FIGURES OF SPEECH: Food similes are what's on the menu

I take a fairly intense double class at the Y that starts at 5:50 p.m. and ends at about 7:30. If you eat dinner before class, you're going to be uncomfortable. But you're going to get increasingly hungry as class progresses.
It didn't help that tonight our instructor kept making references to food.
After three sets of grueling lunges: "Here comes the icing on the cake!"
Doing overhead presses: "Hold your plate flat, like your dinner's on it!"
Toward the end of class: "You got this, team! Piece of cake! . . . Why do I keep talking about cake?"
She claimed it was accidental -- but of course she would say that, wouldn't she.

ROADSIDES: Dead vegetation along the highways

A reader said she has noticed brown swathes of dead trees, shrubs, and plants along the roadsides, particularly Routes 1, 52, and 926, and wonders what is going on.
"Is this PennDot spraying chemicals as part of road maintenance? During the day? (when we travel to work and breathe it in through our car vents?)" she asks. "We drove to Lancaster this weekend and all along route 1 there is a band of dead brown trees, shrubs, weeds; also along developments and watersheds (Elk Creek water preservation) which concerns me."
I've noticed these dead patches, too, but assumed they were due to road salt. Perhaps someone has a better answer to her concerns.

THIRD THURSDAY: Could this event be extended into the autumn?

My friend Diana cornered me at the Y this evening and asked me to inform the Kennett Square powers-that-be that the Third Thursday summer season needs to be extended. She, along with many others, loves these events in downtown Kennett Square, where local restaurants serve dinner out in the middle of State Street. The August event, alas, was cancelled because of rain. Diana points out that it's still warm enough to eat outside through October, and she is sure a crowd would still attend.

CANNABIS: They didn't get to reap what they sowed

Several residents of East and West Marlborough were concerned about the low-flying helicopters and airplanes circling over their farms repeatedly this past week. It was the state police taking part in their annual late-summer ritual of looking for marijuana plants growing in the middle of cornfields. From what I hear, they had quite a successful haul, netting some giant plants worthy of a "High Times" centerfold.

CAUGHT IN A TRAP: Is relocating groundhogs a questionable practice?

Concerned reader Barbara B. wrote to me in reference to last week's piece about the groundhogs that are tunneling under tombstones at Unionville Cemetery; I said in my story that the cemetery president has been trapping and relocating the troublesome creatures. 

She told me that the Pennsylvania Game Commission actually discourages people from relocating groundhogs because they could be infected with rabies, could damage crops, and could dig holes that "are extremely hazardous to unsuspecting humans and horses."

Her news surprised me: in my experience, trapping and then driving groundhogs to a distant location is a very common practice.

 

 

WEST MARLBOROUGH: Boy Scouts honor black Civil War veterans

What a great job the Boy Scouts of Troop 153 did cleaning up the neglected African Methodist Episcopal cemetery on Route 842 here in West Marlborough. Restoring the graveyard was Will Horstmann's Eagle Scout project, and this past Sunday he and several other troop members put the finishing touches on the job.

The project had its genesis by pure chance. Will's father, Steve Horstmann, was foxhunting with the Cheshire hunt and saw a fox go to ground on the overgrown property. Steve said he saw what looked like a tombstone and asked a fellow foxhunter if it was a pet cemetery. No, said his colleague; I think it's a human cemetery.

Steve did some research, learned that some black Civil War veterans were buried there and felt strongly that something should be done to honor them: "It was a disgrace," he said.

Coincidentally, Will was looking for an Eagle Scout project, so they embarked on the lengthy process of tracing the ownership of the property and getting permission to do the cleanup work.

Several Scouts helped Will this past week with the actual physical work, clearing the weeds, grapevines, poison ivy and fallen trees and debris. One boy suffered several bee stings, which meant a quick trip to the ER at Jennersville (he learned that he is in fact allergic to bee stings. Good to know!).

I happened to drive by the site on Sunday when the boys were installing black metal fencing, putting up a sign and placing American flags on the veterans' grave. To wrap things up, they bowed their heads and recited the Lord's Prayer, and the leaders said a few words honoring the long-dead veterans.

Good job, men.

 

 

Will Horstmann at the historic African-American cemetery in West Marlborough, which he and his fellow Boy Scouts cleaned up for his Eagle Scout project.

 

EAST MARLBOROUGH: Lot clean-up makes a great improvement

A reader wrote to me saying how delighted she was about the huge clean-up project that's being done on the property at the corner of Walnut and East Locust Lane, across the street from the edge of the golf course. The yard was formerly densely overgrown, with a lot of downed trees and debris, and it looks like some hard-working people with serious landscaping equipment have been removing absolutely all of it.
"Everyone I talk to is so appreciative to see that lot get cleaned up!" said my reader.