You could say that

Received this e-mail from my sister, an English professor and dressage rider in Minnesota:
"Have been watching the [Olympic] dressage and eventing with great interest--that beautiful, whimsical cross-country course was just a delight.  Heard Phillip Dutton introduced as being from West Grove, Pa., and since you know every living soul in the area, wondered what you might know of him? (He has an excellent sitting trot.)"
I'm assuming she is going to be teaching the rhetorical device "understatement" to her freshman students this coming semester.

Fruitful

This week's roadside-plant-of-the-week looks exotic (at least I think it does) but is cursed with the distinctly unromantic name of Ground Cherry. It's in the Nightshade family. What I thought was interesting is that I found two plants in different stages of development, just across the road from each other. One still showed the pretty dusty-yellow flowers that are hidden under the leaves, but the other had already advanced into the fruiting stage. It's hard to believe it's the same plant.

Road closed?

At their August meeting, the West Marlborough supervisors heard from two residents about traffic problems in our rural township.
Joan Silknitter brought in photos of the traffic confusion along Newark Road, between Route 82 and 842, during the Chesco Grand Prix bicycle race on July 4, and asked the supervisors to close that stretch of the road during next year's race.
Crosby Wood, one of the organizers of the race, agreed with her that traffic was "a mess" but said it was because of the unexpectedly high attendance. He said they would definitely ask to have the road closed next year (the race is proposed for July 3 and 4, 2013).
The supervisors also said they had heard from an Apple Grove Road resident who asked to have that road made one-way eastbound during the Plantation Field Horse Trials because it is too narrow to comfortably accommodate two oncoming horse trailers at a time. The supervisors said they would discuss the situation with the horse trials' organizers.

Generally accepted accounting principles

Residents of West Marlborough Township, which just imposed a 0.5% earned-income tax, might want to take a look online to see what they need to do to be in compliance.
It's fairly complicated.
1. If you are an employer in the township, you should have already been withholding earned income tax from your employees' pay based on where they live. Each worker has to fill out a form stating where he or she lives so the proper tax can be withheld. The employer is required to withhold the tax rate of the municipality where it's located or the municipality where the worker lives, whichever is greater.
2. If you work outside of the township, your employer should have been withholding the tax if you work in a municipality that already has the tax in place.
3. If you're self-employed and live in West Marlborough, you now have to submit estimated quarterly payments to the tax collector, Keystone Collections. You can download the forms you need from their website (which is very informative).
At the August township meeting, supervisor Michael Ledyard suggested researching Act 32 and Keystone online, "and maybe check with your accountant."

Peace

Someone hung this simple peace sign at the site where David A. MacLeod died on the evening of August 3 in West Marlborough. His car ran off the road along Route 842, just east of Thouron Road, went up a steep bank and hit the trees at the top. David, who lived in New London, was a member of Newark (Del.) Friends Meeting, and I received this email that was sent out to some local Quakers:

"Over David’s life, many people have received the blessings of the love that was evident in David:  David’s smile, his kind and responsive words, and the uplift from his affirmations regarding the natural world, plants, animals and people included.  David lived 54 years. Please hold David’s mother, brothers and sister in the Light and let us all support one another."

Dog attack

A reader sent in this scary tale about how her dog, Nani, was attacked at the Cheslen preserve:

"Yesterday, we were playing ball with Nani in the river under Corcoran's bridge, as we do almost every afternoon. When we were just about to go for a walk in the meadow to dry her off, a woman and her two unleashed, large, black dogs (perhaps shepherd mix?) rounded the corner to our left. We had passed these dogs the day before, and noted that they seemed aggressive (I had even mentioned to my daughter that they seemed to have a pack mentality). 

Without any warning, the dogs charged towards us. After a second of sniffing, Nani was pushed over onto the ground with a bite to her neck, and the two dogs began biting, pulling, and shaking her for about a minute. The only thing we had with us to help Nani was a small plastic butterfly net that we use to retrieve Nani's tennis balls in the river. Once the dogs finally stopped attacking Nani, they began charging at me and my two daughters, growling and snarling! We yelled at the woman, saying that we needed her contact information (she didn't even come to help!). 

My eldest daughter immediately called the police, who arrived after the woman had fled. Luckily, my youngest daughter's friend was on the bridge at the time, and heard the commotion. He was able to run to the car and take a photo of the license plate (silver Honda crossover with Arizona license plates) before the woman took off. 

What kind of a person would leave after watching what her dogs had done? We showed the photos to the police officer, who was very kind and helpful, and left in search of the woman.
We then took Nani to the emergency vet. The first question the vet asked upon seeing her was, 'How did you get the dogs off of her?' It became apparent to us that without the butterfly net, the dogs would have kept attacking, or could have even attacked us! The doctor is concerned that she may develop abscesses under her skin, which will require surgery, as a result of the concussive force of the dog bites over her entire body. (Surgery is needed in 1/3 dogs that are attacked.)

Nani is evidently in a great deal of pain, and has not been herself since yesterday.
We have already spent several hundred dollars in medical bills, not including having her staples removed and potential surgery. We are trying to locate the woman, as her dogs are a threat to other park-goers and as this point, we would like to see her be cited for the leash law and we seek retribution for medical bills. 

It is our hope to make other park-goers aware of what can potentially occur-- we never would have thought that something like this could happen to us!"
-----UPDATE ON NANI -----
From Nani's human companion:
"Good news! After days of skillful sleuthing, my girls and I have found the owner of the two dogs that attacked Nani. She had parked at the Cannery Rd. access to Cheslen Preserve rather than the main entrance on Embreeville Rd. We waited for her and her dogs to leave the parking area and we followed her to where she was staying: the KOA. Actually, we had been driving through the KOA daily looking for her car so it was no surprise to us when she pulled in there.
We called the police and he met us at the entrance to the KOA, where we were able to give him a description of her car etc. The trooper later called me and told me that he tracked her down and cited her for not having her dogs on a leash. He also informed her that Nani had been injured and that we took her to the emergency vet. He said that she was remorseful and that she had agreed to pay for all vet bills.
As far as Nani goes, she is doing much better! Thankfully it does not look as though she has developed any of the abscesses that vet warned us about. She has a follow-up appointment with the vet on Monday and then will have her staples out later next week.
Thank you for your concern and for putting the word out on your blog and Facebook page. I’m thrilled to say that we have found the woman and hope that this very unfortunate chapter will soon come to an end!"

I'm with the band

On Sunday I went to a party-slash-outdoor-concert in Unionville given by two dear friends of mine. The husband has a very grown-up day job tending to other people's money, but when he's off duty he plays guitar once a week in a rock band, Jimi's Not Home. He has always been dismissive about his musical skills, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect (but was prepared to be lavish with my praise anyway).
Turns out, he and the band -- another guitarist, a bass player, a drummer and a vocalist -- are very talented, and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. Although it was very hot, the venue was perfect: in the back yard, with guests sitting on lawn chairs and dogs wandering around, occasionally mingling with the band and even barking at the drummer during "Satisfaction." The tunes were classics like "Heat Wave" and "Somebody to Love," the volume wasn't too loud, so you could carry on a conversation, and there was plenty of great food (indeed, the dining room was reserved for desserts exclusively).
These two are such great hosts. They actually mingle with the guests, assume that people are capable of getting their own food and drink, and create such a relaxed atmosphere that I felt perfectly comfortable just hanging out for a while in the rope sling chair on the deck, watching the thunderstorm roll in from the west. The band ended its set just in time, and everyone pitched in as roadies to carry chairs, tables and the sound equipment to safety.

Visitors

Here's a shout-out to the Terras and the McNallys, two nice couples from East Marlborough whom I met on Saturday evening while I was out for a long walk. They were taking a leisurely drive through the back roads of West Marlborough and had stopped to admire Dick Hayne's chickens. We got to chatting, they mentioned something about West Marlborough they had read in the Kennett Paper -- and I had to 'fess up that I had written it. Turns out they are avid Tilda fans, which was very sweet to hear!