UNIONVILLE: Social hour before the hunt

Lydia Bartholomew hosted a splendid "tea" in the barn at her Plumsted Farm on Saturday morning to thank the local landowners who let the Mr. Stewart's Cheshire Foxhounds hunt on their properties.
I got to say hello to lots of friends and neighbors, enjoyed cider, chili and a pastry, and watched the hounds and foxhunters set off for their day's adventure. Lydia told me that the Cheshire club has grown to the point that there are now three "fields" (meaning groups) of foxhunters, each with its own fieldmaster. There's also an athletic fellow named John who follows the hunt on foot and, I'm told, actually manages to keep up with them!
I ran into Clipper LaMotte at the brunch table and pestered him about when he is going to finish up his second Thaddeus Pennock crime novel for our reading pleasure. He compared the writing process to pulling teeth.

BLUEGRASS: The sunny side of life

On Dec. 2 we went to a concert by the bluegrass band the Red Squirrel Chasers down in Newark. (Hint: you know you're in the right place for a old-time music show when you see a license plate that says "Fiddler.")
The four musicians were a cheery bunch, but the songs they played represented a catalogue of abject misery: a double-fatal house fire, a woman who dies after visiting her son ("I'm Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail"), a suicidal fellow suffering from unrequited love ("No Letter in the Mail Today"), and years of marital stress ("Cold Rain and Snow").
At one point, after playing yet another grim song ("Short Life of Trouble"), the mandolin player (Jim Collier) turned to the guitarist (Jim Nelson) and said, "How did we come up with this set list?!"
On a brighter, and, they insisted, more characteristic, note, they finished with a rousing singalong version of "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain." 

ART: A show and sale at The Gables

My artist friend Patsy Keller asked me to mention an art show and sale on Sunday, Dec. 11, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. upstairs at The Gables restaurant in Chadds Ford. Patsy will be displaying her fused art glass and jewelry. Jack Marshall will bring his oil paintings (yes, THAT Jack Marshall; he is an artist as well as a musician and music teacher). Other participants are jewelry maker Philice Ray (“Philices’ Pieces”), photographer Daphne Longo-Okcuoglu, and Mindy Blackman (drawings and paintings).

Patsy writes: "The goal is to showcase local artists, while offering the community a relaxed setting where they can enjoy the creative surroundings, and find unique gifts for their family and friends."

 

RELIGION: Revisiting Quakerism 101

Kevin Arnold, former Clerk of London Grove Friends Meeting, gave an excellent talk about Quakerism on Nov. 29 at West Grove meeting as part of their ongoing "Faiths of Our Neighbors" series. As he observed, though, he was "preaching to the choir"; I recognized almost everyone as active members of the local Quaker community.
Kevin was an exceptionally interesting speaker and gave an overview of Quaker history in England and America. He talked about the basic tenets of the religion (summarized using the acronym SPICES: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship); Quaker worship and decision-making methods; and the current problems facing the faith.
I had an interesting conversation after the lecture about the balance in Quakerism between politics and civil activism versus God and traditional spirituality -- an old, old debate.

CARLISLE: Another voice heard from

I still follow the news from Carlisle, the central Pennsylvania town where I went to college and walked my first newspaper beat. It seems a lone protestor named Ernest Perce showed up in the center of town the other day and attracted much attention for his anti-Israel sign (misspelled) and the fact that he was dragging an American flag on the pavement behind him. 
In a sentence every reporter would love to write, "Perce wound up on the hood of a vehicle and was carried down Hanover Street, police said."
The protestor said he was from the Flat Earth Ministries. Of course I had to check out their website, which contains all manner of way-out-there arguments, including the "Moon Landing Hoax." And who knew that Stanley Kubrick's movie "Eyes Wide Shut" is chock-full of coded evidence for Globe Earth propaganda? But I have to admit, they managed to get a pretty good pun in their slogan: "The Plane Truth About the Flat Earth."

EAST MARLBOROUGH: The fall of a Bread Lady

Here's hoping that Bread Lady Barbara is feeling better soon. It seems she took a bad tumble on some pavement and was feeling so battered that she just couldn't handle any bread making, so the Bakers at Red Lion shop was closed this past weekend.

UNIONVILLE: With one fell swoop

What happened to the traffic signs at the intersection of Routes 82 and 162/Wollaston Road in the middle of Unionville? A tractor-trailer knocked them down the morning of Monday, Nov. 28, and then just kept heading north on Route 82. The stop signs are back in place at the busy intersection; not so much the street signs.

TRADER JOE'S: Why not here?

A Unionville friend (need I add that she is a huge Trader Joe's fan?) asked me to mention to my readers that on the Trader Joe's website, there's a place where you can ask them to consider opening a branch near you. (It's under FAQs, "What can I do to bring a Trader Joe's to my neighborhood?") She personally thinks the vacant Superfresh store in the Longwood shops on Baltimore Pike would be a great spot for the fun, laid-back, high-quality store to move into.

PATTON: Celtic Christmas Concert

The Hadley Fund is presenting a Celtic Christmas Concert at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, in the freshly renovated auditorium at Charles Patton Middle School. Performers will be the Seasons Family Band, Two Pipers Piping, the Washington Memorial Pipe Band, and the Campbell Scottish Dancers. Admission (as for all Hadley Fund programs) is free.

 

 

FAMILIES: Imagine, dinner table conversation!

A Kennett Square friend reports that she recently got tired of her family taking the path of least resistance and eating dinner while watching television, so she insisted that they start weaning themselves from the tube. We will sit at the table and actually talk to each other, she declared.
She and her husband started out this bold initiative by playing trivia games like naming state capitols and having mini-spelling bees. Much to their surprise, their teenage son, after a few days of sulking, starting joining in the conversation. My friend said she is delighted at the increase in "family time" they are enjoying merely by turning off the TV. 

A.I. DUPONT: True gratitude

The teenage son of a gym friend developed appendicitis on Thanksgiving eve and underwent emergency surgery.
"Wow!" I said. "So much for Thanksgiving!"
"No, not at all," she replied quickly. "We were just SO grateful we were at such a wonderful hospital."
She said the surgeons at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington took her son to the operating room as soon as he was diagnosed. He is recovering so well that he can't wait to get back into the pool for swim practice.

MOVIES: "Fabulous Beasts"

Another Harry Potter fan and I headed over to the Painters Crossing AMC movie theater on Saturday to see "Fabulous Beasts and Where to Find Them," the "prequel" to the Harry Potter saga that is based on one of Harry's Hogwarts schoolbooks. The movie, written by J.K. Rowling, is about an English wizard, Newt Scamander, who comes to New York in 1926 in search of magical creatures.
The beasts were wonderfully imagined. There was a kleptomaniac little platypus (the Niffler), a snake that expanded to fill whatever space it was in (whether a teapot or the whole of Manhattan), a rhinoceros with a crush on an unfortunate Non-Maj (what Americans call Muggles), and a temperamental green plant-like pet prone to picking locks and pouting.
The sometimes dizzying visual effects were over the top for me, but probably most moviegoers would expect nothing less. Despite the enchanting mythical creatures, there are some distinctly dark themes and violent scenes, so I wouldn't think it would be appropriate for young elementary-age kids.

CABELA'S: The outdoor life

I am probably preaching to the choir here, as most of my readers already are well aware of this, but I want to say what an impressive store Cabela's is. We visited the Newark branch after breakfast on Sunday morning (it's next to the Christiana Mall) and we had a great time browsing through the vast array of hunting, camping and fishing paraphernalia. They stock everything from crossbows and ice-fishing huts to dehydrated meals and fleece nightshirts. 
As you walk in the main entrance there's a display of life-size stuffed wildlife on a mountainside, with a real waterfall cascading past them, and you can watch seriously large fish swimming around in the huge tank. They even have a kennel where your dog can hang out while you are shopping.
The store employees were wonderful: friendly and knowledgeable but not intrusive. One even took our photo in front of the moose!