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.

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.

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!

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.

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.