A taste of Heaven swept the acoustic expanse of a neighborhood church in Marine Park on the evening of Nov. 29 as the swooning sounds of idyllic harp transfixed the listeners, and the playful, cajoling tone of the oboe pranced along in tune like a mischievous youth, seeking to help them rediscover a long-lost sense of carefree bliss.

The large, ornamented hall was at once alive and mercifully subdued as two particularly talented musicians entertained more than 100 attendees, all for free.

Michael Fontana, the director of Music Ministries and the organist at Good Shepherd Church, invites top-notch, classically trained musical performers to participate in this 11-week-long event, beginning in October and ending in the middle of December.

It began modestly in 1995, with only three or four annual concerts, one of which featured the oboist’s erstwhile group, Pastiche. Fontana still keeps the program as a sentimental memento.

A cavalry of dogs and dog owners stared down the impending rain on Saturday, Oct. 3 in Marine Park at the Brooklyn Canarsie Lions’ annual “Doggie Olympics” fundraiser. Helped by a bevy of local merchants, community organizations, elected officials and the 69th Police Precinct Youth Explorers, the Canarsie-based service club raised about $1,700. Of that amount, $1,000 will be donated to Vision Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, with the remaining net proceeds going toward a Canarsie public school project that will be selected from the website DonorsChoose.org.

Twenty-three dogs and their owners participated in 22 events; some of the more lighthearted contests were Best Dressed Dog, Doggie/Owner Dance, and Best Walk down the Catwalk. Yet the lighthearted day produced a dramatic finish as two returning favorites jockeyed back and forth down to the wire. In the end, Daisy – last year’s overall Olympic silver medalist and the friendliest pit bull you’ll ever meet – edged out Casey, a speedy, mid-sized brown and white collie, by a score of 190 to 170 to take the gold. Coming in third to take the bronze was a lovable rottweiler named Jude, with a score of 110.

MARINE PARK -- To many, Brooklyn means urban life, a small step from the bustle of Manhattan and a place where busy avenues and 24-hour mini-markets meet tree-canopied streets and rural-inspired homes. Yet for organizations like the Salt Marsh Alliance, a non-profit of volunteers dedicated to preserving and promoting Marine Park’s Nature Center, Brooklyn is a place of natural beauty, an ecologically developed marshland right outside our window.