, November 22 at PayPal Park in San Jose, California. Kicking off at 8 p.m. EST, the match will broadcast nationally on CBS.

Montgomery Parks’ popular winter tradition, Garden of Lights, will return to Brookside Gardens on Friday, November 21, 2025. The annual event transforms the Wheaton gardens into a brightly lit winter landscape, featuring more than one million lights displayed along a half-mile walking path.

Visitors will encounter glowing animals, insects, plants, and several signature installations, including a lighted Loch Ness Monster and larger-than-life illuminated flowers. The displays are created by Montgomery Parks staff, who begin preparing almost immediately after the previous year’s event concludes. “Each year, we start planning Garden of Lights almost immediately after the previous year’s show is taken down,” said Jeff Patterson, landscape supervisor for Brookside Gardens. “We incorporate the newest technology in lighting with the goal of putting on a display to awe our visitors and bring them back year after year.”

Garden of Lights will be open daily from 5 to 9 p.m., with Brookside Gardens closing at 4 p.m. and reopening exclusively for ticket holders. Tickets must be purchased online in advance and cost $13.99 Sunday through Thursday and $16.99 on Fridays and Saturdays, with children 5 and under admitted free. Tickets are non-refundable, though date changes may be made based on availability. Visitors can enjoy warm beverages, food from on-site vendors, and holiday shopping at the Brookside Gardens gift shop. The event will run through January 4, 2026, with closures on November 24–27, December 24–25, and January 1.

In addition to the light display, the free Garden Railway exhibit will return to the Conservatory from November 29, 2025, through January 4, 2026. The exhibit, open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. except on December 25 and January 1, features G-scale model trains traveling through miniature recreations of Montgomery County landmarks. The Garden Railway exhibit will not be open during Garden of Lights evening hours.

Silver and Sons, located at 5400 Westbard Ave. in Bethesda, has earned a spot as the only Maryland restaurant on Eater DC’s latest list of “The Hottest New Brunches to Try in DC.” The recognition comes just as the restaurant launches its new weekend brunch service, running Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 2pm.

To celebrate the rollout, the restaurant shared, “It’s brunch time! Brunch begins this weekend in Bethesda from 10 am – 2 pm,” along with a video highlighting one of its standout items, a breakfast sandwich featuring Merguez sausage and pastrami, stacked with egg and cheese on a toasted English muffin.

Eater DC highlighted several menu items, noting that Silver and Sons will be “serving up breakfast sandwiches filled with smoked salmon and pastrami, brisket shakshuka, and phyllo pies stuffed with sausage, eggs, and cheese. For those with a sweet tooth, the brunch menu also features chocolate babka and a rotating selection of house-made doughnuts.”

About Silver and Sons: “Jarrad Silver is the chef and owner of Silver and Sons BBQ in Bethesda, Md, as well as the Silver and Sons food truck, which operates at various locations throughout the D.C. area. Founded in 2020, Silver and Sons serves a Jewish-Mediterranean twist on regional American barbecue

Before founding Silver and Sons BBQ, Silver served as the executive chef for Neighborhood Restaurant Group, managing the kitchens at Birch and Barley and ChurchKey. He refined his signature style there, blending his Jewish heritage with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences while supporting local farms. He also served as the executive chef at Mike Isabella Concepts, contributing to the opening of eight restaurants over seven years.

Jarrad Silver’s passion for food started in his childhood home in Bethesda, where he watched his father cook and helped his grandmother bake fresh bread during visits to Connecticut. With both homes featuring vegetable gardens, he formed an early appreciation for fresh ingredients, despite being too picky to eat most of them at that time.”

Not everything about the future sucks. Like electric cars. Sure, there’s one thing that dinosaur-burners do better—short refueling stops—but even the least efficient EV is still multiple times better than its gas equivalent. So much better in fact that it offsets all the extra energy needed to make the battery within a year or two. They’re quieter, and easy to drive. And in a pinch, they can power your house from the garage. Or how about an airport?

OK, we’re not talking about a major international airport (although I really need to talk to someone at Dulles International Airport about my idea to electrify those Space 1999-esque mobile lounges at some point). But up in Humboldt County, California, there’s a microgrid at the Redwood Coast Airport that has now integrated bidirectional charging, and a pair of Nissan Leaf EVs, into its operation.

The microgrid has been operating since 2021 with a 2.2 MW solar array, 8.9 MWh of battery storage, and a 300 KW net-metered solar system. It can feed excess power back into PG&E’s local grid and draw power from the same, but in an outage, the microgrid can keep the airport up and operational.

Read full article

Comments