First comes love

A faithful Tilda reader sent me a link to Philadelphia invitation-design company called Bird & Banner. The very first sample shown on their website is a charming wedding invitation that outlines the couple's history, starting with meeting in fall 1999 on "School Bus #23 at Unionville High School" (it seems they had mutual crushes on each other in high school) and proceeding through their first date, their first "I love you" and their engagement. It's very sweet.

Sign up

I just noticed that the sign at Kennett Friends Meeting at North Union and Sickle Streets has been replaced. The old one had been missing since the morning of June 6 when the driver of an SUV smashed into both the sign and the big evergreen next to it. The new sign, which looks a lot like the old one, was erected by the Kennett Square company Sarro Signs.

Doggin' it

I stopped off at the Longwood Starbucks after working out at the gym on Friday and found myself in the middle of a birthday party for the service dogs from Canine Partners for Life. There were about 10 of the intelligent and beautifully behaved animals there, both inside and outside the coffee shop, along with lots of their human companions. A few of the dogs wore pointed birthday hats, and they snacked on doggie treats while their humans enjoyed their drinks.
Usually there is some good people-watching to be done at Starbucks, but that afternoon was all about dog-watching.
Canine Partners for Life, which is based in Cochranville, trains and places dogs to help people with physical and cognitive disabilities.

New hours

There's a sign at the Unionville Post Office announcing that the window will be open for service from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays through the end of 2011. I'm sure that will be much appreciated by all the early risers around here.
Also, starting in January the price of mailing a letter will go up by one cent, to 45 cents.

Oh, phooey.

I have to the honor to be on the board of a local historical group, and at a committee meeting over Tanzanian tea the other day we were discussing some portraits that we have on display.
One woman told us that the phrase "that will cost an arm and a leg" was coined because colonial artists used to charge extra for painting hands and feet. As evidence she pointed to a portrait on the wall in which, sure enough, the subject's hand was hidden inside his yellow vest.
When I got home I checked out this great story online -- and alas found it thoroughly debunked on "The Phrase Finder" website:
"The tale that is told is that portrait painters used to charge more for larger paintings and that a head and shoulders painting was the cheapest option, followed in price by one which included arms and finally the top of the range 'legs and all' portrait. As so often with popular etymologies, there's no truth in that story. Painters certainly did charge more for large pictures, but there's no evidence to suggest they did so by limb count. In any case the phrase is much more recent than the painting origin would suggest."

In Motion

There was a lovely piece about Graham Motion, a racehorse trainer at Fair Hill, in the Oct. 15/16 "Wall Street Journal." One of the horses he trains is this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Animal Kingdom.

The story describes his background (he moved to the United States from England in 1980 and formerly worked under Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard of Unionville), his daily routine and his philosophy of training. "Everything we do is about getting the horse to relax," he is quoted as saying.
He also talks about how he manages to stay organized with so many horses and so much data to keep track of: his laptop and BlackBerry help out, in addition to his assistants and stable manager.

If you access the story online you can also watch a video of Mr. Motion and Fair Hill's jockeys, grooms, and a farrier at work -- along with some remarkable horses and a cute barncat.

Germs

A multi-talented friend just earned her Certified Food Handler license and said one of the unfortunate side effects of her new knowledge is that she is quick to notice any violations committed at restaurants. For instance, she was just at a pizza shop and saw the pizza guy wipe his nose, pick up the phone to take an order, take payment from a customer -- and then proceed to plunk down circles of pepperoni on a customer's pizza, without washing his hands or putting on gloves. Not surprisingly, she no longer had much of an appetite.

Behind the scenes of BIG

Festive photos have been appearing all week online of guests at the Brandywine River Museum's 40th birthday gala on Oct. 15. My friend Cathy Quillman, an artist and writer who lives in West Chester, was part of the behind-the-scenes décor committee, led by artist Mark Dance. She wrote the following account:
"I had a chance to see the design piecemeal when I was invited to be part of the requisite “top-secret” work crew. I think I spent more time talking to Dance about his plans than actually working, but that was partly because the work crew, ensconced at a secret location – ok, it was the “Draper Barn,” a historic barn near [Frolic] Weymouth’s estate – resembled the busy elves of Santa’s Workshop.
"Or maybe they looked like elves because all the décor items – colored pencils, paint brushes, even a palette knife – were fit for a giant. I was so caught up in the construction of each item, such as the truckload of PVC pipe and kitchen brooms used to make brushes, it didn’t occur to me that Dance’s theme echoed the word “BIG!” on party invitation.
"The main theme was art, of course, which Dance carried out in nearly every aspect of his design, from the giant palettes used as table tops and the gilt picture frames “framing” the hors d’oeuvres tables to the “mock” art work and row of books showing N.C. Wyeth’s famous illustrations.
"Many of the décor items served a specific purpose: giant paint tubes were carved from Styrofoam and left unpainted, to be hung thirty feet in the air in the courtyard tent. The silky colored fabric spewing from the tubes served to cover the tent poles.
"Dance told me that he borrowed the N.C Wyeth pirate mural he made a few years ago (it had been purchased by a collector) and then created several giant sketches, reimagining classic Wyeth studies. Dance also channeled Andrew Wyeth and somehow came up with remarkably perfect imitations of the great artist’s frenetic drawing style. (Dance drew several field thistles and one sketch of a Wyeth model, but not Helga.)
"When it came time to make a giant “Chock full o' Nuts” coffee can to hold those paint brushes, Dance didn’t even attempt to recreate its label – that would have taken too much time, he said. A professional sign company created a label and then spent a few hours (again) in undisclosed location securing it to a base nearly as high as a garage door. At night, the “can” was wheeled on its platform and into a storage area behind the museum.
"On the night of the BIG event, it seemed that the party-goers were so absorbed in hubbub, which included posing for photographs behind painted picture frames and dancing to the lively Ward Marston Orchestra, they might have overlooked the little details. Tiny brushes were placed in cocktails, for instance, and behind the bartenders, one could catch glimpses of the coffee can, with its “Nutrition Facts” outlining museum facts such as the number of “serving of art” and “visitors to date.”
(Photo credit: Holly C. Clinger)

Muy delicioso!

I just had an amazingly tasty chicken burrito from the newly opened La Michoacana Grill at Union and Cypress Streets in Kennett Square (catty-cornered from Tom Macaluso's bookstore). Along with the chicken, it was stuffed full of beans (pinto or black) and rice (your choice of two kinds), as well as cheese, lettuce, onions, corn and salsa; I think the only extra I turned down was sour cream. Behind me in line were some office workers on their lunch hour. There's only one small table, so it seems this is primarily a take-out place.
One young customer in the shop was waiting for his two steak tacos. He told me he lives in the apartment house just across the street and had already eaten at the grill three times in the few days it had been open.
Hours for the grill are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. And yes, the shop is run by the same friendly people who own the Michoacana ice-cream store on East State Street.

Mirage

Tony Young's Springdell mansion has now been razed (Richard Hayne bought the convicted swindler's estate to add to his Doe Run Farm), and only the portion of the house closest to Thouron Road remains. Mr. Hayne has told the township that he plans to replace the mansion with a personal fitness center.

I drove past the site on Monday afternoon and it's as if Mr. Young's grand mansion, which was built less than 10 years ago, had never even been there.
In other Doe Run Farm news, I had hoped to give you a lively account of the latest cheese-processing hearing, but it was cancelled. Yes, for the second time. No reason for the delay was given by Mr. Hayne's representatives and no new date was set.
Mr. Hayne is seeking West Marlborough Township's permission to make cheese and process tomatoes at the farm. For months, however, he has been making cheese there and selling it at his Terrain store (he is the founder of the Urban Outfitters empire) and at local farmer's markets.

Estate of the week

White Tail Run, a 30-acre estate on Stockford Road in Pennsbury Township, is on the market with an asking price of $5,750,000. I've never been there, but judging from the online photos, it's pretty amazing. The property details: five bedrooms, six full bathrooms and two half-baths, master suite with his-and-hers bathrooms and dressing areas, formal living and dining rooms, paneled library, fitness room, springhouse, barn, gazebo, pond and "a 7-car garage complete with powder room and large walk-up attic."

Busted

An ambitious Kennett Square friend of mine is hard at work studying for a very tough state licensing exam that she'll be taking on Oct. 25. Realizing how easy it is to waste all kinds of time poking around Facebook, she posted the following over the weekend: "If anyone notices me on here for huge chunks of time, I want you to verbally abuse me. Be merciless. Call me horrible names, curse at me, treat me like an immature child, then tell me to get back to studying."
I found this pretty amusing and sent her a message via Facebook asking if I could share her posting in my column. She immediately messaged me back -- then quickly realized that by doing so she'd utterly betrayed herself. 
Get back to work, you!

Blow Horn

There's not a lot more I can say about "Occupy Blow Horn," the light-hearted, low-key, nostalgic horn-honking that took place the morning of Saturday, Oct. 15, to protest the removal (by whatever means) of the time-honored "Blow Horn" warning sign from the old mill at Routes 82 and 841 here in West Marlborough.
The protest, organized in just a few days via Facebook and by word of mouth, took about 10 minutes: a procession of people drove through the crossroads and beeped while a bunch of enthusiastic folks stood up on the road bank waving and applauding. There was a lovely sense of community and affection.
My "Daily Local News" colleague Michael Rellahan, who drove all the way from West Chester for the occasion, outdid himself writing about the event, and I highly recommend his series of stories.

90 years young

Congratulations to the Longwood Fire Company on its 90th birthday! Station 25 celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 16, with its annual open house. Quite a crowd of families -- cars filled the parking lot and were parked up and down the road -- were there chatting with the firefighters, checking out the fire company's equipment and displays and sitting down to the delicious-smelling chicken barbeque.
Pierre DuPont formed the company, originally called the Longwood Fire Brigade, in 1921 to protect Longwood Gardens.

Water winner

Actress and singer Olivia Newton-John was here in town on Tuesday, Oct. 11, to receive the Stroud Award of Freshwater Excellence from the Stroud Water Research Center. According to the Stroud website, Ms. Newton-John and her husband, John Easterling, "also known as Amazon John, are both staunch supporters of rainforest conservation and known for work in conserving the Amazon River watershed."
A friend who attended the gala, held at Longwood Gardens, said it was just fabulous. Ms. N-J wore a simple and stylish pants outfit, said my friend.
"We had such beautiful linens and table toppers with one large pumpkin in center with lovely cascading bows all set up in sunken marble floor with the amazing fern trees towering overhead," she said. "Also they have 575 Asian paper umberellas displayed side by side on the ceiling overhead in that same area. You have to go see."

Odd Job Bob

El Brio Vanner farm in Newlin Township hosted an open house on Saturday, Oct. 15, to showcase its beautiful Gypsy Vanner horses, one of whom, Odd Job Bob, stars in "The Greening of Whitney Brown," the new movie backed by the farm's owner, Ed Fitts.
According to the synopsis on IMDB, "Whitney, a spoiled pre-teen from Philadelphia, is forced to move to the country when her parents feel the squeeze of economic hard times. A fish out of water, far from her comfort zone, she befriends an amazing horse, and undertakes a misguided journey back to her old life, only to discover that her family is her home."
Bob's co-stars are Brooke Shields, Aidan Quinn, Kris Kristofferson, and Sammi Hanratty. The movie is set for release Nov. 11, with the DVD available in January.

Steamed

On Saturday, Oct. 15, about 30 Stanley Steam Car enthusiasts took a jaunt from the Marshall Steam Museum at Auburn Heights in Hockessin to Primitive Hall in West Marlborough. The beautiful old cars had no mishaps en route, and the drivers and passengers enjoyed lunch, drinks, and a tour of the restored 1738 house on the gorgeous autumn day. One driver was concerned that he might not have enough water in his tank to make it back to Delaware, so before setting off he filled up with a garden hose.

According to the museum's website (auburnheights.org), "The Marshall collection is made up of 14 original, road-worthy Stanleys representing a cross section of Stanley manufacturing years and operating technologies. The Marshall collection is the largest operating collection of Stanley Steam Cars in the world."