Digital

How warm has it been this "winter"?
A Facebook friend posted this morning that it's the end of February and she just noticed the first "crack" on one of her fingers. If you're one of the lucky folks who doesn't get these ailments in the cold weather, they're stubborn little fissures that follow the lines of your fingerprint. They're sore, they afflict a nerve-rich area and they just won't close up the way a normal cut would. 
The only thing I've found that helps them heal is a thick white cream called Lotil that comes in a jar and smells appropriately medicinal.

In verse

I just received an e-mail inviting students (grades 1 through12) who go to school in Chester County to enter the Pennsylvania Writing and Literature Project's fourth annual e-poetry contest.
The first-place winner in each category (grades 1 and 2, 3 through 5, 6 through 8, and 9 through 12, and a separate sonnet category for grades 9 through 12) will receive a full scholarship to a summer Young Writers camp.
Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2012. Poems should be e-mailed as a Word document attachment to: PAWLP@wcupa.edu.
"Winners will be notified during Poetry Month in April, with a celebration for the winners and their families at the Chester County Book and Music Company in West Goshen on May 3, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. The top 3 winners in each category receive a certificate, a writer's toolbox, and public recognition of their poem on the PA Writing & Literature Project website (www.pawlp.org) and in the Chester County Library in Exton."
There's also a category for teachers: "The winning teacher will receive a certificate to attend a Fall or Spring PAWLP workshop and a gift card."
If you have any questions, e-mail pawlp@wcupa.edu or call 610-436-3089.

Birdland

I had high hopes that some exotic species would show up in my backyard during the annual Great Backyard Bird Count last weekend, but it didn't happen. I recorded the usual suspects: juncos, nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers, cardinals, mourning doves. I was pleased to see both a male and female downy woodpecker, and I don't usually see red-winged blackbirds in the backyard. I was sorry to read that our Outdoors columnist Lisa didn't have much of a turnout of birds -- I guess they were all over here, Lisa!
Of course, just after doing my final backyard count I spotted more Canada geese than I could count by a pond near Doe Run, and on Apple Grove Road a beautiful bluebird flew right in front of me. But you'd have to be one churlish person to complain about seeing a bluebird under any circumstances.
If you haven't sent in your tallies yet, the deadline is March 5.

Whole Foods

There's a growing sense of impatience surrounding when the Whole Foods supermarket is going to open in the Glen Eagle shopping center on Route 202. It certainly looks ready to open its doors, but I'm told that mid-March is the estimated opening date for the upscale store. The owners can rest assured that there are many eager shoppers here in the Kennett area.

Bite of Italy

A BYOB restaurant called "A Bite of Italy" has opened in the space where Manny Hattan's used to be. My sister-in-law and I tried it out on a Sunday evening and enjoyed a nice light meal. As soon as we sat down a waiter brought bread with olive oil for dipping. We split one of their side salads (it was ample for both of us) and shared a Margherita pizza (tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil on a homemade crust, which you can watch the pizza chef tossing). The pizza was delicious not only Sunday evening but also Monday morning, when I finished the two leftover pieces.
By the time we left, most of the tables were filled -- including some neighbors of mine, and two Kennett gentlemen I know.
Good luck to this new business. We will definitely be back to try more of the dishes on the menu.

Romance, Unionville style

The day before Valentine's Day I got an excited phone call from a friend. She had just been to the Unionville post office and picked up a package addressed to her husband. She phoned him to ask what it was and, quite properly, he refused to divulge any details.
I Googled the return address for her and found out that it was from either the Fellowship of Christian Magicians or an insecticide company in Wilmington. She had high hopes that it was the latter: her horse has mites, and she thought it might be some kind of anti-mite spray or powder.
No such luck. The next morning she was allowed to open the package -- and found that her sweetheart had gotten her a rose sculpture. No mite poison.

Fashion

A few years back a Unionville friend started selling Worth, a line of very nice women's clothing. Perhaps you've been invited to one of these events? You go over to the salesperson's house and try on the clothes that she has put aside for you, peering at yourself in a full-length mirror like a model. It was always great fun because she knew what kind of clothes you needed, and what looked good on you, and would discourage you from buying something that wasn't flattering (although I refused to buy that bustier that I never would've worn). Inevitably I'd end up spending way more money than I expected, but I still wear most of the pieces and still get compliments on them (especially the tight boucle tweed jacket).
However, this is a small town, and I've subsequently discovered that another woman and I own many of the same pieces: the wool shawl, the red cotton sweater with fringed collar, and yes, even the tweed jacket. We laugh that we'll have to coordinate before attending the same event.
With regard to the jacket, she was very helpful. It had these fiddly little metal ornaments hanging from the end of the sleeves that clanked against your soup dish. "I just took them off with a pair of pliers," she advised me the other day. I went home and did the same.