Starting over

The owners of Two Stones Pub are hard at work converting the former Kings Island Chinese restaurant, 843 E. Baltimore Pike, into a gastropub. They've hit the ground running and have been posting photos on Facebook of their progress gutting the interior. You'll hardly recognize the place when it opens this autumn -- I peered inside yesterday and they seem to be making good progress on removing all the scarlet-and-gold Asian trim.

Rock the Lot

The Bayard Taylor Library is holding its first-ever "Rock the Lot" music festival from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 20, in the parking lot behind the library. Performers will be Boog, Ratburn, New Shields, Three for Five, and Lower the Standard. "Support the library's efforts to give young adults a place to be, and let's set a high standard for awesome teen events in Chester County!" writes Ivy, the enthusiastic organizer.

The inside scoop

A pal who lives within extremely easy walking distance of the forthcoming ice-cream parlor in the middle of Unionville approached me the other day, wanting to know when the shop was going to open. He is normally a calm fellow, but on this occasion he was speaking quickly and was more worked up than I've ever seen him about anything (including Republican politicians). If they don't speed things up, he pointed out anxiously, they'll miss the whole season! He seemed to think I have some pull with the powers-that-be and could speed things up, but alas I don't.

Downpour

Earlier this afternoon I was working on a proofreading project at the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett when we got socked by one of those quick, hard-hitting thunderstorms. Even though I was listening to music and concentrating on my work, I couldn't help but notice the sudden darkening of the sky and the way the tree branches were whipping around out back. Then the storm hit and library patrons started coming in with soaking-wet shirts and umbrellas. Others decided they'd wait for the storm to break and settled in with the newspaper.

Brandywine Boy

I just finished reading "Brandywine Boy," Dr. Adrian Morrison's enchanting memoir about growing up on a dairy farm in Chadds Ford in the 1940s and 1950s. Among a large variety of boyhood anecdotes packed into this short book, he recounts stories of farm chores (he hated weeding), taking care of the animals, going to the then-segregated Chadds Ford School (with Mr. Haldeman as principal), sneaking onto the merry-go-round at Lenape Park, listening to "The Lone Ranger" and "Captain Midnight" on the radio, jumping into hay piles, building a log cabin in the woods with his pals, skinny-dipping in the creek (though his mother was worried about his contracting polio), playing in a dance band, spending summers working at the Haskells' Hill Girt Farm and riding his beloved horse Rocky.
Given the compassion and affinity he displayed for animals at an early age, it's no surprise he went on to become an eminent veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Thanks to Rocky I became a veterinarian. One winter morning I saw him limping a bit as he came across the pasture in back of our barn. I think he must have tangled with those Western horses and slipped. In any event, I told my mother that I wasn't going to school that day so I could nurse Rocky."
The author often reflects on the vast differences between then and now, some good and some not-so-good. He recalls that to build the log cabin, he and his friends cut down catalpa trees. "I was detailed to ask my father if we could cut them down. He said we could as long as we stuck to catalpas. In these days of injury lawsuits, can you imagine that he didn't blink an eye when I asked?"
Dr. Morrison, a grandfather of eight who now lives at Kendal, writes in a vivid, conversational and easy-to-read style, and I'll bet he is a great storyteller in person. This delightful book is available on Amazon.com. I will treasure the copy that he sent me.

This bird has flown

A few weeks ago I was watering my hanging geranium basket and thought, what on earth are all these pine needles doing here? Then I realized it was a nest, with four little brown eggs inside.
I kept my distance from the nest but realized the babies had hatched when the parents -- Carolina wrens -- started bringing in frequent food deliveries, first perching cautiously on the deck railing, then on the roof, then on the basket hanger, and finally jumping down into the thick of the plant.
I peeked and saw the tiny babies, probably just hours after they were born. They grew at an astonishing rate and just a few days later were peeping loudly for food. One morning I noticed the parents weren't making their food deliveries anymore, so I checked the nest -- and it was empty. It was high time they departed, anyway, because the little guys were quickly outgrowing the nest.

TBI

Remember Simon Pearce, the glass-blowing place and restaurant on the Brandywine that closed in early 2011? Perhaps you'll also recall that Simon Pearce's son, former pro snowboarder Kevin, suffered a serious head injury while training for the Vancouver Olympics in 2009. Film-maker Lucy Walker has made a documentary about his injury and the slow process of recovering from a traumatic brain injury; "The Crash Reel" airs on HBO at 9 p.m. Monday, July 15. "If you can watch it without tearing up, you're a harder man than I," writes reviewer Marc Peruzzi in the July issue of Outside magazine.