POCOPSON: Circle etiquette on Route 52

A friend who uses the new Pocopson roundabout on Route 52 every day said she has noticed that some drivers don't seem to know how to negotiate the circle safely and efficiently. She suggests that motorists (1) slow down as they approach the circle and (2) remember that the car that is actually in the circle has the right-of-way.

THE BOOK SALE: Books to read, DVDs to watch

I had a great time at the Unionville PTO Used Book Sale on Saturday. This year they had a separate "collector's room" for rare books, books of local interest, and autographed books, some of the more delicate ones protected in plastic bags. In the main part of the sale, there were tables full of romances, mysteries, DVDs, nonfiction and kid's books. I liked the fact that some of the more prolific authors, like Tom Clancy and Nora Roberts, had their own separate sections. For some reason, there seemed to be dozens of copies of Stieg Larsson's books and Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent" for sale this year.
I scored big this year, finding several novels as well as DVDs ("A Chorus Line" and the first season of both "The Sopranos" and "Mad Men"). No, I have NOT finished reading the books I received as Christmas presents yet; your point being?
Two reporters from the UHS newspaper, the Indian Post, were selling coffee and donuts at the sale. As a former high-school journalist myself, I couldn't resist buying some, having a chat with the kids and looking through the paper. I loved reading the well-argued editorials about some controversial new rules in the library and whether the scheduling of mid-terms should be changed.

CAR WASH: Salt-free, for a little while at least

The Mr. Wizard Car Wash at Mill and Cypress Streets in Kennett was so busy on Saturday morning that the borough police stopped by to offer advice to the workers about their traffic management. Even though the two lines of cars stretched out onto the street, the men were so efficient that after only a few minutes my car emerged from the tunnel, grime-free.
Throughout the rest of my errands I spotted many gleaming cars with plastic bags covering the rear windshield wipers, a dead giveaway that they too had visited the car wash.

A VISIT: The aftermath of a burst pipe

On Friday I paid a visit to a stranger with the hopes of getting her involved in an upcoming event I'm involved with. I arrived at her Oxford farm at an inopportune time, to put it mildly: a third-floor pipe had burst while she was out of town, and water had poured down through the house. Soggy furniture was stacked in the mudroom. Dehumidifiers were running full blast. Artwork was set out in a sunny hallway to dry.
Things were particularly dicey in the laundry room, where ice had formed around the base of the washer and dryer, and there was even a stalagmite of ice growing between the two appliances. The homeowner and I both had sturdy boots on, so we tried to smash the ice into smaller pieces.
It occurred to me that this was an interesting way of "breaking the ice" with a new acquaintance.

POCOPSON: A former resident returns for a folk-music show

Real old-timers might remember the name Gerry Milnes, who lived along the Brandywine in Pocopson back in the 1970s. He moved to West Virginia but was back in the area on Friday night, playing a terrific concert in Newark with his son, Jesse, and Jesse's wife, Emily Miller, as part of the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music series.

IN TOWN: Happenings on State Street

On Thursday a friend called while driving through downtown Kennett, distressed that a couple of street trees were being cut down near the American Legion hall and the library. She asked me what was going on. I asked Kennett Square Mayor Matt Fetick, who explained that the removals had been carefully reviewed and approved by the borough's Shade Tree Commission, possibly because the roots were damaging nearby buildings, and the trees would be replaced.
Another friend asked what was going on at Frolic!, the clothing shop at the northwest corner of State and Union Streets: all the merchandise had been removed and there were people inside cleaning. I found out that the store closed and Houppette, the high-end cosmetics boutique in Greenville, Del., is opening a branch there.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Just a new way of sharing news

On Wednesday night there was an accident on Route 926 between Mill and Byrd Roads (a pickup truck went up the bank), and I shared information about it on social media to alert people to avoid the area. Then I went back to my bedtime reading: a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, "The Nine Tailors," which is set in a small, isolated town in rural East Anglia in the 1930s. The local minister in the story hears the church bells ringing from a distance, and he can tell from the pattern that they are announcing the death of a man (the aforementioned nine tailors) followed by 46 strokes, the dead man's age.
Facebook, it seems, is just the latest in a series of ways that creative humans have devised to broadcast news quickly.

PROCESS: A lecture by John Paul Caponigro

Last night I went to a two-hour talk by John Paul Caponigro, an internationally known photographer and visual artist, who came to Cokesbury Village to speak to the Delaware Photographic Society. He travels the world for his work and is pushing the envelope of traditional photography, using the power of digital imaging and Photoshop to express his vision. A great deal of the talk was way over my head, but after a day spent doing tax paperwork and filing invoices, it was a pleasant change to get a little cerebral and ponder the nature of creativity in the arts (including writing, a subject that of course spoke to me). And his images were spectacular. You can see them on his website, johnpaulcaponigro.com.

ON THE MARKET: A really big house in Kennett Township

One of those glossy "luxury homes" real-estate sales catalogues reached my inbox the other day. On the cover is a shot of a sunroom with a grand piano, a coffered ceiling, a tile floor, gingko leaf-patterned gold wallpaper, and lots of orchids. Browsing through the catalogue, which covers the mid-Atlantic region, I found that the cover shot is from a home right here in Chester County: on Ironstone Lane in Kennett Township, to be exact (a cul-de-sac off Bayard Road). The 8.7-acre property includes 20,000 feet of living space, a guest wing, a six-car garage, a pool, and a tennis court: the asking price is $5,295,000. Kennett Township will see a nice little increase in its real-estate transfer tax income if the house sells for anything close to that.

BOOK SALE: Lots of good reading here

The annual UHS Book Sale is this coming weekend: Friday, Feb. 27, from 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 28, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with the "$8 bag sale" to follow from 3 to 5 p.m. Snow dates are March 6 and 7. Proceeds benefit the PTO. The sale is in the high school gym, and according to the website there will be 80,000 books for sale. I always find a wonderfully eclectic assortment of purchases at excellent prices.

 

GROUNDED: A brief respite from the cold

The temperature got up to 42 degrees today, and it felt positively balmy after the lengthy stretch of single-digit temperatures we've been enduring. Indoors I was able to shut off the heat and actually walked around barefoot, a novel sensation. Just the day before, I'd gone out for a walk during the snowstorm (serious cabin fever) and managed to stay outside for only about 10 minutes; the wind was just bitter. Yet not 24 hours later, there I was shoveling without a hat, scarf and gloves; even my fleece vest felt excessive. Clearing snow that has been rained on is a good aerobic workout!

FLAGS: The County of Chester

I've lived in Chester County for many years, but I never knew we had a flag until Sunday, when I saw the national, state and -- yes -- county flag flying over the shopping center in Jennersville. Who knew?

The flag depicts a sailing ship, a plow, and sheaves of wheat, with a bald eagle at the top.