Is there anything more perverse than weather?

Torrential rains brought on by Ivan the Terrible (hurricane) last Saturday drenched volunteers who were digging holes for the Al’s Trail/Deep Brook Greenway tree planting project in Fairfield Hills. Now that 200 trees have been delivered and are being set into their holes on Wednesday through Sunday of this week –– we get a long string of hot, dry days.

“Those trees are getting pretty thirsty,” said project leader Pat Barkman. “Anyone who wants to help, we could sure use some people to drive down with buckets, which they can fill from the stream, and pour water over the roots. Come whenever you can as often as you can until we get a good rain,” said Pat. Of course, volunteers are also needed to help plant the trees.

Directions to the tree planting areas: Drive past Reed Intermediate School and turn left at the light onto Trades Lane. At the power plant, turn right onto Old Farm Road Extension and follow that downhill past the Horse Guard fields, bearing left until you reach the Old Farm Road bridge over Deep Brook. The trees are being planted along both sides of the brook to the end of the farmer’s corn and hay fields, and there is another section of trees being planted off the end of Commerce Road.

Newtown resident and author Kathy Farrell-Kingsley will be a special guest next week during The Sandy Hook Organic Farmers’ Market. Ms Farrell-Kingsley’s name may ring a bell for anyone who participated in the Kitchens Tour on September 19 — she was the guest at 7 Main Street, where she was baking apple-oat bars and serving salad all afternoon. On September 28 she will be at the farmers’ market from 11 am until 1 pm with copies of her Complete Vegetarian Cookbook and more samples from her book.

While I’m on the topic of nutrition, I should mention that comments by Newtown High School students Annie Grills, Kaelyn Eckenrode. and Will Jacob were included in the September 24 Weekly Reader piece on teens and the anti-carb diet, “Carb-Crazed? Teens Get Wrapped Up In Diet Frenzy.” Annie has been on the South Beach diet for the past six months. She said it worked out “pretty well” for the first few weeks. “The weight…melts off you,” she noted. Kaelyn believes America’s obesity epidemic incites dieting. “So many Americans are obese and people are saying, ‘I don’t want that to be me, so I’m going to go on the ‘blank’ diet,’” she said.

Will predicts that such an attitude will outlast today’s low-carb frenzy, leading to just another diet. “You sort of wonder what’s next,” he said.

The thieves in Newtown must be getting pretty desperate. During a photo-op commemorating National Family Day, Parent Connection co-president Donna DeLuca lamented the recent theft of a sandwich board advertising Parent Connection’s upcoming forum on September 28. “I just can’t believe it,” Ms DeLuca said, shaking her head sadly. “I don’t know why someone would do this! Who would want to steal a sign like that?”

What was the thief thinking? “You never know, I might want to sponsor a substance abuse forum sometime. I think I’ll take this.”

Ever since the railroad overpass on Church Hill Road was raised and improved, tractor-trailer trucks are having to drive all the way to Botsford Hill Road to get their too-tall rigs stuck under a bridge. This week, Newtown police had to head down to Botsford to rescue an errant 18-wheeler from the tight space under the Housatonic Railroad bridge there.

Well, space is getting tight here, so I’ll sign off for this week, but I’ll be back again next week, so be sure to…

Read me again.