Saturday, November 11, 2017
KENNETT: The Charge of the Light Parade
The annual Christmas parade (officially the "Kennett Square Holiday Light Parade") in downtown Kennett will be held on Friday, Nov. 24 (the day after Thanksgiving). It is always an absolute hoot, with impressively decorated farm equipment, fire engines, and work trucks. The competition among farms gets quite heated, with more elaborate light displays and juicier generators each year. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive, too, usually in an antique car.
The parade gets under way at 6:15 p.m. According to Historic Kennett Square, it starts at Center Street and heads east on State Street (against traffic flow) before turning onto South Broad Street.
WEEDS: Green Grazer Goats
A loyal Tilda reader was intrigued by an advertisement he saw for Green Grazer Goats, a Lincoln University farm that rents out its herd of 32 goats to serve as efficient, economical and eco-friendly weed-eaters.
The ad points out that goats can clear noxious vegetation like poison ivy, kudzu, and wild rose and can access hillsides and irregular terrain that heavy equipment can't.
The goat owners bring the goats to your property, set up temporary electric fencing to keep them corralled, and visit often to monitor their progress. They also provide shelter, vitamins and minerals for them.
Green Grazer Goats is on Facebook (the videos of the goats at work are impressive!), and the phone number is 484-643-6939.
The ad points out that goats can clear noxious vegetation like poison ivy, kudzu, and wild rose and can access hillsides and irregular terrain that heavy equipment can't.
The goat owners bring the goats to your property, set up temporary electric fencing to keep them corralled, and visit often to monitor their progress. They also provide shelter, vitamins and minerals for them.
Green Grazer Goats is on Facebook (the videos of the goats at work are impressive!), and the phone number is 484-643-6939.
CHADDS FORD: Upscale Mexican food
For this week's date night we made our first visit to Agave Mexican Cuisine in Chadds Ford, which opened earlier this year. The interior is very attractive, with soothing lighting; you'd never know it used to be a Wawa. As soon as we sat down, a server brought us water in a thick glass decanter; soon after, chips and zingy green salsa appeared.
Our food arrived very quickly. My trio of shrimp tacos ($16) came in a clever zig-zag holder that kept them standing upright. They were excellent, and I liked the novelty of having a whole leaf of lettuce rather than the usual shreds. My date, in a red-meat mood, ordered a ribeye steak with cactus and mushrooms ($27); he gave me a bite or two and it was really good.
The parking lot was full, but because the dining room is spacious, it didn't feel crowded at all. At the table next to us was a family with two school-age kids, but most of our fellow diners were couples and friends.
Agave is a BYO, and many people were drinking their own wine, hard cider, and beer (the restaurant also offers tequila mixes). One diner brought a selection of beer for his party in a wooden carrier that reminded my date of his UHS wood-shop project.
Agave is at 1620 Baltimore Pike, catty-cornered from Hank's diner.
Our food arrived very quickly. My trio of shrimp tacos ($16) came in a clever zig-zag holder that kept them standing upright. They were excellent, and I liked the novelty of having a whole leaf of lettuce rather than the usual shreds. My date, in a red-meat mood, ordered a ribeye steak with cactus and mushrooms ($27); he gave me a bite or two and it was really good.
The parking lot was full, but because the dining room is spacious, it didn't feel crowded at all. At the table next to us was a family with two school-age kids, but most of our fellow diners were couples and friends.
Agave is a BYO, and many people were drinking their own wine, hard cider, and beer (the restaurant also offers tequila mixes). One diner brought a selection of beer for his party in a wooden carrier that reminded my date of his UHS wood-shop project.
Agave is at 1620 Baltimore Pike, catty-cornered from Hank's diner.
WALMART: A careful clerk
This week's customer service shout-out goes to Trevor, a checkout clerk at the Kennett Walmart. My oddly assorted purchases the other night included a loaf of bread, a bath mat and knitting needles. Trevor made a point of fitting them all into my shopping bag with meticulous care, even wrapping the bath mat around the bread, so that nothing got crushed, torn, or punctured. Thank you!
Thursday, November 9, 2017
PARKING: Driving skills
If you can't parallel park, heed my advice: head out to a parking lot on a Sunday afternoon and practice. But please: you will not endear yourself to anyone by tying up blocks of downtown State Street traffic on a rainy Tuesday night at rush hour while you inch backwards and forwards, not getting appreciably closer to the curb.
At one point it looked like the driver had (sensibly) given up. She pulled out into the lane of traffic, and the patient motorist in front of me started pulling into the spot. No! She actually started backing up again! A collision was barely avoided.
Finally, a passenger had to get out of the car and guide the driver into the spot.
The night before I'd witnessed another traffic mishap, this time in the parking lot of the Jennersville Y. While trying to park, a woman drove completely over a traffic sign in the median. When she backed up, the sign caught under the bumper, tearing off the entire front part of her car with a painful grinding noise. I didn't stick around to see what happened after that.
At one point it looked like the driver had (sensibly) given up. She pulled out into the lane of traffic, and the patient motorist in front of me started pulling into the spot. No! She actually started backing up again! A collision was barely avoided.
Finally, a passenger had to get out of the car and guide the driver into the spot.
The night before I'd witnessed another traffic mishap, this time in the parking lot of the Jennersville Y. While trying to park, a woman drove completely over a traffic sign in the median. When she backed up, the sign caught under the bumper, tearing off the entire front part of her car with a painful grinding noise. I didn't stick around to see what happened after that.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
UHS: A great season
Congratulations
to the Unionville girls' varsity field hockey team, who made it all the
way to the state playoffs. After winning the Chesmont
American League
title, they beat Boyertown 7-1 in the first round of district playoffs.
They went on to beat Pennsbury 4-3 (in double overtime), lost to
Downingtown
West 0-3 but came back to beat Haverford 4-1 and then CB South 6-1 to
make it into the state championships. But on Nov. 7 they lost a 0-1
heartbreaker to defending state champion Emmaus (despite outshooting
Emmaus).
Good luck to the graduating seniors on the team -- I understand that many of the athletes will be continuing their
hockey careers both during the 2018 indoor season and in college.
WEST MARLBOROUGH: Grader en route
Excitement is mounting as West Marlborough Township awaits the delivery of its new road grader.
I'm only half kidding: it was the main topic of discussion at the Nov. 6 township meeting. The township used $70,000 in state funds to purchase a 2007 John Deere grader to replace its venerable 1973 Caterpillar grader, nicknamed "Sisyphus." The new grader was purchased from Jackson County, Iowa, where it was used to maintain the county's 550 miles of dirt and gravel roads.
Sisyphus will be sold to neighboring Newlin Township.
The township also purchased a bright yellow V-shaped plow blade that will fit on the new grader, and road crew boss Hugh Lofting Jr. drove to New York State on Nov. 7 to pick it up. Out of curiosity, he researched the serial number on the old plow blade and learned that it was manufactured in 1942.
Hugh-2 said he expects the new equipment will be ready for use by the time the first snowstorm of the winter hits us.
I'm only half kidding: it was the main topic of discussion at the Nov. 6 township meeting. The township used $70,000 in state funds to purchase a 2007 John Deere grader to replace its venerable 1973 Caterpillar grader, nicknamed "Sisyphus." The new grader was purchased from Jackson County, Iowa, where it was used to maintain the county's 550 miles of dirt and gravel roads.
Sisyphus will be sold to neighboring Newlin Township.
The township also purchased a bright yellow V-shaped plow blade that will fit on the new grader, and road crew boss Hugh Lofting Jr. drove to New York State on Nov. 7 to pick it up. Out of curiosity, he researched the serial number on the old plow blade and learned that it was manufactured in 1942.
Hugh-2 said he expects the new equipment will be ready for use by the time the first snowstorm of the winter hits us.
OUCH: Health insurance woes
Those of us who are self-employed and pay for our own health insurance learned in early November that we are facing huge premium increases thanks to the tumult in the insurance marketplace (and a myriad of other reasons too complex for me to sort out).
My plan is being cancelled; my insurance carrier is suggesting a replacement that is 20 percent more expensive, has a higher deductible, and covers less (a virtual trifecta of good news!).
And there's nothing you can do about it. To be a responsible adult, you need to have health insurance, and there's absolutely no competition.
I wish insurance company executives and politicians would come out and acknowledge how painful and infuriating these premium increases are for average people.
If only they'd drop the spin and buzzwords and say something transparent like: "Look, we hear you: You think we're greedy blood-suckers who use your premiums to go on corporate retreats to Boca Raton. But here's exactly how we set your rates. Here's why they are so high. Here's what an MRI costs. Here's what an average hospital stay costs."
Instead, my carrier has been running a series of online spots featuring diverse, well-dressed, prosperous-looking people and happy families gazing at their laptops and phones with huge grins on their faces. Why are they grinning? Why?
Get real, guys: "open enrollment" season is not a cause for rejoicing and your new dental plans are not "exciting" to us.
My health insurance premium has become one of my largest monthly expenses, and it galls me to see insurance companies spending money on expensive ad campaigns and frills that I don't need or want (recipe tips? little magazines with trendy graphics? No, thank you!).
Even the $150 that I receive as a rebate each year because I'm a regular at the gym now represents a laughably small fraction of what I'm paying in.
The word "unsustainable" comes to mind.
My plan is being cancelled; my insurance carrier is suggesting a replacement that is 20 percent more expensive, has a higher deductible, and covers less (a virtual trifecta of good news!).
And there's nothing you can do about it. To be a responsible adult, you need to have health insurance, and there's absolutely no competition.
I wish insurance company executives and politicians would come out and acknowledge how painful and infuriating these premium increases are for average people.
If only they'd drop the spin and buzzwords and say something transparent like: "Look, we hear you: You think we're greedy blood-suckers who use your premiums to go on corporate retreats to Boca Raton. But here's exactly how we set your rates. Here's why they are so high. Here's what an MRI costs. Here's what an average hospital stay costs."
Instead, my carrier has been running a series of online spots featuring diverse, well-dressed, prosperous-looking people and happy families gazing at their laptops and phones with huge grins on their faces. Why are they grinning? Why?
Get real, guys: "open enrollment" season is not a cause for rejoicing and your new dental plans are not "exciting" to us.
My health insurance premium has become one of my largest monthly expenses, and it galls me to see insurance companies spending money on expensive ad campaigns and frills that I don't need or want (recipe tips? little magazines with trendy graphics? No, thank you!).
Even the $150 that I receive as a rebate each year because I'm a regular at the gym now represents a laughably small fraction of what I'm paying in.
The word "unsustainable" comes to mind.
CRAFTS: Centerpiece sale and workshop
My friend Linda Southerling asked me to spread the word about a holiday centerpiece sale and workshop that the Four Seasons Garden Club is holding on Saturday, Dec. 9, at the Episcopal Church of the Advent on North Union Street in Kennett Square. The sale of already-made centerpieces will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will last until 2 p.m. For more information about the do-it-yourself workshop, you can e-mail lsfleur1@Hotmail.com to
request a registration form.
NEW GARDEN: Service with a smile
I'm glad to see that Café Americana is doing well. The cheerful little family-run restaurant in the Giant shopping center in New Garden was bustling when I stopped in for lunch the other day in the middle of an errand run. I ordered an omelet with broccoli, cheese and spinach, and it was delicious.
Sunday, November 5, 2017
UNIONVILLE: The Hunt Cup Races
Sunday marked the 83rd running of the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup races in Unionville. The skies were overcast (no need for sunglasses), it wasn't windy even on the hilltop (no portable toilets were blown over this year), and the temperature (in the 60s) was just right, unlike some years when our extremities have been numb for hours afterward.
We were amazed at the courage and balance of the riders in the Mrs. Ford B. Draper Invitational Side Saddle Race, which was won by Julie Nafe on McCradys.
Jockey Mark Beecher won the Lewis C. Ledyard Memorial Race (on Bruce Fenwick's Daddy in the Dark) and the Arthur O. Choate Memorial Race (on Rosbrian Farm's Class Brahms). And in the four-mile-long Pennsylvania Hunt Cup race he was leading most of the way on Welcome Here Farm's Where's the Beef until he was overtaken by the same horse and the same rider who won the race in 2016: Darren Nagle on Irvin S. Naylor's Ebanour.
We were relieved that although there were as always a few spills, nobody (horse or rider) was seriously injured this year.
Between the races we caught up with lots of friends and neighbors (including the hard-working executive director of the races, Kathee Rengert), feasted on some excellent roasted chicken, rubbed the belly of the canine member of our party, and sat there comfortably solving the problems of the world while gazing out over the idyllic Unionville landscape.
One funny remark we overheard: a dad was carrying his unhappy-looking son and told him, "Well, maybe next time you'll wear socks."
We were amazed at the courage and balance of the riders in the Mrs. Ford B. Draper Invitational Side Saddle Race, which was won by Julie Nafe on McCradys.
Jockey Mark Beecher won the Lewis C. Ledyard Memorial Race (on Bruce Fenwick's Daddy in the Dark) and the Arthur O. Choate Memorial Race (on Rosbrian Farm's Class Brahms). And in the four-mile-long Pennsylvania Hunt Cup race he was leading most of the way on Welcome Here Farm's Where's the Beef until he was overtaken by the same horse and the same rider who won the race in 2016: Darren Nagle on Irvin S. Naylor's Ebanour.
We were relieved that although there were as always a few spills, nobody (horse or rider) was seriously injured this year.
Between the races we caught up with lots of friends and neighbors (including the hard-working executive director of the races, Kathee Rengert), feasted on some excellent roasted chicken, rubbed the belly of the canine member of our party, and sat there comfortably solving the problems of the world while gazing out over the idyllic Unionville landscape.
One funny remark we overheard: a dad was carrying his unhappy-looking son and told him, "Well, maybe next time you'll wear socks."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)