Turning the Holiday Lights on At Peddler's Village - Fri Nov 16 2007

The Christmas Lights will be switched on at Peddler's Village at 6:15 pm on Friday November 16 2007 by Santa. Giggleberry fair will be offering free cider and toasted marshmallows.

For more info, please see the lighting page at the Peddler's Village site

Murder Mystery Dinner Theater at Peddler's Village - Till the end of December

Peddler's Village will be hosting a Murder Mystery dinner theater on Fridays and Saturdays through the end of December. The event will be held in the Peddler's pub in the Cock N Bull Restaurant. Dress is casual.

The cost is only 44.95 per person for dinner and the show.

If you get there a little early, you can wander through the shops and get some Christmas Shopping in.


For more information, check out the Peddler's Village Events Page

Some Bucks County Halloween Stuff - October 2007

There are lots of opportunities to celebrate with the Gouls, Goblins and other monsters this month in Bucks County. Many of the farms have haunted hayrides and other Halloween Shows.

Here are a couple of things you can check out.

• Screams In The Dark Haunted Theatre - October 19, 20, 26 and 27 in the Bensalem High School Auditorium - 7 Bucks -
• Hayride of Horror at Shady Brook Farm in Yardley 215-968-1670 http://www.shadybrookfarm.com/
• Spooky Train Ride - at Carousel Village in Wrightstown (on 413). October 12-27 on Fridays and Saturdays. 215-598-7165 http://www.carouselvillage.com/index.htm
• The Count's Halloween Spooktacular at Sesame Place - www.sesameplace.com - Saturdays and Sundays through Oct 28th. Check the cost out though, it's not cheap..
• Pumpkinfest at Fonthill - Ok, this isn't as scary but it's still Halloweenish - October 20-21 http://www.mercermuseum.org/
• Snipes Farm in Morrisville is having a Haunted House every weekend in October http://www.snipesfarm.com/activities/haunted-house.htm and http://www.festivaloffears.com/
• Check out the Valley of Fear at 301 W. Bristol Road. A haunted hayride, a walk in the woods (haunted of course) bands and a lot of other stuff. - Through Oct 21 http://www.valleyoffear.com/
• AGA farms in Perkasie is having Hayrides, camfires, a pumkin patch and other non horror activities. http://www.agafarms.com/
• Check out Payne's Asylum in Newtown PA weekends through Oct 28. Be careful though, they might commit you and keep you.. http://www.midnightpro.com/HauntedHouse/hauntedhousemain.html

Louden Wainwright III at the Sellersville Theater Oct 5 2005

Louden Wainwright III will be at the Sellersville Theater on October 5th, 2007. Those of you who are old enough (about a half century old or so) will remember his big hit "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road". That was back in the old AM/FM/8 track days. Here's the first verse

Crossin' the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are!


It's not all crazyness and he is a Grammy nominee with over 20 albums to his credit.


Louden's site is at http://www.lwiii.com/
You can view and hear video and audio clips of his work at
http://www.lwiii.com/downloads.php


For information about the show, see the Sellerville theater site at http://www.st94.com/music/2007_10.html#wainwright

So, grab your tie dyes and love beads or polyseter liesure suit and check the performance out.. (Only kidding about dressing that way).

40th anniversary at the Grundy Library - Historic Bristol Day Oct 20th 2007

The Grundy Libary will be celebrating it's 40th anniversary on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 with a Victorian theme.

Events include: exhibits, craft demonstrations, house tours, tea, celtic harps, Victorian era children's games, music and a lot more.

The library is located at 610 Radcliffe street. You can find parking, if you are lucky, in the large lot by the river just behind Mill Street.

For more information please see their online flyer at
http://www.grundyfoundation.com/victpost.htm
(Warning - Large file, slow load times...)

Peddler's Villiage Scarecrow Contest. - Sept 10th to Oct 28th 2007

Come to Peddler's Village in Lahaska for a Scarecrow Contest. There are lots of categories and about 5 grand in prize money.

Admission is free, and so is parking. (Of course, you are free to spend money in the shops but that can be a bonus)

For more info, see the Peddler's Village site at

http://peddlersvillage.com/special_events/scarecrow.htm

Buy a pastoral farm in Bucks County, Spend 1 Mill, Get High Tension towers

An article in Phillyburbs describes PPL using eminent domain to place high tension towers on the land of a Richland Family.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/113-09192007-1409981.html

I'm sure the Real Estate agents and supervisors of Bucks County Townships aren't too happy to hear this discussed. Property values are one of the things driving the Bucks County Economy. People are willing to spend millions for homes here, especially in Central and Upper Bucks.

The nightmare would be to spend a million or so of your life savings to find the perfect farm or property with just the right setting.... and then have ugly towers plopped right in the middle of things.

In addition to the esthetics of the situation, there is also concern that the high tension wires cause health problems. That idea is, of course, poo-pooed by the power companies.. (remember at one time tobacco companies promoted smoking as a healthy thing to do). On the other hand, there are books and articles that point to powerline-cancer links.

One of the things driving the need for powerlines is the rampant development. A 6000 foot McMansion needs a good bit of 'lectricity to keep the heat pumps going. The little munchkins from the Mcmansion need to go to a school, which needs plenty of 'lectricity to keep the kiddies in light and a nice comfortable environment.

So, as people are buying up houses, they may be faced with their home being under the shadow of a transmission line in order to provide additional power for those who buy homes after them.

One thing that did strike me was the apparent unwillingness of PPL to follow the railroad lines instead of going through people's homes. I have no knowledge of the engineering involved so I can't make a judgement. However, it would seem that it should be possible to situate the power lines along railroad rights of ways.

Eminent domain is scary. The governement can come in and enforce the taking of all or part of your property with the muzzle of a gun.

What can be done to lessen this in the future? For one thing, if we cover Bucks County with a spiderweb like netting of high tension wires, I would think that would have a negative effect on property values and tourism. "Gee dear, don't those power lines just look lovely this time of year in the valley?".. Yeah right...

Here are some thoughts..

• Let's stick to the comprehensive plans in the townships. Over and over again, developers are coming and and threatening lawsuits if they can't take R2 zoning and change it to High Density age restricted housing.. Simple math and common sense says that when you stick more people on an acre, you will need more electric...
• Make sure that the people who have the power to stick a butt ugly transmission pole smack dab in the middle of your horse pasture have incentive to try to find less obtrusive routes.
• Look into alternative energy, incentives to make things as energy efficient as possible and perhaps other ways of bringing electricity besides towers. However, the geography of Bucks County with it's glacial rock will probably preclude underground high tension wires.
• Oh, just for fun, every proposed route should be audited to see if the people responsible for the route have chosen a path away from their homes at the expense of other's homes..
• Let's make sure that the people who are forced to give easements are fairly compensated for their land. There have been a lot of national stories about eminent domain abuses where the owners are paid a fraction of their economic losses. That just is not fair.

AHA Friday - Newtown - Friday Oct 5th 2007

Check out Newtown on Friday October 5th for AHA Friday.

Events begin around 6pm. You can visit local businesses including the local galleries. Music is provided for many of the AHA Fridays.

You also can't beat the cost of admission, which is **free**


For more information, please see

• http://newtownpa.org/AHA.php
• http://newtownpa.org/Save%20the%20Date_10_2007.html

Fall Foliage in Bucks County

The leaves are starting to turn their fall colors. While we are not anywhere near a full fledged display, there is some color to be seen.

While it's nice to be able to go to the mountains for a weekend, a lot of us just don't have the time. You can experience the fall colors with a day trip in Bucks County.

Some suggestions are:

• Take River Road (route 32) north from New Hope up to about Upper Black Eddy. There are places where you can pull over near the canal.
• Visit one of the Bucks County Parks (State or County). The parks with lakes can be especially beautiful with the fall foliage.
• Visit the town of New Hope or Peddler's Village in Lahaska when the foliage is in full color.
• Get a good map or trust your GPS and take a leisurely ride through the back roads, perhaps checking out some of the covered bridges in the area.
• Take a train ride from New Hope.