Monthly Archives: February 2012

chester county: show the love for your classic towns

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Right now you can enter this totally fun photo contest with some fun cash prizes and the chance to be part of a traveling photography exhibition.  Yes, the  “I Love Classic Towns” photo contest. Put on by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

Even I have entered.  Show your town spirit in Chester County and enter some photos having to do with the Classic Towns of Kennett Square, West Chester, and Phoenixville.  What do you have to lose?  It’s fun.

Check out the RULES and PRIZES:

What happens if you win? Lots of good stuff…even if you don’t win.

All photos have the opportunity to be included as part of a traveling exhibition that will tour select Classic Towns. Plus, there’s the chance that your photo will be used on Classic Town’s website, in one of its publications, or in the publications of DVRPC. If that happens, you’ll receive credit as photographer and can tell your friends, families, and coworkers that you’ve been published.

Let’s talk prizes.

Our judges will award one prize in each of the seven categories — community, local history, parks and recreation, seasonal, people, main street, and residential. They will also award a Judges’ Choice Award (Best of Show) worth $500. A $300 Viewer’s Choice Award is also up for grabs. The total value for prizes is $1,500 and breaks down like this:

$500 Judges Choice (overall)   $300 Voter’s Choice (overall)   $100 Best Community   $100 Best Local History   $100 Best Main Street   $100 Best Parks & Recreation   $100 Best People   $100 Best Residential   $100 Best Seasonal

Winners will be notified beginning July 15, 2012 via the preferred contact method and must respond within 7 days. Should the winner not respond, the award will go to the runner up per category. We will announce final winners no later than July 31, 2012. We ask that winners keep their success confidential until a formal announcement is made. Failure to do so will result in a forfeit of prizes…..

Contest Rules and Restrictions DVRPC’s I Love Classic Towns Photo Contest runs from February 13, 2012 through July 31, 2012 with deadlines for Photo Submission (April 14, 2012), Public Voting (April 15, 2012 – May 14, 2012), and Formal Judging (May 15, 2012 – July 15, 2012).

All submissions must be made at contest.classictowns.org using a valid email address. There is no limit to the number of photos entered per person or the number of photos one person may enter into a category. Photos must be of one of the Classic Towns of Greater Philadelphia and taken on or after January 1, 2010. Photographers do not need to be residents of any of the Classic Towns to enter the contest. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

West Chester and Phoenixville?  Whatcha’ waiting for?  Especially Phoenixville since it faces the threat of big ugly billboards.  People need to see what Phoenixville is all about in my humble opinion.

Chester County should represent here, so I hope some of you photogs in Chester County enter.

in black and white…as seen in my travels….

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happy now mcmansion dwellers and west vincent township?

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Apparently, skeet shooting is no more at Ludwig’s Corner.  Pity.  I received an update from the horse show folks:

The End of an Era
Fifty three years ago, what might seem like a different era, The Chester Springs Skeet Club which was originally made up of WWII Veterans approached the LCHSA about operating a gun club on the Horse Show Grounds.  That was the beginning of a long and friendly relationship between the two entities.  Over the years, names and faces in both organizations may have changed but LCHSA could always count on the “Gun Club” and their family members to volunteer for the Labor Day Horse Show, as well as monetary support.
Regrettably, as the neighborhood grew up around the grounds, and after much debate, LCHSA decided to give the contractually required 12 month termination notice.  The Gun Club decided it “was in the best interest of the Horse Show to end shooting as soon as possible”.  They reported that they would end their use of the Horse Show Grounds on Sunday, February 12, 2012.
LCHSA will forever be grateful to the members of the club and their families for their help with the Horse Show.

I hope the McMansion set will now be blissfully happy in their Tyvec wrapped Barbie’s Dream Houses.  The irony is I bet those who have kids who play video games deal with more noise than skeet shooting will ever produce.  But now when Buffys jet off in their GIANT SUVs chatting on  cellies to pick up that one lettuce leaf they will be able to do it in quiet.  Well except for the fact that skeet shooting will no longer drown out the inanity of their conversations taking place on said aforementioned cell phones (cellies) …

Sorry was that sarcastic?  It was meant to be.  People who move to relatively rural areas need to get real.  Next horse, goat, and cow manure will be too stinky for their Febreeze Set and Refreshes to handle….and chickens will be too loud some day and tofurkies will then take up residence in chicken coops all over Chester County because they are more quiet…and what is left of rolling lawns and fields will continue to be replaced by AstroTurf because nothing says natural like plastic grass.   Eyes rolling. (Sorry I feel better now.)

(And for those of you looking for a new home to skeet shoot, consider the West Chester Gun Club: http://westchestergunclub.com/ )

Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show also included in their update how they came to be:

How the Horse Show came to be.
In recent months, we have been asked by many about the history of the “Horse Show”.  With great thanks to Woody Zook, who has been involved with the Horse Show throughout most of it’s history, we have been able to review documents and programs from almost every Horse Show.  It is my intent to share a piece of history with every e-mail I send.  If any of this information rings a bell with you, or you can add further information, or perhaps photos, please respond to this e-mail, as we’d like to talk to you.  The Horse Show is a significant piece of the history of our township that should be shared.
It started like this…..
“In 1944 a group of people living around Ludwig’s Coner banded together to give a horse show at Ludwig’s Corner.  The group consisted of Mrs. E. C. Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Dare, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Baxter, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Hamilton, Mr. A. L. Coffman, Mr. Richard Coffman, Mr. Guy Richards, Mrs. Henry Biddle, Jr., Mr and Mrs. Edwin Bruner, Mr. Scott Rice, Mr. A. Chapin Rogers and Mr. Joseph Myers.  They were all very fond of horses and enjoyed fox hunting in the territory of the Eagle and Kimberton Hunts.  Around the opening of the fox hunting season on Labor Day, it seemed to them, (it) would be a good opportunity to get together to put their hunters through their paces.  It would also be a means of bringing the whole community together for a day of fun and visiting.  The proceeds of the days entertainment would go to the local Boy and Girl Scout Troops to help maintain their activity.”
page 1, official records of the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show.

And oh yes, they seem to think West Vincent residents need to pay even MORE attention to the doings in West Vincent….

Would you like to support the horse show?

Send a donation to:

Ludwigs Corner Horse Show PO Box 754 Uwchland,, Pennsylvania 19480

Check out their website:  http://www.ludwigshorseshow.org/

what’s cookin’ good lookin’? (valentine’s dinner at home)

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Yes it’s Valentine’s Day, but it is a school night in my house. So I am cooking. Call it family date night.  Believe it or not it is already in the crock pot and will burble happily while I get on with my day.  I will serve over Carolina Gold rice and a salad will accompany.  Dessert is a cinnamon-maple kissed cheese cake.

This chicken recipe is all me and not an exact science. I am a pinch here, to taste there kind of gal.  Sort of Nigella Lawson meets Ina Garten with a dash of Carla Hall – I use recipes as guides and create and tweak from there.  This recipe was born out of reading and being bored by most chicken paprika, chicken rosa, and chicken cacciatore recipes. But it is still quite tasty, my Valentine’s Chicken (it got a name today – after all it is a very yummy thing and deserves a better name than “chicken in the crock pot.”)

Valentine’s Chicken

1 cut up chicken

1 can Italian Crushed tomatoes (28 oz)

1 small can tomato paste

1 bunch of leeks cleaned and cut into thin circles

As many Crimini/Baby Bello mushrooms as you would like

1 small to medium onion, rough chopped

3-4 stalks of celery cleaned and chopped

2-3 cloves fresh garlic MINCED

fresh rosemary

fresh Italian flat leaf parsley

2 red bell peppers chopped

Regular Paprika

Smoked Paprika

Hot Paprika

Tumeric (just a dash)

Salt to taste

Regular Pepper

Oregano

Basil

White wine

Flour to dredge mixed with Paprikas, salt, garlic and a small bowl of milk

Olive oil to brown and sear chicken

BIG crock pot

6 hours to do nothing after

Turn your crock pot on low.  Into the bottom layer part of the onion, leeks, red peppers, garlic, mushrooms.

Warm a pan with a thin layer of olive oil in the bottom.  Set up your dredging station for the chicken: chicken ready to go, small bowl of milk, flour with herbs and spices.  Dunk chicken pieces in milk then dredge in flour, then brown and sear in pan, a couple of minutes a side.

Layer chicken into crock pot with more of the veggies (as above), until done.

Open the tomatoes, pour over top of all evenly.  Open can of paste and dollop on.  Add the herbs, spices, salt, pepper, etc.

Cook on low crock pot setting approximately 6-7 hours.  With my crock pot, six should do it.  At the 3 hour point, carefully remove lid and toss your dish gently in the crock pot to mix, not mush.  Toss in 1/3 cup (or more, depending on your taste and how much room you have in your crock pot) white wine and minced fresh parsley, or red wine and ignore another 3 -4 hours.

Serve over rice.  I am thinking Carolina Gold from Charleston.

This recipe is not an exact science.  It is sort of paprika chicken meets chicken cacciatore.  I do it in the crock pot to give myself a break.

Serves a small army or a family and then leftovers…

Enjoy!

snowy morning in chester county

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Snow is quiet, but not exactly silent, have you noticed? It makes almost a little whoosh sound as it falls all around you.

I look out the window and it is almost Currier & Ives perfect.  I wonder if I will ever be able to adequately capture the beauty of a winter’s morning with my camera lens.  Snowflakes flitter and float to the ground, and I think back to when I was a child and the man across the road from us had a collection of carriages and sleighs.  His name was David Gwinn, his nickname was “The Squire.”

Now today there is not actually snow on the roads where you could take a sleigh out, but for some reason this morning as I looked out the window, a memory came floating back across the early morning.  In my head I could hear the faint remembrance of sleigh bells of long ago.  It was such a happy sound.  Of course, things change and now in place of where Mr. Gwinn’s horses once happily munched apples, a McMansion is planted.

These horsey memories for lack of a better description were part of a magic that many kids do not have in their lives today.  It’s a way of life I fear will be pushed aside, and I see this pushing aside in West Vincent with every new transgression thought up against a horse show that has been not only part of the fabric Chester County for near a decade but served the community well.

This makes me sad.  These people who in my opinion, are trying to get rid of some of the very civilities that fed their pretensions to move to places like West Vincent in the first place, do not get it.   And if they, along with a local government of questionable motivation, prevail in the quest to rid Chester County of a fine tradition, what will replace it?  Nameless, faceless inanity…and no appreciation of the simple joys of winter mornings.  The new should not necessarily rule the old because once these unique qualities of a community are gone, much like when a historic home is torn down, it’s not coming back.

The birds are treating the feeders like diners on a highway, and the usual cardinal couples (they seem to like to double date at the feeder) have been joined by a bird I have never seen before today (not Mr. Flicker, but an Orchard Oriole).

Truthfully this is a Robert Frost kind of morning.  He wrote a lot about snow in his poetry.

By Robert Frost1874–1963 Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

are you too cool for school in east goshen?

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I am sorry, but I think this is a cool idea. East Goshen is going to have some sort of classes for residents.  In essence as I understand it, it will teach them about their municipality.  I think something like  this would be fun to attend.

I think it is important to be involved in one’s community and to have an understanding of how things work. I keep trying to bring up information about this on East Goshen’s website, but their website is not loading properly for me right now.  As per their Facebook page the next session is February 9th from 7 PM to 9 PM.  If you would like to register, please send an email to mgordon@eastgoshen.org

Anyway, see the article below:

East Goshen takes residents to school

Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2012

By JEREMY GERRARD jgerrard@dailylocal.com

EAST GOSHEN — A number of residents will soon become the first graduating class of the township’s Neighborhood University program.
The university is intended to provide township residents with an overview of local government structure and increase their awareness of available municipal services and resources. For the initial program, more than 30 residents signed up.
According to East Goshen supervisors, the university was an attempt to revive a similar educational program sponsored by the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce and formed in 2003…..The East Goshen program consists of two sessions in February. At the first session, residents learned about local governmental structure, the role of board of supervisors and the township’s core functions such as finances, public works, recreation, and emergency services. ….The second session will dive deeper into the township’s emergency services and provide an overview of each of the township’s boards and commissions.
In the future, Isayeff said they would like to expand the program to three or four sessions to include representatives from the school district and other community resources.
The township plans on continuing to offer the program to residents, though specific times and frequency have not been established.

a SWAT team in willistown this week?

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It’s been a busy week so I am playing news catch up.  I am floored to hear there was some kook with a gun (not a skeet shooter, or someone at a gun club range, but a kook on a porch) who caused not only an elementary school to be locked down in Willistown, but also caused a SWAT team to descend upon a residential neighborhood?

Wow.  And the only place I have seen it reported is Malvern Patch. Kinda surprised by that.

Update: Lockdown Lifted at Gen. Wayne Elementary

An alleged shooter has been taken into custody and the school’s lockdown is lifted.

ByPete Kennedy Email the author  February 6, 2012

General Wayne Elementary School was placed on lockdown Monday afternoon after police reported gunshots on a nearby street. There are no reports that any students or staff members have been injured or are in immediate danger.

S.W.A.T. Team Apprehended Sycamore Circle Shooter

The Regional Emergency Response Team took into custody the man who allegedly fired a gun Monday afternoon, sending a nearby elementary school into a state of lockdown.

ByPete Kennedy  Email the author  February 7, 2012

Police have not released the name of a Willistown man who allegedly fired a gun on Sycamore Circle, causing nearby General Wayne Elementary School to lock down just before dismissal time, around 3:30 p.m., Monday afternoon.

According to a press release from the Willistown Police Department, officers responded to a report of a subject firing a gun from his rear porch, which they found to be enclosed. When attempts at phone contact were unsuccessful, the Regional Emergency Response Team—a S.W.A.T. team comprised of police officers from multiple municipalities—moved in.

meanwhile back at ludwig’s corner….

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Well apparently the accusers of Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show Grounds have names.  They mean nothing to me, of course, but they confuse me.  The horse show grounds have existed for decades, correct?  So people who move in would know there is skeet shooting, right?  So if you didn’t want to hear guns why move to a fairly rural area where you know there is skeet shooting?

I wrote about this before , and someone pointed out to me that clay pigeons shouldn’t be an issue, but if the lead shot wasn’t cleaned up, that would be a legitimate gripe.  But you aren’t hearing about the lead shot, you are hearing about clay pigeons.

Ludwig’s seeks better relationship with its neighbors

Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2012

By SARA MOSQUEDA-FERNANDEZ smfernandez@dailylocal.com

WEST VINCENT — The Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show Association is checking ways to improve its status among its neighbors by responding to their concerns.
….Linda Rava, a 15-year neighbor of the grounds, said that although she didn’t support the township supervisors’ use of eminent domain, she also doesn’t support the “belligerent” and “aggressive” behavior of the members of the skeet shooting club. Rava says that they now shoot over neighbors’ property on Sundays and holidays, including Christmas, New Years, Easter, and Mother’s Day.
“The last couple of years they have not been good neighbors,” said Rava. “I hope that the Horse Show does the right thing and takes care of their property.”
Judy Holmes, another neighbor of the grounds, is another voice against the booming practices of the shooting club.
“(They) disrupt our quiet,” said Holmes. “The Ludwigs Corner Horse Show could care less about us neighbors and being inconvenienced by this.”

And what up with the noise brew ha ha ha?  I get these people don’t like noise, but if that is the case what is with these Whinersons?  Why did they move next door to a place that is known for many things including skeet shooting?  They disrupt their quiet?  Look, I like quiet, but if I made a conscious decision to move next door to a shooting range, gun club, or a property where skeet shooting occurred, wouldn’t I have to expect a little bit of noise once in a while? Do they believe in deer birth control versus culling the herd, too?

Who are these Linda Rava and Judy Holmes women?  The horse show people in my humble opinion are neither aggressive or belligerent.  They are just doing their thing on the land owned by the horse show association or whatever.  They aren’t doing anything different from what they have done for decades, so why is suddenly not o.k.?

Personally I would rather have the horse show grounds as a neighbor with occasional skeet shooting versus a strip mall with fast food places and when I opened my windows I would hear “do you want fries with that?” ….and smell the smell of ancient grease.

Wow.  Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show can’t get a break. I mean if I was a conspiracy theorist….wow the possibilities…..lordy one would think these people would also be concerned about West Vincent Supervisor Miller and his goat poo too, huh?

gives a whole new meaning to “gotta have a wawa”

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I will never see the “Gotta Have a WaWa” slogan the same again.  Apparently, in Malvern, greens on a shortie during hoagiefest now means something entirely different…..

Lordy…

Main Line Suburban Life > News

Cops bust Colorado man dealing 11 pounds of marijuana at Malvern Wawa  Published: Wednesday, February 08, 2012

By Michael N. Price mprice@journalregister.com

A Colorado Springs man was arrested Friday after he allegedly attempted to sell 11 pounds of marijuana, valued at approximately $40,000, to an undercover law enforcement officer in East Whiteland, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s office. ….Investigators then arranged a meeting with the suspect at the Wawa located at 5 Mathews Road in Malvern after the subject allegedly agreed to sell the drugs to an undercover detective during a phone conversation.
With the task force in place, investigators observed the suspect enter the Wawa parking lot in his 2009 Audi A4, complete with Colorado plates

 

 

what restaurants are favorites for valentine’s day in chester county?

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Hearts galore from Picket Fence Confections on Esty

Valentine’s Day is but a week away, so I thought I would ask what your favorite Valentine’s Day restaurant is in Chester County?

I have written about restaurants before (click here), and two of my favorites are Gilmore’s in West Chester and Birchrunville Store Cafe.  Both of these places are very romantic – one in a country spun sort of way, and the other more traditionally romantic.  And the food never disappoints.  Both are BYOB, so take a bottle of what you love with you.  I have been discovering that the wine selections in the Chester County State Stores are quite good – like the one in the shopping center with the ACME Market on Paoli Pike. (Mind you I am not encouraging anyone to drink, or drink and drive.)

The fabulous cookies in the photo are from Picket Fence Confections.  They can be found on Esty, and are baking tomorrow February 8th for Valentine’s Day so if you have the desire to buy your sweetie a treat that is much prettier than the average box of chocolates, check them out before NOON on February 8th.

My final note is this: you can check out restaurant reviews and dining suggestions on West Chester Dish.  I love this site and think it is very fun, and I have used their recommendations to do some culinary exploration!