It's what's for breakfast

Fran Keller's Eatery, 119 West State Street in Kennett, has two new regulars: my parents. Having moved to East Marlborough last month, they were looking for a new breakfast spot and were thrilled to find this popular downtown spot. My mother, who grew up in the South, said she hasn't had such thick, tasty grits for years. She also praised the friendly camaraderie and the puffy and delicious omelettes.

Spelling counts

The Young Relative is normally shrewd beyond his years when it comes to eliciting praise from Tilda, but he must be out of practice: he told me that on his first spelling pretest of the school year, he got 3 words wrong out of 16.
I let him know that was distinctly NOT up to Tally-ho standards.
He didn't improve matters by saying that only one kid in the class did better than he did -- that scholar, it seems, got every single word correct, including even "turquoise" and "whimsical."
The Young Relative almost made up for it, though, by correctly spelling "Barack Obama" and "Mitt Romney" when I quizzed him. And on the first Sunday of Football Season, he redeemed himself entirely by correctly spelling the surname of the Steelers QB: "Roethlisberger."

Blessed be

A Springdell resident was kind enough to alert me to the following, which sounds like a delightful event:
"St. Michael Lutheran Church has an annual "Blessing of the Animals" where people bring their pets (cats, dogs, hamsters, snakes, etc.) to receive a blessing.  This year it is being held on October 14th at 9:15 AM in the church's fellowship hall."
St. Michael is on Doe Run Road, just east of the Unionville roundabout.
According to Wikipedia, many churches hold ceremonies blessing animals around the time of Oct. 4, the feast day of Francis of Assisi, who is the patron saint of animals.

That's my business

I didn't mind getting a birthday coupon for a free drink at Starbucks; in fact I was quite pleased. Same thing when the grocery store, obviously keeping track of my purchases, periodically sends me little coupon books for free ice cream and peanut butter and bagged salad.
But I take exception to getting a "Happy Birthday" mailer with coupons from a bunch of restaurants and businesses that I've never even been to. I realize there's no real privacy anymore, but how on earth do they know my birthdate?
I suppose the outfit that puts out these mailers had a go-getter rep and a nifty sales presentation. But for me, at least, it's a gambit that backfired: I'm LESS likely to patronize them, and I even thought it was a little creepy.

Town Tour

My friends and I had a terrific time at the Unionville Town Tour on Sept. 6. The turnout was great -- I don't think I've ever seen the fire hall/post office parking lot so full -- but because there were several guides, the pace of the tour was fine.
Doug Mooberry was our guide and did a wonderful job, adding many personal stories to the prepared script: he got the title to his first car at one place, and as a youth spent Sundays painting another one. Some of the homeowners were on hand and shared stories of the features (good and bad) of their houses, and Ella Sestrich, sporting a bonnet and long skirt, told us all about the building that used to house Sestrich's General Store (now Catherine's Restaurant).
I found it fascinating to learn that there were once three oyster bars in Unionville, and one resident told us that she still finds oyster shells whenever she digs in her garden.

Doug told us that he also helped out on a previous tour of Unionville that was held in 1976 for the Bicentennial, but this year's was much, MUCH easier and safer because of the brick sidewalks -- the Unionville Pathway -- that were installed in 2005. It was so interesting to walk through town because you notice so many more details of houses and gardens than you do when you're driving by. Plus we got to see the little garages and studios behind many of the buildings.
If I listed all of the people I saw on the tour I could fill up this column to my editor's satisfaction. I got to chatting to one nice woman, and I asked where she lived. Well! It was as if we were at one of those testimonial person-of-the-year dinners where they start giving general hints about the identity of the honoree and finally get so specific that even he or she figures it out. First she told me her road, and then the minute she said "schoolhouse" I knew EXACTLY where she lived and who she was and realized we were Facebook "friends" but had never met. It was so nice to finally shake hands!

At the end of the tour, going back to our cars, we saw people gathering in the hall behind the post office. Always curious, I went up and asked a guy with a tie if this was another part of the tour. He laughed and said I was more than welcome to stay, but it was actually a zoning hearing.
I left hurriedly.
For more information about Unionville history, a very good resource is the East Marlborough Township Historical Commission's website, http://www.eastmarlboroughhistorical.org/
P.S. A few days later I mentioned to a pal that I'd seen Bob Weer at the town walk. I couldn't understand my friend's reaction at all: first he was in shock, and then he was absolutely beside himself with excitement and wanted to know what on earth he was doing in Unionville, what he looked like, etc. Turns out he thought I had met Bob Weir, the Grateful Dead guitarist, rather than the East Marlborough Township supervisor.

YA

I see that the Bayard Taylor Memorial Library in Kennett has just launched a Facebook page focused on its Young Adult programming. "Welcome to the BTML Teens page! We're still a work in progress, but watch this space for info on upcoming events at the library, as well as book, movie and music recommendations! If you want to see any particular content, shoot us an email at BTMLteens@gmail.com!"
Here's a good example of the way libraries are thriving in the Internet era rather than being consigned to the bricks-and-mortar limbo that naysayers predicted.

You'd better not build that

At their Sept. 4 monthly meeting the West Marlborough supervisors agreed to pay $1,500 toward the cost of preparing the Unionville Comprehensive Regional Plan, a document being worked on jointly by West Marlborough, East Marlborough and Newlin.
The total cost is $12,000, 60 percent of which is paid by Chester County, with the rest divided between the three municipalities.
Supervisor Michael Ledyard said that having a regional plan will benefit West Marlborough because rather than forcing each township to provide for higher-density use, such uses could be sited in the more densely populated East Marlborough.
Responding to one resident's concerns that the other townships might not share West Marlborough's rural zoning philosophy, Mr. Ledyard said that West Marlborough would be reserved for agricultural use only.
"It's not a problem," he said of the regional plan. "It's very good to us."
Supervisor Bill Wylie pointed out that the regional plan is the only document that ties together the townships; each municipality will still have its own distinctive zoning ordinance and regulations.
The 205-page plan is available on East Marlborough Township's website.

In other business...

In other business at the West Marlborough supervisors' September meeting on Sept. 4:
-- The board discussed a complaint that many truckloads of spent compost from mushroom houses are being dumped in huge mounds on a field off Hood Road (near the high-tension lines) rather than spread. A nearby farmer is concerned that runoff from the piles will damage his alfalfa crop, and the site is near the headwaters of the White Clay Creek, raising concerns about contamination. The supervisors said the company doing the dumping appears to have all the needed permits from the county, but township engineer Al Giannantonio said he will look into the situation.
-- The board received a report of building permits issued in August, including two to the Irelands to demolish buildings on their newly purchased property at 150 Springdell Road.
-- The board suggested that any residents wanting to do large-scale burning should inform the local fire department and should ascertain whether any burning bans are in effect.
-- Supervisor Hugh Lofting reported that the road crew repaved a few roads and worked on culverts along Hicks and Thouron Roads.

Flowers

Way's Florist has opened a new shop at 625 East Cypress Street, Kennett Square, in the little shopping center where Minnie's Bakery used to be (and where the wonderful bakery Panaderia Lara now is). I remember going to Way's Greenhouses (off Ways Lane) years ago and buying newspaper-wrapped bunches of roses that were considered "seconds" but to my mind were just as pretty.

Thick

It wasn't especially hot today but it certainly was humid and sticky, more like the August weather that we didn't really have.
I saw a pal at the post office and she greeted me, "How are you? Fine, until you got out of your air-conditioned car, right?"

Spick and span

All of our local YMCA branches have reopened from their shutdown weeks, or "Enhancement Weeks" as they like to call them now. The steps, weighted bars, dumbbells, mats and jump ropes are all neatly stacked and organized, and everything looks and smells clean and freshly painted. I went to the Kennett Y on the first day that it reopened and was surprised to hear a grasshopper chirping at the top of the staircase: how did it get all the way upstairs? The wood floors in the Kennett Y's gymnasium were refinished and are absolutely gleaming, as are the floors in the Jennersville Y's aerobics room. It's surprising how easily the gliding discs (those round purple things that challenge your balance) actually glide over a clean surface as opposed to a gritty one.

Around the yard

Pumpkins were my experimental crop this year, and the vines started dying back a few weeks ago, revealing quite a nice crop. They're starting to turn orange. I've put straw underneath each one to discourage rot, but I'm not sure if they'll last until October.
A gardening feature in a home magazine I was reading suggested mixing vining crops with perennials. Are they kidding? I may not be a "style maker," but in my experience, those perennials wouldn't stand a chance. I thought I allotted enough space for the pumpkins, they quickly took over the lettuce, the carrots and one row of zinnias and they're using the sunflowers as a trellis.
In other signs of autumn, there were two stink bugs on the screen door yesterday, and although I'm still putting out fresh hummingbird nectar, I think they've left us for the season.

Dinner-table traveler

Barbara Landefeld Pratt, who describes herself as a "retired Unionville Elementary teacher/Kennett YMCA person," wrote to tell me about West Chester University's upcoming Travel Adventure Film Series.  

Here's this year's schedule: 

-- Canada's Maritime Provinces (John Holod), Mon., Sept. 17 or Tues., Sept 18 (dinner)

-- Northern Europe (Marlin Duran), Mon., Oct. 15 or Tues., Oct., 16 (dinner)

-- Jerusalem (Rick Ray), Mon., Nov. 12 or Tues., Nov. 13 (dinner)

-- Korea (Buddy Hatton), Mon., March 4 or Tues., March 5 (dinner)

-- San Francisco (Sandy Mortimer), Mon., March 18 or Tues., March 19 (dinner)

-- Royal Inca Road (Karin Muller), Mon., April 8 or Tues., April 9 (dinner)

She notes, "If you go to the film on Tuesday night instead of the Monday night 7 p.m. film, you can have cuisine of the film area. You need to reserve your 5:30 dinner in Sykes Hall about a week in advance."    

For information about reservations, tickets and prices, you can email Arlene Rengert (arengert@gmail.com) or visit the website, www.wcupa.edu/traveladventures.

Thank you, Barbara, for the tip! If anyone ever wants to contact me, my email address is uvilleblogger@gmail.com.

Fair Hill

I spent Saturday night south of the Mason-Dixon line at a party sponsored by the Fair Hill Volunteer Mounted Patrol, which is raising money to buy large animal rescue equipment for the local equine community. It was heaps of fun, a country-and-western Cecil County evening with lots of friendly people in jeans and cowboy hats doing line dancing and sharing their drinks and snacks.
I knew a couple of people there from hound-walking, met a few more and realized that you really can't forget the steps to the Macarena no matter how much you may want to.
The Unionville friend I went with found out I had never been to Wesley's, the nearby Elkton saloon and restaurant, so we left the party at about 10 and headed over there for a nightcap. The place was hopping, and I delighted in the novelty of downing a Coors Light in a distinctly non-Unionville bar. (Wish we had been there earlier for the crabs!)
My pal, who is nursing a concussion after a foxhunting mishap on Thursday, played a video game involving zapping zombies. The way she went at it with both hands, I'm fairly comfortable she hasn't suffered any brain damage. The way she climbed back into the truck when we left, however, was less reassuring.
"That hurts, doesn't it," I said, watching her try not to wince as she settled onto her injured hip.
"You won't hear me complain," she replied firmly. "Ever."
Horse people are tough.