Malvern Borough has THREE Borough Council write in candidates for Election Day next week!
Their names are Todd Lexer ~ Matt Radano ~ David Bramwell.
The spirit of Betty Burke is alive and well on Halloween!
Kudos to these people for standing up and realizing that to slow down development stupidity in the borough of Malvern that they need to change the faces of who governs this tiny hamlet. And fast.
If you live in the borough of Malvern please show your support for these people on election day and what they are trying to do which is save your town. Write these people in!
The power of your vote next week is your best immediate voice in Malvern. If I lived in the borough I would vote for everyone who was not the current status quo in office and write in these three. Don’t know any of them, never met them, but God bless them for doing this
I thought I was finished for the season. I really tried to be finished for the season.
And then my friend Rebekah from Woodlawn Garden Center and Nursery texted me that shrubs and perennials were 40% off, and roses were five dollars each.
Hello Gardenholics Anonymous?
So now I am planting yet another car full of plants! And how can I resist?
Ever since two major rose growers went out of business, a lot of the old classics as far as roses go no longer exist after a couple of years. And there she was one of the grandest grandiflora roses ever: Queen Elizabeth. She was struggling in her pot, yet still stood regally tall and had blooms. (Her flower is what is in the photograph above.)
They had one of my favorite daylilies of all time: Joan Senior. Tall with a large pure white flower, she is quite beautiful in the height of summer. had other amazing daylilies like Francis of Assisi.
They also had Lucky Charm Tradescantia with its pale green leaves and violet blooms, and my favorite Clematis Henryi – pure white flowers and a hearty grower.
Woodlawn is loaded with fabulous plants looking for homes before winter sets in. Trust me, their prices can’t be beat. They are as good as Applied Climatology from the West Chester Growers Market, which always has great prices along with fabulous plants due to their low overhead.
I have taken a bit of a break on this cool and damp fall day, and I am covered in mud. But I am so happy. To dig in the dirt and garden is blissful indeed. So I’m going to get back to it.
Enjoy your afternoon everyone, and even in the midst of a grey day enjoy the fall foliage colors.
The Chester County SPCA has news: New Executive Director hired!!! Emily Simmons, formerly of PSPCA, starting Monday. Also a new Operations Manager! her name is Danielle Ball starting Monday.
I see this as incredibly positive given the recent current events at the shelter, so I would say the new board members are taking their duties seriously.
I look forward to posting MORE good news. And no, that is not a rescued chicken. It is merely a chicken I photographed recently. We all know I have chicken issues….
With 16 new members and a hefty list of accusations and controversies to address, the new Chester County SCPA board will be holding its first meeting today.
One new board member said that change has already started at the CCSPCA and more will be coming soon.
According to Tom Hickey Sr., a new board member, the shelter “has a lot of problems” and the new board will be looking at ways to solve them. Already this past week, Hickey said the shelter has hired a new kennel manager, one of many changes he’s hoping to bring.
“I believe we have an obligation that we have to do everything possible to protect the animals,” said Hickey.
In a rather un-developer-like turn of events, it appears Bentley isn’t tearing down the barn? Has decided to stop fighting residents? Well, I will believe it when I see it, but here is hoping he really will find an adaptive reuse.
The world could use a few more historic barns and a few less McMansions. I am so glad Caroline O’Halloran is writing more.
Gabriel Pilotti has faced his punishment on his animal cruelty conviction.
Judge Nagle a short while ago gave Pilotti 2 years probation, 90 days on a monitor, restitution $800 per dog, $1000 fine, no guns , 200 hrs community service.
I have thought about this long and hard, and a component of true justice is mercy. Did he show mercy to those dogs?
The answer of course is a resounding NO.
But given his age, although he may have deserved some jail time, I have to leave this to the experts, namely Judge Nagle and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.
The greater punishment in my eyes is he has been branded by the courts and a jury of his peers as a dog murderer. He loses his guns too.
He is in a permanent jail of sorts the rest of his days because he has to live in a community that does not respect what he did.
So he can go to church and his born-again Christian glory all he wants, he is in the eyes of the public something else entirely.
His supporters have already begun to leave comments up here, and they’re calling this a victory. I am not sure exactly what it is they have won, and they should in all honesty consider it in reality more of phyrric victory.
Justice has been served, and Argus and Fiona did not die in vain.
Enough politics! Life is more fun when you bake, so let’s talk pie. Pumpkin pie to be precise. ‘Tis the official season after all. This is my twist on the classic pumpkin pie and I have baked it- yesterday morning as a matter of fact.
I had a memorial service for one of my best an oldest friends mothers and as some of our high school friends were coming in from out of town, my sweet man and I opened our home to a casual cooperative dinner.
The table was all fall with a cheese plate of robust cheeses; a salad of arugula, spinach, radicchio and romaine; a cornbread that was like a soufflé; salsas and chips from East Goshen Farmers’ Market. And pumpkin pie and pumpkin bars with chocolate chips. Repair this with a beautiful rose wine from Wolffer Estate – a vineyard on Long Island in Sagaponack, NY. There was also a lively California Red, but and allergic to red wine so I can’t recall what it was. My friend Laura made the chili and it was awesome. It was a turkey chili and you would never have known.
This cooperative supper in a way was the perfect meal following memorial service tribute to a woman who began life on the Plains of Clovis, New Mexico. She was a remarkable woman who was all about friends and family, so I think she would’ve approved of last night’s casual supper.
It was a rare treat to be with some of my friends from high school, as we don’t see each other often enough anymore given distance and kid and other schedules.
They all enjoyed the pie for dessert, I hope you do too.
Incidentally I sent my fall table as a buffet last night with various dishes I have collected over the years, using mostly depression glass last night that was clear.
The napkins were a deep purple linen my mother had given me, the tablecloth a cranberry red vintage Irish linen picked up at a tag sale, and I used actual silverware.
A lot of people seem to take shortcuts with plastic utensils , paper plates and plastic cups, and I think were all grownups and we can set the table once in a while. I don’t think everything has to necessarily match hundred percent, and I love it when I’m able to put a table together with things I have picked up here and there. I would rather wash dishes and enjoy how I set my table.
Now the recipe:
Get out a small sauté pan- I have an 8 inch copper pan I scored on eBay – add 1/4 cup organic unsweetened coconut flakes, 1/4 cup pecan pieces, 1/4 cup walnut pieces, 2 tablespoons butter, 6 tablespoons sugar. Over moderate heat, cook everything up until nuts are all mixed up and toasty- butter and sugar coating it all. Set aside to cool.
Time to make a pie crust.
Crust:
1 1/4 c flour
3 tablespoons buttermilk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1/3 cup sugar (white)
4-6 tablespoons ice water
Mix flour, sugar, salt, ginger, buttermilk powder. Cut in butter in bits with pastry cutter. Add water one tablespoon at a time and bring your dough together. I have the range of tablespoons because sometime the dough comes together with less, sometimes more. Roll your dough in a ball and wrap tight in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 25 minutes.
Next pre heat oven to 425 degrees
Get out a big mixing bowl.
Mix :
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground mace
To that add:
2 eggs and beat
To that add:
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin- not purée in a can, but plain pumpkin
1 12 ounce can of evaporated milk
Beat it up until frothy
Set aside
Get out your dough and roll out until you can fit in a pie pan – I like 9 inch deep dish glass pie plates – I use vintage ones – some of which are pie plates. The dough goes into an UNgreased pie plate by the way.
Take a tablespoon or so if soft butter and coat the crust in the plan – I learned this trick watching Chef Robert Irvine one time – keeps crust from getting mushy .
Pour pumpkin into pie shell. Take nut mixture and sprinkle in a ring at edges of pumpkin. Cover your outer crust edge with either foil or one of those pie rungs to keep edges from burning . Put pie into 425 oven for 18 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake 50 to 59 minutes or until knife comes out of center of pie clean.
It is a pie you need to babysit in the oven but try to NOT open oven door a lot
Cool pie for a couple of hours. Serve with real whipped cream LIGHTLY sweetened and dusted with cinnamon. Refrigerate leftovers.
It is now about 24 hours since I found myself ensnared in the last minute politics of haste and vitriol in Chester County. If you are playing blog catch-up see the post prior to this.
As a new resident I find myself the unwitting target of the woman who calls herself chief cook and bottle washer of the Chester County Democratic Party.
The great irony of course in all of this is until yesterday I never knew she existed on the face of this earth. We have never met or spoken.
According to her I am some sort of dragonslayer of Democrats or truth, justice, and the American way. (It gets a little confusing.)
All because I met a woman door knocking over the summer who is running for supervisor in East Whiteland named Maureen Martinez.
And yes that is exactly how and when Maureen and I met. I thought she was nice and as someone who wants to represent people and serve in public office, I liked what she had to say.
I have gotten to know Maureen since then slowly. There is no plan or plot. I am not some paid shill of another political party. We discovered shared interests over the past few months as people becoming acquainted do.
But as this person whom I don’t know tells it, I have known Maureen Martinez for years and years and this is some big plot, and better yet, this is why I moved to Chester County. Nevermind the fact that I fell in love with a man who was once a boy I was friends with in high school. After all. and sadly, often when it comes to politics, the truth doesn’t matter.
But at the end of the day, I have survived harder things, namely breast cancer. I thank all of you who have sent me nice messages of support from both political parties. It heartens me to the goodness of people in the face of fibs and nastiness.
My grandmother always said you should make at least one new friend a year. And Maureen Martinez is someone I am proud to call friend. And I think she will make a terrific supervisor. And she is not running for office so she can use that office to run for yet other offices. To me that is always an important distinction.
Greetings Chester County voters. It’s me, your friendly neighborhood blogger. Maybe the Bill Holmes campaign in East Whiteland isn’t going so well?
I am thinking so because it has come to my attention that either the Democratic Party of Chester County or the Democratic Party of East Whiteland seem to have an awful lot to say about this blog and blogger. Seriously, there is this woman whom I don’t know and have never met and who I am told is not just a Democrat in charge in East Whiteland but head of the party in ALL of Chester County and who is all in a swivet over me and isn’t that just kooky?
They and she don’t know me from Adam’s house cat, yet VOILA! they are making rather amusing pronouncements. They are putting it out there that I am (among other things)…wait for it… a TEA PARTIER!!!
Me? For real? Do my opinions make them thatnervous?
Lordy… ask most Republicans and they will tell you I am an inconvenient Republican at best. Truthfully I am a lot of the time almost a New England Democrat as I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
Not that any of this matters because I know what I am and who I am and am quite comfortable in my own skin. Which is more than you can say about idle political gossip mongers.
I am an equal opportunity offender when it comes to politics, and feel free to express my opinion when the mood strikes me. Truthfully I would become an Independent if it did not mean losing my right to vote in primary elections.
As for the Tea Party, I am definitely not one of their chosen people because my opinion of that movement is they are quite frankly ruining the Republican Party.
So this is indeed a fine how de do to politics in Chester County and I very amused and also saddened that a bunch of Democrats would have a problem with any woman exercising her right to choose….politically.
And (big sigh) at the end of the day what this is really and truly about is these political titans are threatened by my friend Maureen Martinez who is running for Supervisor in East Whiteland.
I mean gosh oh golly, why else would they do all the silly things they have been doing? So when they can’t do anything productive all of a sudden because we are two women with opinions we are Tea Partiers? Me-OW! That is as Simple Simon as saying any woman who exercises a strong opinion about anything is a bitch.
What saddens me here in addition, is it is difficult for any woman anywhere to get any traction in politics. So here is this head of a political party who happens to be female running around doing this stuff which is so childish. Democrat or Republican, actions like these set women back, plain and simple. And I am not some huge bra burning women’s libber saying that, it just happens to be the truth.
The irony is of course I have no political aspirations, I am merely one woman exercising my freedom of speech. This is hardly all I write about. Truthfully it is a very small component of it.
I guess this whole issue is an interesting testament to the power of the written word? But is it really good politics to try to sully the name of a breast cancer survivor she’s never even met during Breast Cancer Awareness Month? I guess this issue is also testament to the nature of women which is so disappointing at times isn’t it? Women should be kinder to each other and for me personally, this is a takeaway lesson.
Geez Chesco Dems you are being silly , silly, silly….it’s like high school all over again. But if you wanted to find a tea party here, you won’t.
Maybe y’all should spend a little more time on your candidates and educating them on real issues that matter to people versus this kind of whisper down the lane nonsense that demeans you and your candidates equally.
