Instead of appreciating the gardens outside, people admired the art and antiques inside the Towson home of Mary Joel Davis. The executive director of Alternative Directions Inc. held her group's annual Spring Lawn Party indoors this year, thanks to an uninvited afternoon rain.

It was just as well. "The house is the party!" proclaimed Mary-Michele Davis, Mary Joel's daughter.

Rooms painted in rich earth tones provided a cozy atmosphere for the 90 guests, and a warm backdrop to art created and collected by the Davis family. Among the guests were Sister Margaret Beatty, Alternative Directions board chair; Electra Lambert, vice chair; Karen Czapanskiy, LaMont W. Flanagan and Kathleen F. Shemer, guests of honor; Richard Kastendieck, Maryland assistant attorney general; Susanna O'Mara, Loyola College professor; and Natalie Rees, an attorney in Baltimore and the Towson area.

The get-together raised $5,200 for Alternative Directions, which provides legal services in civil matters to incarcerated and indigent men and women in Maryland.