Just because we all enjoyed a gala town picnic and magnificent fireworks during the August celebration of the Tercentennial does not mean that the town’s 300th birthday party is over. Far from it.

There are still plenty of special activities, events, and publications planned that will continue to remind us what a great place Newtown is in 2005, and how far we have come since 1705.

The Tableaux Vivants, a unique theatrical experience with narration by our Town Historian Dan Cruson happens Saturday, October 1, at Newtown High School, and a week later there will be a “Walk In The Woods For Fitness” at Orchard Hill Nature Center off Huntington Road, sponsored by Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) and the Parks and Recreation Department. The two groups are planning a family outing at 2 pm on Saturday, October 9, and everyone is welcome to come. “Keeping the Tercentennial in mind, we want to incorporate local history as well as ecology into this trail walk,” said Margareta Kotch, VNA treasurer. 

Other Tercentennial projects scheduled for October are the publication of a coffee table book depicting scenes from Newtown’s Tercentennial Year, and a book of essays written by Dan Cruson called A Mosaic of Newtown History. In November, there will be a Tercentennial Ecumenical Service at Edmond Town Hall, and the Holiday Tree Lighting the first Friday in December will mark the culmination of our yearlong celebration.

There’s a touch (and taste) of Tuscany in Newtown over at Andrea’s Pastry Shop at 5 Queen Street. The sunflowers out front are reaching for blue sky, and bakery customers are sitting outside at curbside tables basking in their glow. They drink espresso and nibble their cannolis while reading The Bee and watching the world go by. If this is baker Tony Posca’s way of introducing La Dolce Vita to Newtown, we say Bravissimo!

Head O’Meadow PTA has adopted a school in hurricane ravaged Denham Springs, Louisiana, and is asking the Newtown community to drop off donations of children’s underwear, socks, T-shirts, toiletries and hand sanitizer to the lobby of the school. HOM will be have an ongoing relationship with Southside Elementary School students and will continue to provide them with support.

The annual Hawkwatch Count is underway with local birders posted on Connecticut hillsides, binoculars poised, hoping to catch the mass migration of raptors flying south to their wintering grounds. So far, the best results by a Newtown watcher were posted by Larry Fischer from his watch site at Huntington State Park in Redding. Larry counted 381 hawks flying overhead on Sunday, September 18, including 361 broadwings, 10 sharpshins, 2 osprey, 2 red-tails, 4 American kestrels, and 1 golden eagle. The wind was out of the northwest and the hawks were headed southeast––makes sense.

The next day, Monday, October 19, Renee Baade, Polly Brody, and Neil Currie spent a total of eight hours on Botsford Hill in Bridgewater and counted a total of 317 hawks headed south. “We expected to see more than we did,” the trio commented. Once again, it seems the majority of the birds went inland. Dave Babington saw 659 hawks on Chestnut Hill, Litchfield, on September 19, and Paul Carrier saw 501 on Wednesday, September 21, from Johnnycake Mountain in Burlington.

“Nice cool wind from the northwest,” Paul comments on the hawkwatch.org website, “and most broad-wings were seen from 8:30 to 10 am. All blue skies don’t help [hawk watchers like a few clouds to help them locate and focus on the birds]. No dicky birds [non-hawks] except a few sparrows, and no kettle-ing. But I think there are more to come when the weather turns good again.”

It’s all Greek to me. What do I know about hawks except that I don’t want to run into one when I’m prowling in the back field.

Mary Maki, president of The Friends of the Library, announces that this year’s Labor Day Book Sale T-shirt has made it to a blog page. Check out www.ReadingWithRobin.blogspot.com. Robin’s Providence, R.I. radio show was the source of this year’s quote. Now people all over the world can take a peek at our popular Ts. The Friends might want to print up extras next year to handle the requests….

Pat Babbidge will no longer offer her Priority Fitness classes at Dance, Etc. after October 1, to the dismay of her faithful followers. But there is still a ray of hope. Fitness buffs can look for Pat at the Newtown Senior Center on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:45 until 5:45 pm, where she will offer a Pilates mat class. Parks and Rec is sponsoring the classes, offered to anyone age 14 years or older. Sounds like a good opportunity for a good stretch.

Why did the earthworm cross the road? To get to the other side. Or maybe not. This week I had to tiptoe over hundreds of wrigglers on Cobblestone Road, who seem to crawl out of the lawns overnight and lose their way as they creep across the pavement. And here’s another question: Why do they call them nightcrawlers if they apparently can’t find their way in the darkness?

Rain or shine, light or dark, I will find my way back here next week, and I hope you will too, so be sure to…

Read me again.