Shopping in the Square

After a week of 20-chapters-a-day editing to meet a tight deadline on a book about coma, I gave myself the day off and decreed that Saturday would be devoted to Christmas shopping in Kennett.
Fortified by a lunch of quesadillas at La Pena Mexicana, we ventured uptown to The Mushroom Cap as our first stop. Kathi Lafferty, the owner, couldn't wait to tell us the latest about the Mushroom Drop, scheduled for New Year's Eve. On her iPad she showed us a photo of the seven-and-a-half-foot tall, 700-pound stainless-steel mushroom, which will be lowered from a crane at midnight in the middle of town. Kathi's unsure how many people will attend the celebration, but to her delight and surprise it has attracted national media exposure. She's heard people are planning their New Year's festivities to include it.
Kathi's enthusiasm is contagious: I usually stay home on New Year's Eve, but I hope to be there to witness it, even if requires an afternoon nap.
Our next stop was the Market at Liberty Place, which since my last visit has added an organic fruit and vegetable vendor, Terra Foods. Their produce looks lovely, and if you need quail eggs, now you know where to go.
Also at Liberty Place there was also an impressive display of artwork by the Kennett High School Arts Honor Society.
A few blocks east, we stopped in at the Bayard Taylor Library and watched a demonstration of the library's new 3D printer, the Maker Bot.
After all this excitement, feeling the need for caffeine, we went to the new coffee shop, Philter Coffee, at 111 West State Street. The place has a friendly Seattle vibe to it (tempered perhaps by the Jim Graham photos of the Cheshire Foxhounds on the wall), and it seems to have developed quite a loyal following already. The House Blend coffee was hot and delicious, and we were fortunate enough to get a seat at the front window, a great spot for people watching. We had a front-row seat for watching motorists trying to parallel park their really large vehicles. The parking enforcement officer was vigilantly patrolling State Street checking meters (just as one couple left Philter, they spotted the meter guy approaching their vehicle and raced over).
As we walked back to the car (we took advantage of the free weekend parking in the garage), we actually saw a few flakes of snow. I'm glad we -- and lots of others -- didn't let the ominous wintry forecast discourage us from enjoying a pleasant day in town.

Guac for me, please

Some people see their exercise classes as a chance to zone out, and they prefer a solemn, hushed atmosphere without music or joking around. Not me. Yes, I take my time at the gym very seriously, but it also needs to be fun.
In one class this week our instructor was describing a hip stretch that involved moving your leg down and around.
"I like to think of it," she explained, "as a dipping a tortilla chip into the salsa. Go ahead: dip, and scoop!"
It was actually a perfect description -- and what a memorable visual!

Tough guy

This afternoon I was chatting with a party-rental guy delivering tables, chairs, dishes and so forth for a dinner party. He said it had been a busy week -- he already had put in 55 hours and was pleased at the thought of how much OT he was racking up.
As he was wheeling in a dolly stacked with six chairs (cushions attached), I noticed with surprise that he wasn't wearing gloves (it was 24 degrees out).
"Noooo," he explained. "Never do."
He showed me his hands, which didn't appear blue with cold.
"Gloves," he said with disgust. "Ya can't get a grip!"
Speaking of big Christmas parties, on the way home Friday night I passed a house that is normally hidden way back in the woods. Not tonight: it was all lit up, inside and out, and I could see cars parked all over the yard. Flanking the driveway out at the main road were two torches, and not just little tiki torches or flares; they were major flambeaux, like the Ghost of Christmas Present carries. Any bigger and they would've needed a township permit.

Barter

It was a complex transaction, the planning of which required several texts and emails.
A Unionville friend accidentally ordered two big boxes of Staples copy paper when she meant to buy only one. Undoing the order would have been more trouble than it was worth, so she asked if I'd take one box off her hands. At only $14.54, and with all the proofreading projects I've had to print out, I was glad to oblige.
The paper was delivered within a few days, during which time I made two batches of Christmas cookies and realized I was running dangerously low on the eggs from her hens.
Time for some barter!
We arranged to meet for lunch between her blacksmith appointment and her hair appointment (busy lady). The critical swap of loot, we agreed, would take place at the parking garage.
I was already there on the ground level when she pulled up in her massive red pickup. Without delay, she loaded the copy paper and a dozen eggs in my trunk. I handed over an empty egg carton and a full bag of ginger snaps.
Business concluded, we went off to an excellent lunch at the Half-Moon (which never disappoints). I picked up the tab -- her lunch was more or less the cost of the copy paper. If only everything worked out so efficiently and harmoniously!
These transactions where no cash actually changes hand reminds me of that wonderful passage from "Little Women," where Jo starts selling her Gothic short stories: "By the magic of a pen, her `rubbish' turned into comforts for them all. `The Duke's Daughter' paid the butcher's bill, `A Phantom Hand' put down a new carpet, and the `Curse of the Coventrys' proved the blessing of the Marches in the way of groceries and gowns."

Top ten of 2013

As the year draws to a close, I like to take a look back at some significant events. I paged through my 2013 schedule book and came up with the following, in no particular order.
1. We lost Mary Dugan, Mary McKay, Jack Singer, Susie Buchanan, Dr. Eckman, Barbara Wilson, Mike Langer, Nina Donohue, Thistledown Sheridan ("Danny"), Fennel and "That Tree." But we gained a rejuvenated (well, temporarily) Blow Horn and a replacement sugar maple.
2. We've gotten more snow in the past week than we did all last winter.
3. The long-running dispute over Whitewing Farm has ended (for now). The East Marlborough zoning board ruled this fall that the Shortts cannot continue holding wedding receptions and large parties at the Valley Road farm because it's not zoned for that use. Neighbors had complained about noise and traffic.
4. Foxy Loxy, Jerry Brown's new coffee shop and ice cream store on Route 82, finally opened after months of eager anticipation. It was worth the wait. (Trivia: Dudley Moore addresses Goldie Hawn as "Foxy Loxy" in that classic 1970s movie "Foul Play.") Another terrific new addition to the community is the Market at Liberty Place on State Street in Kennett.
5. West Marlborough's new earned-income tax raised considerably more than the township supervisors had anticipated, raising hopes that perhaps it won't be a permanent obligation for residents and employers.
6. Newlin Township supervisors found themselves on the receiving end of much wrath when they proposed adding new regulations for small horse farms that take in boarders. The last I've heard, cooler heads seem to be prevailing and a compromise is being hashed out.
7. The Lenfest Center, the new headquarters of the Natural Lands Trust at the ChesLen Preserve, opened in June with a splendid outdoor gala honoring benefactors Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest. (The hot-air balloons drifting by from Plantation Field were a bonus.) A few months later, a blood drive at the Center was cancelled because the Red Cross objected to the significant number of stink bugs in the donation room.
8. The major expansion at the Kennett Y was completed in September.
9. Beer and mushrooms make a great combo. The Two Stones Pub opened at the site of the former King's Island Chinese restaurant; Victory Brewing is coming to the Magnolia Place development being built on the west side of Kennett; and the Kennett Brewing Company is expected to open in downtown Kennett.
10. Tilda's life featured a considerable variety of excitement this year (as my regular readers know!). She got her vehicle beached at the Kennels. She grew some awesome pumpkins. And on a first date, your always-graceful blogger tripped over a step at the Kennett parking garage and sprained her ankle. Not too many dates later (yes, with the same guy), she tumbled once again -- this time headlong and joyfully into that crazy, intoxicating state called love.

The anti-Scrooge

Things have changed since those long-ago childhood days of poring through the Sears Roebuck Christmas catalog and making a meticulous, lengthy, no-regard-for-the-budget Christmas list, complete with catalog number, size, color and price. (Indeed, I've helped the Young Relative do the same on the Lego website.)
This year my mother, bless her, simply handed me an LL Bean catalog and told me to pick something out for Christmas. I obeyed: my choice is very cozy and involves quite a lot of goose down. I told her that it cost far too much money for her to spend on me, so I would split the cost with her.
She dismissed that suggestion immediately.
OK, I said firmly; then it's the ONLY thing you're getting for me!
"Oh," she said in amusement, "so now you're telling me what to do?!"
Defeat.
But, hey ... maybe I'll finally end up getting those olive-green double-knit bell bottoms! (Just kidding. But they were all the rage in the fifth grade, when we were finally allowed to wear pants to school. In the winter only, mind you.)

News from the art world

Those of you who use salt licks on your farm will be interested to learn that Los Angeles artist Mark Hagen put the "salty chunks in front of horses or cows. Then he let them lick until he was satisfied with the scoop-like craters their tongues created. Several of the resulting blocks sold for $8,000 apiece" at the prominent Art Basel show this past week in Miami Beach. (This according to a Dec. 6 story by Kelly Crow in the Wall Street Journal.)