WINNIE-THE-POOH: A sneak peek at a new book

I knew there wouldn't be enough time for me to go home between a late lunch date and my gym class at the Kennett Y, so I took along my current proofreading project to work on in the Y lobby (it's a book on the history of public opinion surveys about religion).
I sat down at one of the tables, plugged in my headphones, spread out my papers and worked for about 45 minutes. As I packed up, I noticed that the woman at the next table also had a stack of hard-copy proofs in front of her.
I struck up a conversation, and it turns out that her name is Kathryn Aalto and she is an accomplished garden designer and writer. She lives in Exeter, England, but is in the States with her husband during his academic sabbatical. And what she was working on was the proofs for her book, Exploring the Hundred Acre Wood: The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, which is supposed to come out this September. It looks completely charming, full of the original pre-Disney Pooh illustrations by E. H. Shepard. (Kathryn cautioned me that the book title might be changed; apparently her publisher, Timber Press, was still getting input from the sales force).

SPRINGDELL: Another reason not to speed on 841

This morning I was driving south from Springdell on Route 841, with a Mercedes behind me. It's a short trip, but we encountered one obstacle after the other in the southbound lane: a vulture lunching on road kill; a pool of standing water; a big pothole; and a disabled white car pulled only halfway off the road. By the time I turned onto Route 926 to get to the landfill, I felt a certain affinity for the Mercedes driver, as if we'd bonded during the experience. Goodness knows what he encountered between 926 and 41!

GOOD EATING: Hood's and the Whip team up

What's not to like here? As Hood's BBQ & Deli gets ready to open its renovated restaurant, they'll be visiting The Whip Tavern in Springdell on Friday, March 27. "Together we'll be serving up a mash-up of a few our favorite dishes," reported the Whip on Facebook. And even better yet: "A portion of the sales will be donated to the Po-Mar-Lin Fire Company in an effort to buy a new stove for the firehouse." 

POPE FRANCIS: The ripple effects of a pontiff's visit

In September Pope Francis is coming to Philadelphia, where he'll attend the World Meeting of Families and celebrate an outdoor Sunday Mass on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. How does this affect Unionville? A friend reports hearing that some locals are converting their homes into informal B&Bs and taking in paying guests during the Pope's visit. People are flocking to our area from far and wide to see the popular pontiff and are scrambling for a place to stay, even this far outside of Philadelphia: hotel rooms in the city and suburbs are few and far between.

WEST MARLBOROUGH: Report from the monthly meeting

I couldn't attend the March 4 meeting of the West Marlborough Township supervisors (it was postponed due to bad weather), so this morning I stopped by to ask township secretary-treasurer Shirley Walton what I missed.
Not much, apparently: the board approved the prior month's minutes, authorized the payment of bills, and discussed some changes in the zoning code pertaining to alternative energy technology. According to the report submitted by Lieutenant Bob Clarke, he worked 40 hours in February, handled 20 incidents, wrote five speeding tickets and three parking tickets, and issued six warnings.
The next township meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 3.

POINT-TO-POINT: The Cheshire races are coming up March 29

It's a really good thing that Jock Hannum and I had places to go after our Thursday-afternoon interview, because left to our own devices we would have just refilled our coffees and stayed at Foxy Loxy yacking until closing time. Jock and I were there to chat about the upcoming Cheshire Point-to-Point Races (of which he is chairman), but our conversation, as always, took intriguing tangents all over the place.
The short version is that this year's point-to-point, the 70th running, is being held on Sunday, March 29, in Unionville, on the property of Cuyler Walker and Katie Walker and Mr. and Mrs. Roger Elvin. Kirstie Grabosky is co-chair, Clipper LaMotte is vice chair, Franny Sharon is race course coordinator, Suzanne Kloud is in charge of hospitality, Doug Grabosky is the entry liaison, and Cindy Buchanan is the director of patrol judges and outriders. Greg and Caroline Bentley provided generous support for the ambulance and medical services provided by the Longwood Fire Company.
There is a new race this year, the Junior Field Master's Chase for riders less than 16 years of age. Bruce Miller will lead the riders over the first several fences and then will let them loose to race to the finish. The race is sponsored by Cindy and Richard Buchanan.
This year's Ladies' Race is being sponsored by Sanna and Kathy Neilson in memory of their mother, Nina Gill Stewart.
Jock has a brown briefcase devoted just to point-to-point materials and showed me the proofs of the race program that he and Wilmington photographer Jim Graham are putting together. On the cover is a photo of Mark Beecher on Grinding Speed, who won last year's Cheshire Bowl.
Now: about the weather. Jock said the weather at last year's races was the worst he could remember at a race meet in his entire life, with the miserable sleet, freezing rain and mud. By definition, therefore, the conditions will be better this year. I already have my parking pass.
For more information, visit cheshirepointtopoint.com

LIVE MUSIC: Two concerts are coming up

A couple of musical events are coming up soon that I want to let you know about:
1. David Power, who plays the Uilleann pipes, will be performing a concert of Irish music at the Coatesville Cultural Society, 143 E. Lincoln Highway, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, as part of a series of Irish traditional music that Emily Fine and Frank Dalton of Embreeville and Todd Denton of West Chester have been producing for the past ten years. "Our concert series is a labor-of-love, grass-roots, non-profit endeavor from top to bottom," Frank told me in an email. For more information about the concert, visit http://www.CTIMS2.org.
2. Davey Dickens of Unionville is helping to organize and is performing in Soldier Jam, a concert to raise funds for an all-accessible French Creek fishing preserve. Headliners are Hezekiah Jones, Mason Porter, The Griz Band and the Manatawny Creek Ramblers. The show will be from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Thorncroft Equestrian Center, 190 Line Road in Malvern. For more information visit www.frenchandpickering.org (French & Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust is one of the concert sponsors).

KENNETT SQUARE: A high-caliber fundraising event

On Saturday night a group of friends and I went to a very enjoyable and by all indications hugely successful fundraising banquet for a national organization at Kennett's Red Clay Room. The place was packed; we had to park across Cypress Street.
The organizers run these banquets all over the country and have fundraising down to a science. With remarkable efficiency they cleaned out our wallets. They were raffling off all kinds of cool items, at $10 or $20 a ticket. An envelope circulated at each table, and at the end of the evening if your table number was picked and you had contributed, you got a very nice prize. There was a 50/50 raffle (the total was $850), at 12 tickets for $20. Simply to enter one raffle for some high-end items, you had to buy a $100 ticket package.
All these different "games" were very confusing to us novices at first, but with the help of old-timers we figured it out and spent freely.
The official part of the evening opened with the Pledge of Allegiance (everyone looked around, searching for the American flag) and a blessing, and then the law-enforcement officers and veterans in the crowd were asked to stand up for a round of applause. (An officer from a neighboring municipality was sitting at the next table and I hooted at him until he stood.)
The announcement of the raffle winners was lots of fun. The emcee would draw the winning ticket and announce the number, and a few seconds later you'd hear shouts and clapping erupting from the winner's table. We had two big winners at our table, including a fellow who decided to attend the banquet at the last minute. I won only a pocket knife emblazoned with the organization's initials. But it's a very nice pocket knife.
The dinner was very tasty -- the waiters brought around salads, and then we went through the buffet line of meatballs, chicken, roast beef, ziti, green beans and carrots, and roasted potatoes. I was impressed with how quickly the crowded room was served.
I really enjoyed socializing with the people at our table. Three of the people discovered that they keep horses and chickens; they were set for the evening conversation-wise. Two women were comparing notes on their yoga practice. One of my table-mates is a supervisor in a northern Chester County township; I wanted to gossip a little with her about politics but never got the chance.
After dinner was the live auction, conducted by a tall guy wearing a black cowboy hat. He had to chide the audience (not just our table, I should add) several times for making too much noise. The bidding was lively on a few of the items: A red, white and blue guitar autographed by Ted Nugent sold for $550.
I was amused to watch the scene at a neighboring table: a woman was shooting daggers at her husband for getting caught up in the excitement and bidding way too much money for an oversized cooler that he could have bought at Cabela's for a whole lot less.