Noodlehead

Today at the Produce Place, in addition to a berry smoothie and two boxes of blueberries, I bought a bag of their delicious tomato-basil pasta made by Little Barn Noodles of Honey Brook. It's excellent with a little butter and fresh-picked basil. I was going to add some parsley, too, but I discovered that SOMEBODY has stripped my parsley plants of every single leaf. I'm looking at you, squirrels!
(Someone purporting to be the squirrels [I suspect it was one of my waggish chums] commented on this post, placing the blame on green caterpillars. But they would say that, wouldn't they!)

RIP, Mrs. McKay

I saw my old friend and retired Unionville teacher Karen Halstead this afternoon in Kennett and she shared the sad news that beloved fellow teacher Mary McKay died on July 24. Mrs. McKay was a longtime volunteer with the Longwood Fire Company and the Unionville Community Fair, where she and her husband Ray ran the youth photography competition for many years. In Mary's honor, the flag was lowered to half-staff at the Pocopson post office, where she was a regular.
It seems like we have been losing so many treasured members of our community recently, doesn't it?
By the way, Karen told me has moved to Kendal and said she absolutely loves it there. She also said many of her new neighbors are avid readers of this column. Thank you all very much! I'm honored.

Red states

The American Red Cross came out to the KOA Campground in Embreeville this afternoon for a blood drive, and I was one of those who donated (nothing new; I've been opening my veins for 30 years). The previous time my blood flow was a little sluggish, so I'd been advised to drink a lot of water beforehand. I asked my friends to offer frequent reminders during the day, and Susan F. complied with gusto, both online and in person (yes, that was she yelling "Drink your water!" when she spotted me on Center Street in Kennett).

For two days I avoided coffee (it's dehydrating) and downed many glasses of water, and it worked: almost before I knew it I'd given my full pint, and after eating some pretzels and drinking yet another bottle of water I was outta there.
The poor person who gets my blood! He or she may well experience an unexpected boost in curiosity, a tendency to use British slang and a new love for pancakes (without syrup, thank you).
Seriously, though: think about signing up next time. Attendance at the blood drive was not great, and unless you've seen it, you wouldn't believe the amazing improvement that a unit of blood makes for an anemic cancer patient.
The photo shows the sticker they give you after you donate; I always wear mine proudly the rest of the day.

These eyes

I went to Sardella Eye Associates in Willowdale to get my eyes checked the other day and Dr. Renny discovered that I've become "less near-sighted" than I was before. Optician John said it could be tricky getting my new prescription lenses put into my existing Maui Jim sunglasses.
"I'll have to send these back to Maui," he explained. "Well, not Maui. Actually Peoria, Illinois."

What's the 4011?

Yesterday at the self-service checkout at Giant in Kennett I was delighted to see a Unionville pal who I encounter more on Facebook than in person. We had an excellent gossip -- but we were so engrossed in our conversation that we seriously messed up our checking out. I punched in the wrong code for bananas, which I normally know by heart, and like an idiot I put my fruit at the bottom of one grocery bag, underneath the soup cans and ice cream. As I was leaving, the clerk had to point out that I'd left my receipt sticking out of the slot.
My friend and I laughed at how distracted we were, and she suggested to the clerk that he really should have told us sternly to keep our minds on our groceries and not on Unionville news.

What a show!

Saturday night I was winding down from a busy day when I noticed multiple flashes of light in the sky to the south. It was as if the clouds were pulsing with light, like a disembodied brain in a cheesy mad-scientist movie. At first I thought it was a distant -- if huge -- fireworks display, but when I saw horizontal lightning bolts streaking from one side of the cloud to another I knew something more was going on.
On Sunday morning I asked retired Unionville High School science teacher Helen Martin to explain what we saw, and she was kind enough to get back to me immediately:
"Many in our area were able to see a spectacular light show on Saturday, July 20.  Perhaps the best explanation of the heat lightning was an article about it in the Farmer’s Almanac on August 3, 2009.

According to Jaime McLeod, “At this time of year on warm, humid nights, the phenomenon known as “heat lightning” is very common. The sky will seem to flicker with light; and even on a seemingly clear night with stars, you may see flashes. No sound accompanies the flash, although if you are listening to an AM radio, you’ll hear crackles of static at the same time you see the flash.

What you’re likely seeing is the light from a distant thunderstorm that is located at too great of a distance for the thunder sound to be heard. The sound of thunder rarely travels more than 10 miles. Other cases can be explained by the refraction (or bending) of sound waves by bodies of air with different densities. An observer may see nearby lightning, but the sound from the discharge is refracted over their head by a change in the temperature, and therefore the density, of the air around him. As a result, the lightning discharge seems to be silent.

The term “heat lightning” probably comes from the fact that the effect is most often seen on warm, humid nights during July and August. So an association has been made with sultry temperatures. But when the sky is hazy, as is quite typical on warm, summer nights, the light from intense thunderstorms as far away as 100 miles can be reflected off a layer of haze and up into the night sky.

And that’s why you tend to see heat lightning as just a diffuse flash or flicker.”

Looking for "Brandywine Boy"?

Last week I wrote about "Brandywine Boy," the charming memoir by retired veterinarian Adrian Morrison about growing up in Chadds Ford in the 1940s and 50s. Susan Minarchi, president of the Christian C. Sanderson Museum in Chadds Ford, wrote to me and said the book is available not only on Amazon.com but also at the Museum's gift shop.
"It's a wonderful book and one of our volunteers was frequently a "partner in crime" with Dr. Morrison," she said. The Museum is open March through November, Thursday through Sunday, 12pm to 4pm, or by appointment. It's at 1755 Creek Road (old Route 100), Chadds Ford, just north of Route 1. Website is www.sandersonmuseum.org.