Reader submitted photo- Hurricane Harvey havoc – Saint Thomas’ Church and School, 4900 Jackwood St Houston, Texas, TX
This is a story that started in Chester County when earlier this summer we sad goodbye to a friend of ours from high school who had been one of the clergy at Good Samaritan in Paoli. He received a new calling and was headed to Texas, to a beautiful church and school in Houston – St. Thomas’ Church and School Our friend is an associate rector and chaplain at this lovely church and school.
They have been devastated by Harvey. Our friend has barely been settled in but a minute.
We made a donation to our friend’s church and school. We know that we are donating to a legitimate cause. Be sure to check out any place gathering donations for Harvey.
Use GuideStar , or Charity Navigator to check out non-profits you are interested in. Remember that legitimate charities are not going to cold call you for money.
I chose to help my friend’s church and school. People who really do God’s work for the right reasons, deserve it.
A friend of mine who is a Pennsylvania transplant to Houston, Texas posted this photo a few minutes ago.
She posted with the following caption:
A street not a river. But today a river not a street
And a shout out to the lovely management company in charge of an apartment complex in Houston called La Maison in River Oaks: your tenants need help, and apparently the water company in the City of Houston needs to buy a clue in an emergency:
And another photo from another Pennsylvania transplant in Houston:
The #reality of #Harvey. I have a very dear friend who literally just bought herself a house outside of Houston Texas after moving there a couple of years ago.
Emphasis is on just moved in. She was evacuated last night. We had hoped because she lives in a place that’s higher than most spots that she would be OK. She reminded me yesterday via text that a lot of people forget around Houston is a lot of bayou.
Above is what appeared on her Facebook feed last night. Her name and face are blocked out to protect her privacy but I wanted people to see what this was all about – this is no joke.
She has a son who live near NASA who was evacuated yesterday, and I have two other friends in the path of the storm. I don’t know if they are still sheltering in place or have been evacuated — they are actually Chester County PA transplants.
The other two photos are from my friend in Houston who is more in the thick of it in the city.
So while our president tweets BIG words, this is where this country actually needs him to BE presidential- not just tweet as the president.
Prayers for all in the path of the storm, including first responders. If my friends in Texas send me more updates and or photos, I will post them.
What is history? By straight definition it is the study of past events, particularly in human affairs.
In the early 1960s, an English Historian named Edward Hallett Carr wrote a book titled What is History. It was a study of historiography (study of historical writing/the writing of history). The book discusses history, facts, the bias of historians, science, morality, individuals and society, and moral judgments in history. I find that so timely considering the craziness of revisionist history overtaking the US today.
…Historiography consists partly of the study of historians and partly of the study of historical method, the study of the study of history. Many eminent historians have turned their hand to it, reflecting on the nature of the work they undertake and its relationship both to the reader and to the past….. he chose as his theme the question ‘What is History?’ and sought to undermine the idea, then very much current, that historians enjoy a sort of objectivity and authority over the history they study. At one point he pictured the past as a long procession of people and events, twisting and turning so that different ages might look at each other with greater or lesser clarity. He warned, however, against the idea that the historian was in any sort of commanding position, like a general taking the salute; instead the historian is in the procession with everyone else, commenting on events as they appear from there, with no detachment from them nor, of course, any idea of what events might lie in the future.
Carr also discussed the influence that a society will play on forming the approach of the historian and the interpretation of historical facts. He wrote about how historians as individual people are also influenced by the society that surrounds them. He also wrote about the cause and effect of history, and that history is human progression. It’s fascinating, really. It makes you understand how and why certain historical events seem so different from generation to generation.
So let’s look at our history in the USA. We are a country born of immigrants, yet today we seem to have such issues with them. Truthfully, nothing new as every era in the U.S. has historically had issues with various ethnicities coming to the U.S. in search of their American dream, correct?
We as Americans have ugly wars in our past. It’s all part of our history. How we got here today, has it’s roots in our past. It’s how we learn and grow as a society.
Today we are a nation seething with anger and self-righteousness. People love one politician, and hate another. People love each other, and also hate each other. It is kind of part and parcel of the human condition, is it not?
We learn from history what we do not wish to repeat, correct? So why is it people do not get if we do not acknowledge and learn from our history we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes?
At the center of the Robert E Lee and tearing down of statues debate is slavery. Trump asked if we were going to start removing George Washington things as well, and as a column in the Chicago Tribune asks, where do we as Americans draw the line?
It can be an interesting and difficult debate — think of Christopher Columbus, Henry Ford, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson and other historical figures whose great accomplishments are tainted by words or deeds that horrify those with modern sensibilities….It’s an easy distinction. Washington, Jefferson and other flawed founders built this country. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and other rebels tried to tear it apart. Unlike Washington and Jefferson, they have no significant compensating virtues or accomplishments to counterbalance their treachery and justify the numerous honors and tributes bestowed on them as symbols of Southern “heritage.”…
This doesn’t mean, as one piously aggrieved reader wrote, that we must purge our personal libraries of accounts of the Civil War. It doesn’t mean we have to sanitize our museums, pave over our battlegrounds or write the Confederacy out of history textbooks. It doesn’t even mean that good ol’ boys and girls can’t put rebel-flag stickers on their cars or build shrines to losing generals on their property.
It means we all have to stop pretending. It means we have to acknowledge Robert E. Lee isn’t an anodyne mascot for sweet tea, stock car races and Faulkner novels, particularly for African Americans, whose continued bondage he fought for.
Ahh yes, but here in the Philadelphia area, we have to have what the media calls in situations at times “the Philadelphia connection.”
Rizzo was born in 1920 in the Italian-American neighborhood of South Philadelphia. In 1943, like his father before him, he joined the Philadelphia police force and rose to became Commissioner in 1966. Rizzo didn’t care much for the sixties. To him it was all about law and order and he had zero tolerance for those who acted otherwise….Other American cities burned, not Philadelphia. …The man was asymmetric in force and style. Look left at this photo. Check the nightstick from his sharkskin tux. This is Rizzo in 1969, Commissioner Rizzo. While attending a banquet he was informed on an impending riot. Still dressed in his tuxedo, he took charge. No delegating for Rizzo.
Rizzo went on to be mayor. He switched parties from a Democrat to a Republican was elected mayor in 1971 and 1975. No cultural ambiguity or political correctness from Frank…Rizzo lived a modest life and was never charged with anything.
Frank Rizzo died 16 July 1991. He is gone and so is a lot else of that era. America has always had flaws and so has her leaders. The cynical cadre on the left side will always make a cause of tearing down America and the tough patriotic men who created and slowly improved her…The Left has seized the agenda and will set the agenda once again. They know what they are about and their leaders stay true to their cause. The never deviate form staying the course. Conservatives have not done well because of misplaced loyalty to those that call themselves conservative and are not. Given that, which side do you think will win?
We are still having the conversation today between left and right, but that is not what we’re talking about today. We are discussing “what is history?”
Frank Rizzo was an Italian from South Philadelphia. He may have been many things, but a White Supremacist and slave owner wasn’t among them. That is inconvenient history to some, but it is the truth, isn’t it?
Helen Gym, on Philadelphia City Council seems to be one of the main proponents of Project Topple Frank, and who is she? I frankly, don’t follow Philadelphia city politics particularly closely and had never heard of her before this.
She is apparently the first Asian American woman to hold this position. She is Korean and was born in Seattle, raised in Ohio. Went to Penn as per what I see online, and after college worked as a teacher and as a reporter in Ohio. She is married and has kids and is a community activist. In 2009 she was active in a Federal Civil Rights case involving the horrible bullying of Asian students in South Philadelphia. (Click here for her subsequent testimony to the US Commission on Civil Rights.)
Here is her website – check it out HelenGym.com. She has done amazing things, but you know I just do not agree with her whole Rizzo thing.
People conveniently forget how the Italians and Irish were discriminated against in Philadelphia.
Rizzo was a big symbol to a lot of Philadelphians. Positive and negative. But that is kind of like the parallel to what is history isn’t it? The good and the bad? The pretty and the ugly? Are we going to sanitize every piece of history in this country? Can we? Should we?
Taking down Frank Rizzo’s statue is not going to do anything except create more of a divide than exists already in Philadelphia. He’s not Robert E. Lee. He wasn’t perfect, but he is part of our regional history – we can’t whitewash all of our history. The heated rhetoric on both sides does not help.
This country is exploding in ugliness. It makes me sad. I am not so naïve to think “why can’t we all get along” because it is at it’s core completely contrary to human nature.
I remember years ago, a local politician refusing to go to a historic site for a special occasion. They wouldn’t go because one of the owners (Quakers) owned slaves. It doesn’t matter that one of the more famous owners of the property freed said slaves and if memory serves, paid them wages.
And ironically, if you are a student of history, you will note that Quakers way back when before times changed, were slave owners .
FACT: even Benjamin Franklin owned a slave. Read more about Franklin and slavery here. Does this mean we should no longer have statues of Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia as well?
But what we do need to do is to stop the hate, stop the violence. A country founded by immigrants is now so at war with itself. It’s like if we do not change course, we soon will be embroiled in a version of another civil war, or is it happening already?
No matter what our race, creed, or color we need to take back our cities and towns and crossroads from ugliness and violence. We have the knowledge and power to do it peacefully. But I just do not see taking down the statues of dead Philadelphia mayors as being helpful to that end.
History is a cruel mistress and we can’t undo certain aspects of it. We can only use what it teaches us to try to move forward more positively. We should not try to deny what happened or do a revisionist history on our history. We do need to stop pretending, acknowledge history’s dirty and horrible bits, along with the rest of it and move on.
We have to stop trying to tear each other down as well as catering to the agendas of politicians – not trying to be mean, but politicians without some sort of agenda are few and far between, aren’t they? We need to be the Americans our forefathers fought and died for, a nation of immigrants yearning for a better life and a desire to be free from tyranny. The thing about tyranny is it comes in many forms.
Some will like this post, and others will not. This is something I have been thinking about and I hope I have articulated in a way that provokes thoughtful conversation, not a litany of angry, threatening comments.
Please, be a part of the solution to stop the madness infecting this country, not feed it’s eternal fever. Use our history to make us better in the future.
I wonder, what will the history books say 25 years from now, 50 years from now, and 100 years from now about what is going on across this country right now? How will they recount the history we are presently living?
Travel back in time … If you love history and architecture, you will not want to miss the much-anticipated 13th Annual Historic House Tour. The beautiful homes and gardens of seven historic homes featured on the 2017 Historic House Tour will be open from 12 Noon – 5 PM on Saturday, September 23 rain or shine.
With regard to this tour, and I am a Patron Sponsor. I also photographed the houses on the tour for Pattye for a few years. This tour is quite exclusive, and it is a manageable number of houses and historic structures, so you can indeed see everything!
Party for Preservation’ Preview Party ~ Sunday, September 17, 2017 6 – 9 PM
13th Annual Historic House Tour ~ Saturday, September 23, 2017 – Noon – 5 PM
The 2017 house tour features historic homes and gardens in Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships. As an added bonus, the Main Line Antiques Showis generously providing two tickets ($30 value) for its show on October 7 and 8, with each historic house tour ticket purchased. The only antiques show on Philadelphia’s Main Line, all proceeds benefit Surrey Services, which helps older adults to live with independence and dignity and to continue as active members of the community.
To celebrate historic preservation, the public is invited to attendParty for Preservation, the 13th Annual Historic House Tour Preview Party on Sunday, September 17, 6 PM – 9 PM at the historic Duportail House in Chesterbrook. An evening of fun with live music, food and drinks, join us to celebrate the homeowners and the homes featured on the tour and allow us to thank the generous individual and corporate sponsors who make the annual tour possible. Attendees will get a sneak preview of the beautiful homes featured on the 13th Annual Historic House Tour!
The annual historic house tour would not be possible without the generosity of individual and corporate sponsors. Click 2017 House Tour Sponsor Packet for information about how you can be a sponsor and receive complimentary tickets to the house tour and the preview party.
This is a magical day always in Chester County and the preview party is a lot of fun! I hope you join us!
It will be a big year for Chester County Day, the longest running house tour in the United States, now in its 77th year. This year, the tour will honor the 125th anniversary of Chester County Hospital, which was founded in 1892. In recognition of the anniversary, the tour on October 7, 2017 at 10 am-5 pm will feature 12 homes around Marshall Square Park (where Chester County Hospital first stood at the north side of East Marshall Street) and 13 homes in the northwest quadrant of Chester County.
This year, attendees will be able to tour a total of 25 homes and 4 public structures or sites in West Chester Borough and East Brandywine, Honey Brook, Wallace, East Nantmeal, West Nantmeal, and Warwick townships. House styles from the 18th to the 21st centuries will give tour goers an appreciation of architecture through the centuries. I will admit this is an ambitious house tour every year, so what I do is pick a reasonable amount of homes I wish to visit. It is a fabulous day, but it is a long day, so bring extra water and wear comfortable shoes or even sneakers!
The Day will begin with the pageantry and excitement of a long-standing Chester County Day tradition – a fox hunt. Dr. Addis’ Warwick Village Hounds and the Gable/Swisher Hounds will set off promptly at 9 am from Warwick County Park, 191 County Park Road, Pottstown.
Guests can begin this year’s house tour at 10 am at the location of their choice. A walking tour of the 12 homes around Marshall Square Park will include a VIP house, of which all three floors will be open to VIP ticket holders only. VIP pass holders will be provided a gourmet box lunch by Montesano Bros. Italian Market & Catering and a private tour of this home. (See VIP ticket info below for details.)
You can also start your tour outside the Borough, then Olde Bulltown Village, off Rt. 345 in the northwest quadrant, is a good place to see a brand new home that looks like it has been there for centuries.
Or, you can tour three homes on Warwick Furnace Road, featuring a house that dates back to the 18th century with a 20th century addition that is hard to distinguish from the original structure. Next door is a beautifully renovated, quaint stone cottage. Just down the street is a 1978 home that was lovingly built in traditional colonial style with authentic hardware and design.
There is a barn converted to a contemporary home, complete with original wooden beams and rafters in East Nantmeal. While in the township, stop by an 18th century farmhouse built in two stages 40 years apart. Then tour a gorgeous estate on Rt. 401 that contains portions of periglacial marshlands supporting flora not typically seen in this area. A West Nantmeal home was expanded while retaining its three-story core, complete with wooden beams and original floors. While there, stop at St. Mark’s Church to view its beautiful stained glass windows and purchase a beverage or a few sweets. In nearby Honey Brook, see a charming home with a log-cabin core featuring a well in the kitchen floor, protected by a Plexiglas cover.
Your tour still has more to offer if you proceed to Wallace and view a restored farmstead home, complete with pond and ducks. Down the road in East Brandywine, you’ll find several homes, including a solar design Shingle-style cottage that began life as a poorly designed contemporary. In the same township, you’ll tour a magnificent glass, stone, wood and steel house, which is a departure from traditional Chester County architecture. And finally, Upper Uwchlan offers a restored stone and stucco farmhouse that is worth visiting … perhaps this is where you will start your house tour journey
Refreshment stops, where pre-ordered gourmet boxed lunches by Arianna’s Gourmet Café will be available and found at Warwick County Park and Marshall Square Park in West Chester. Wyebrook Farms is offering a pre-ordered, pre-paid $20 per person buffet. If you do not pre-order, make sure you pack a picnic lunch. You will have to ask the ladies and gents that put this fabulous day together where exactly you may eat your picnic lunches – if they have two parks included in the day, I imagine that is where, but do not know for sure.
With GPS coordinates and a Chester County Day map that you will receive when you purchase your ticket, the beautiful architecture and bucolic roads of Chester County are at your feet.
When: Saturday, October 7, 2017 from 10 am-5 pm Buy tickets off their Eventbrite page!
Where: Northwest Quadrant of Chester County & West Chester Borough
Tickets: On sale from August 15 online; September 5 by mail or at the satellite locations listed on our website.
$50 purchased via web, phone or in person
$100 VIP Tickets are available at all satellite locations, as well as via web and phone. VIP package includes a VIP Reception and Preview Cocktail party at French Creek Country Club on Sunday, September 24 and a private tour of a special VIP house with a gourmet boxed lunch served by Montesano Bros. Italian Market & Catering, (See ChesterCountyDay.com for details.)
Contact: 610-431-5328
This is an event I believe in supporting. I am not given free tickets or special compensation for blogging about this event. I write about it because it’s an absolutely glorious day of touring and I have been attending these tours since I was a child with my parents.
Fall events are popping up all over and the Dilworthtown Wine Festival is one of my absolute fall favorites! This is an event I attend, and I purchase tickets – I am not being compensated in any way for my opinion – I love this event! I would not miss it! I go to support the hospital, and because I am a cancer survivor too!
26th Annual Wine Festival at Dilworthtown Inn Sunday, October 15, 2017
On Sunday, October 15, more than 1,500 oenophiles will help The Brandywine and Greystone branches of The Women’s Auxiliary to Chester County Hospital uncork the cure to cancer as they celebrate the 26th Annual Wine Festival at Dilworthtown Inn.
As the county’s premier wine event, the festival features more than 100 wines, craft beers, sumptuous fare prepared by Dilworthtown Inn chefs and local food trucks, a silent auction, shopping opportunities in the Gallery of Artisan Vendors, live music, a Performance Car Show, and much more.
Proceeds from the wine festival benefit patients of The Abramson Cancer Center at Chester County Hospital and Neighborhood Health.
For friends and family members battling cancer, the cancer specialties at Chester County Hospital brings world class care of the Abramson Cancer Center close to home. As part of Penn Medicine, they offer the latest treatment protocols and cutting-edge technology. Their outstanding medical staff, clinical team, nurse navigators and hospital volunteers are known for providing the highest level of care and attention to the needs of their patients. And, they strive to give every patient every edge in their battle with cancer, including assistance for patients who are uninsured and underinsured. Outside of the hospital, patients continue to have access to the highest level of care through the services of Neighborhood Health (home health, hospice, private duty, and Senior HealthLink services).
The Wine Festival is organized by the Brandywine and Greystone Women’s Auxiliaries to the hospital. To attend, volunteer, sponsor or donate, visit www.2crushcancer.com or call 610.431.5054.
This event is SO much fun! Casual great company, wine tasting, terrific food, great vendors and probably the best silent auction around!
Throughout 2017, Chester County Hospital is celebrating 125 years of dedication to the health and well-being of the people in Chester County and surrounding areas. Founded in 1892 as the county’s first hospital, the non-profit has grown into a 248-bed acute-care inpatient facility in West Chester. It also has outpatient services in Exton, West Goshen, New Garden, West Grove, Jennersville, and Kennett Square.
In 2013, Chester County Hospital became part of Penn Medicine, which is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to medical education, biomedical research, and excellent patient care. Learn more at ChesterCountyHospital.org.
When things become an ad to buy something else it just bothers me. To me this is about buying a service and buying “influencers”, not writing a blog.
I do not write a blog because of competition, I write because I like to write and have things to say. When I have nothing to say, I do not write. I do not have a monetized blog, I have no desire to.
Yes monetized blogs are a turn off to me because you never know if you are getting a real opinion or a compensated one. And a lot of bloggers do NOT make that clear.
I saw the above sponsored content (as in they paid for it to go into new feeds) on Facebook. Out of curiosity I clicked. It led to this thing on LinkedIn.
Let’s start with maybe I am different, but I do not get a “rush” when someone comments. I do not lead a virtual life, I do not depend on my blog for conversations with human beings. And is the “competition” for my blog “intense”? To me it is just a blog…you write when you have something to say, or something you want to talk about…otherwise well, you don’t.
This woman goes on to sell you on the business that she is actually pimping – you see it is not your well being a blogger she cares about, in my opinion it is the potential money she can make if you sign up for her deep interest network.
It’s like paying for a platform that already exists on free blogging platforms meets another kind of social media platform.
How many of those do we need? And why should we pay for it? Sorry, I think I will stick to being an individual, not a blogging Stepford Wife with another monthly bill to pay. I do not want fake potentially paid for “influencers.” I want people who want to read what I write, like one of my photos or recipes…. organically. Different strokes for different folks.
Sorry I just think this whole entire concept is Mighty Fake.
Simple summer salads are the best thing in the world. Produce is at it’s peak, herbs are fresh, and it doesn’t get better than that.
One of my favorite summer salads are fresh tomatoes, a cucumber, red onion, and a combination of Italian flat leaf parsley, fresh dill, Italian basil and a simple vinaigrette. If I have a sweet red bell pepper I will often add that as well.
To make the vinaigrette it is equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar in a small canning jar. Add salt and pepper to taste, garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon of sugar.
When I make vinaigrette for a mixed greens salad, I will add Dijon mustard to the above mix.
You can see the size I mean in the photo above. You will only use maybe 3 tablespoons of dressing on the salad, but save the rest for regular lettuce salads and just refrigerate.
Peel and cut your cucumber in half lengthwise. If it is not the English hot house burpless variety, remove the seeds.
Toss cucumber into the bowl.
Slice and rough chop fairly thin about half of a large red onion.
Add onion to the bowl.
Take your tomatoes, cut the core out, and slice into large bite-size pieces. Sort of small wedges. Small enough you don’t need to use a knife to cut your salad, but large enough that the tomato doesn’t disintegrate.
Chiffonade the basil leaves. In layman’s terms, that means gently roll up your basil leaves and create thin ribbons by cutting off “slices” of the rolled basil.
Rough chop the Italian flat leaf parsley, and do the same gently with the fresh dill.
Put all the herbs on top of the salad and give one light toss and then add literally 2 to 3 tablespoons of the salad dressing and mix gently and either serve or cover and refrigerate until serving.
And I almost forgot — fresh ground pepper and sea salt to taste!
Leftovers are good for a day afterwards, provided you refrigerate.
This is a totally simple, easy to make salad, and it’s delicious! Thank you to my friend Sara for giving me vegetables from her garden. The herbs in the salad came out of my garden!
The #reality of #Harvey. I have a very dear friend who literally just bought herself a house outside of Houston Texas after moving there a couple of years ago. 
The 2017 house tour features historic homes and gardens in Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships. As an added bonus, the 
