Over the winter I wrote about the Dukes of Destiny concert at West Grove Friends Meeting that had to be postponed due to a snowstorm. Georgia Delaney tells me that the concert, sponsored by West Grove and London Grove Quaker meetings, has been rescheduled for Saturday, Oct. 22, at the same venue, 153 East Harmony Road in West Grove. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the music is from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Recommended donation is $15 for each adult or older child (it's family friendly, with plenty of dancing!).
Proceeds support the London Grove Meeting kindergarten and the West Grove Meeting daycare.
Saturday, August 20, 2016
UNIONVILLE: See our Olympians at work!
Our amazing local Olympic equestrians, Phillip Dutton and Boyd Martin, made page 1 of last week's Kennett Paper (what a nice photo by my friend Chris Barber of bronze medalist Phillip and his wife, Evie!), and you can see them "up close and personal" from Sept. 15 to 18 as they compete at the Plantation Field International Horse Trials here in Unionville.
This is a great event for competitors and spectators. It's a sublimely beautiful venue, you get a front-row view of the horses and riders, there's lots of shopping and food, and the people-watching is first-class. The theme of this year's event is "Septemberfest." Admission is free on Friday, Sept. 16; the other days admission is $20 per car.
The website has full details and the schedule.
This is a great event for competitors and spectators. It's a sublimely beautiful venue, you get a front-row view of the horses and riders, there's lots of shopping and food, and the people-watching is first-class. The theme of this year's event is "Septemberfest." Admission is free on Friday, Sept. 16; the other days admission is $20 per car.
The website has full details and the schedule.
KENNETT: Who was Anson B. Nixon?
I frequently write in this column about the events going on at Anson
B. Nixon Park, but who exactly WAS Anson B. Nixon? For an answer I turned to my friend Eva Verplanck, who has been involved in running the park for many years. Her response:
"ABN was a long-time resident of Kennett Township and Chairman of Hercules.
He was a Kennett Township Supervisor and then chair of the Regional
Landfill Authority (forerunner of SECCRA), where the ball fields now
are). His dream was to create a park on the landfill site and some adjacent
properties. His daughter Nicky Ellis was on the original group planning the
park and his children established the fund at the Community Foundation."
Thank you, Eva! I wonder if it might be a worthwhile project to install a plaque at the park giving some basic biographical information about him.
Friday, August 19, 2016
SUMMER: Climate change
The other day I remarked to a young friend that the recent heat wave was unpleasant, for sure, but at least my house has air conditioning.
She looked at me as if I had said "but at least I have indoor plumbing."
The thing is, air conditioning is fairly recent. Look at the old photographs of streetscapes and you'll see signs advertising that this bar or that movie theater was air conditioned, like it was a novelty. A lot of us in the over-50 age bracket grew up without it and still regard it as something of a luxury that should be appreciated.
At dinner the other night my family members were recalling how my mother thought it was foolish to put in A/C when it was only really hot a few nights a year. I should add that my mother is now a huge fan (as it were) of A/C. People CAN change!
She looked at me as if I had said "but at least I have indoor plumbing."
The thing is, air conditioning is fairly recent. Look at the old photographs of streetscapes and you'll see signs advertising that this bar or that movie theater was air conditioned, like it was a novelty. A lot of us in the over-50 age bracket grew up without it and still regard it as something of a luxury that should be appreciated.
At dinner the other night my family members were recalling how my mother thought it was foolish to put in A/C when it was only really hot a few nights a year. I should add that my mother is now a huge fan (as it were) of A/C. People CAN change!
DYWIDAG: Now you know
Heading south on Newark Road toward Toughkenamon, there's a business whose name appears to be a bunch of initials. The company's identity has always been a mystery to me, but I decided to take advantage of a traffic jam the other day to memorize the initials -- DYWIDAG -- and look them up when I got home.
Turns out that DYWIDAG Systems International USA is part of an international company, DSI, that specializes in equipment for building bridges and tunnels: as they put it, "DSI's scope of business is the development and application of Post-Tensioning and Geotechnical Systems for the Construction industry." The Toughkenamon manufacturing plant is one of 10 in the United States and 28 worldwide.
Recent domestic projects that the company has worked on include the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge in San Diego (2012), the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Washington, D.C. (2006) and the 2005 retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge.
DYWIDAG stands for the names of the two Germans who founded the company in 1869, Eugen Dyckerhoff and Gottlieb Widmann (plus AG, the German abbreviation for company).
The DSI website is packed with information and photos about their history and their projects around the world.
Turns out that DYWIDAG Systems International USA is part of an international company, DSI, that specializes in equipment for building bridges and tunnels: as they put it, "DSI's scope of business is the development and application of Post-Tensioning and Geotechnical Systems for the Construction industry." The Toughkenamon manufacturing plant is one of 10 in the United States and 28 worldwide.
Recent domestic projects that the company has worked on include the Harbor Drive pedestrian bridge in San Diego (2012), the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Washington, D.C. (2006) and the 2005 retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge.
DYWIDAG stands for the names of the two Germans who founded the company in 1869, Eugen Dyckerhoff and Gottlieb Widmann (plus AG, the German abbreviation for company).
The DSI website is packed with information and photos about their history and their projects around the world.
WILLOWDALE: Too-Rye-Ay
Each year a British friend sends me a pocket calendar, conveniently marked with the birthdays of Royal Family members and European celebrations. This year's version also includes obscure trivia for each day, like the fact on Aug. 13, 1982, the song at the top of the British charts was "Come on Eileen" by the one-hit-wonders Dexy's Midnight Runners.
Oddly enough, I was picking up subs at Landhope one evening during the recent heat wave and that song came on the PA system. Everyone in the store was tired and enervated after the hot day, but the cheerful tune, with its nonsense syllable chorus, seemed to put a spring in their step.
Oddly enough, I was picking up subs at Landhope one evening during the recent heat wave and that song came on the PA system. Everyone in the store was tired and enervated after the hot day, but the cheerful tune, with its nonsense syllable chorus, seemed to put a spring in their step.
KENNETT: A Sawmill Grill branch
The Sawmill Grill, a hugely popular restaurant in downtown Oxford, is planning to open a branch in Kennett. I'm not sure where or when, but they're already looking for restaurant and bar help.
And at lunch today at Liberty Place in downtown Kennett, I noticed that Nourish, the juice bar, has closed and there's a vacancy sign on the window.
And at lunch today at Liberty Place in downtown Kennett, I noticed that Nourish, the juice bar, has closed and there's a vacancy sign on the window.
Sunday, August 14, 2016
BARNARD'S: Preserving a gem
I hope you'll join me in supporting the Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County's fund-raising efforts to preserve Barnard's Orchards in Newlin Township, which is a treasure in our increasingly built-up area and a key part of Unionville's agricultural heritage.
I've written about Barnard's iconic farm market many times in this column. Nearly 30 years ago I was introduced to their cider and sweet corn by a Unionville native, and I have been hooked ever since.
I stopped by the orchard the other morning in hopes of buying blueberries (no luck; they'd sold the last of the season just hours earlier), and asked owner Lewis Barnard about his plans. He explained that the conservancy is trying to raise $38,000 to cover the legal costs, filing fees and other expenses it is incurring in the process of placing an agricultural easement on the farm to protect it against development.
You can help in several ways.
1. Send a check to The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County, 541 Chandler Mill Rd., Avondale PA 19311.
2. Donate online through the Land Conservancy's razoo.com site: "Funds for Farms: Conserving Barnard's Orchard."
3. Buy tickets to the Saturday, Aug. 27, "Brandywine in White" event, where you bring your own picnic dinner and drinks and dress all in white (they're not kidding about that). The outdoor location is kept secret until Aug. 25. Tickets are available online at the Brown Paper Tickets website and more information is on the "Brandywine in White 2016" Facebook page.
I've written about Barnard's iconic farm market many times in this column. Nearly 30 years ago I was introduced to their cider and sweet corn by a Unionville native, and I have been hooked ever since.
I stopped by the orchard the other morning in hopes of buying blueberries (no luck; they'd sold the last of the season just hours earlier), and asked owner Lewis Barnard about his plans. He explained that the conservancy is trying to raise $38,000 to cover the legal costs, filing fees and other expenses it is incurring in the process of placing an agricultural easement on the farm to protect it against development.
You can help in several ways.
1. Send a check to The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County, 541 Chandler Mill Rd., Avondale PA 19311.
2. Donate online through the Land Conservancy's razoo.com site: "Funds for Farms: Conserving Barnard's Orchard."
3. Buy tickets to the Saturday, Aug. 27, "Brandywine in White" event, where you bring your own picnic dinner and drinks and dress all in white (they're not kidding about that). The outdoor location is kept secret until Aug. 25. Tickets are available online at the Brown Paper Tickets website and more information is on the "Brandywine in White 2016" Facebook page.
THE FAIR: The 92nd annual Fair is coming up!
Danielle Chamberlain, a Unionville Community Fair board member, asked me to pass along a few bits of news about this year's 92nd annual Fair. The dates are Friday, Sept. 30; Saturday, Oct. 1; and Sunday, Oct. 2. Start thinking about what garden produce, baked goods, photographs and crafts you want to enter!
Danielle tells me, "We have moved the horse show to Vince Dugan's to ensure we will be under cover and have great footing. The horse show will be on Saturday which will no longer conflict with other local equestrian events. And we added a Hopeful Jumper division with fences set at 2’9”."
The fair is on Facebook (Unionville Community Fair) and has a new (still under construction) website (www.ucfair.org).
.
BLUEGRASS: A hot Fiddlers' Picnic
Attendance was visibly down at the 88th Old Fiddlers' Picnic in Hibernia Park on Saturday, for an obvious reason: it was extremely hot. Usually Dulcimer Grove is packed with bluegrass musicians jamming in the woods, but this year only the most dedicated showed up. The pavilion where there's usually a young people's workshop had just a table and empty folding chairs. And so few musicians signed up to perform on the main stage that the bands were able to take two 15-minute slots instead of one.
"It's really cool being up here," said one singer.
"No, it's not. It's HOT," said her mother, also a band member.
There are usually lots of cute little kids and dogs running around, but the heat was too much even for them.
Several EMT units were on the scene in case anyone got dangerously overheated and needed medical help. They had set up a folding cot with a fan blowing cool mist. Now that I look back on it, that might have been a good fund-raiser for the fire company.
"It's really cool being up here," said one singer.
"No, it's not. It's HOT," said her mother, also a band member.
There are usually lots of cute little kids and dogs running around, but the heat was too much even for them.
Several EMT units were on the scene in case anyone got dangerously overheated and needed medical help. They had set up a folding cot with a fan blowing cool mist. Now that I look back on it, that might have been a good fund-raiser for the fire company.
GARDEN: Reaping the harvest
A friend of ours spent the sweltering Saturday afternoon "putting up" a half-bushel of peaches in her kitchen; fortunately she had the air conditioning in her old stone house set to "Arctic" level. We stopped by just as she had removed the glass jars from the vat of boiling water, and as the jars cooled on the counter we heard the lids making popping sounds to show they had sealed properly.
The peach halves were beautifully arranged in the jars, one nestled on top of the other, maximizing the number in each jar. She also made a dozen or so pots of peach jam.
This friend is an avid and talented gardener and was especially proud of a huge tomato she'd picked the day before: it weighed in at two pounds, and didn't break the stalk only because the plant was well staked up. As we left, she donned her straw gardening hat and went out to harvest some eggplants to make ratatouille for supper.
The peach halves were beautifully arranged in the jars, one nestled on top of the other, maximizing the number in each jar. She also made a dozen or so pots of peach jam.
This friend is an avid and talented gardener and was especially proud of a huge tomato she'd picked the day before: it weighed in at two pounds, and didn't break the stalk only because the plant was well staked up. As we left, she donned her straw gardening hat and went out to harvest some eggplants to make ratatouille for supper.
PROTEST: Is a murder-mystery insenstive?
"Murder is not entertainment," read the bumper sticker on a car I saw on Saturday.
Well, of course not! I thought, puzzled by what seemed like something that's starkly obvious. So I looked up the slogan and found that it is part of a campaign by the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children to persuade people that "murder mystery" events are offensive and desensitize the public to the anguish that murder actually causes.
According to POMC's website, this past April the group protested a murder mystery dinner called "Murder at the Malt Shop" at St. Timothy's Lutheran Church in Aston, PA. POMC executive director Dan Levey wrote a protest letter to the church "requesting the dinner show be cancelled or at minimum an apology be issued to all those who have lost loved ones to murder."
The national group held its 30th annual conference in Orlando, Florida, on July 21- July 24, 2016. I couldn't tell if the venue was selected before or after the June 12 massacre.
Well, of course not! I thought, puzzled by what seemed like something that's starkly obvious. So I looked up the slogan and found that it is part of a campaign by the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children to persuade people that "murder mystery" events are offensive and desensitize the public to the anguish that murder actually causes.
According to POMC's website, this past April the group protested a murder mystery dinner called "Murder at the Malt Shop" at St. Timothy's Lutheran Church in Aston, PA. POMC executive director Dan Levey wrote a protest letter to the church "requesting the dinner show be cancelled or at minimum an apology be issued to all those who have lost loved ones to murder."
The national group held its 30th annual conference in Orlando, Florida, on July 21- July 24, 2016. I couldn't tell if the venue was selected before or after the June 12 massacre.
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