Friends and a Tea Party

Three things of note happened this week. We had friends over for dinner one night and had an interesting discussion of France and libraries, we volunteered to help out at Chestertown's annual Tea Party and Barack Obama won a mojority of elected delegates.

Some friends of ours recently returned from a three week trip to France (mostly Normandy). They came to dinner along with another couple to regale us of their exploits. They brought with them a spectacular vase of blooming peonies (see picture) from their garden. Basically they spent most of their time in rural France and loved the food and the life style. It has become their 'favorite' place. We also discussed the future of libraries. I'm attempting to write an unsolicited paper on how I think libraries will look in the not to distant future and suggestions for our local library to prepare for a changing role. The conversation was lively and many good ideas were tossed around. If you have any thoughts on this subject, I'd love to hear them. Just add a comment of this blog.

On Saturday Chestertown held its annual Tea Party celebration. Chestertown held a tea party similar to the one in Boston about 6 months later and they celebrate it with music, a parade, vendors, games and a reenactment every year on Memorial Day weekend. About 20,000 people usually show up. Our local UU church puts up a booth and sells lemonade, water and lemon peppermint sticks (a peppermint stick is stuck into a lemon and one sucks the tart lemon juice up through the sweet peppermint stick resulting in a few swallows of a sweet tart drink). Once the party got going we had a slew of customers. It helped that the weather was near perfect - 70 degrees under sunny skies. It was fun even if a bit tiring.

On the political front, Senator Clinton hangs in the race. I've heard comments about pressure on her to quit because the Democratic primary is hurting the Democratic party. My opinion is just the opposite. The primary has been good for whichever candidate wins the nomination as it's made them stronger for the real race ahead. And it's been good for the country as issues have been debated and we've all gotten a more in depth look at two good candidates. In the long run I think it will also be good for the Democratic Party. They've registered many new voters and have sparked interest in the political process among citizens who have never been interested before. Can't help but be good for our nation.