We have had our ups and downs, weatherwise, the past week, but here’s a sure sign of spring: Anyone interested in entering a team for the Men’ Slo-Pitch Softball season, which plays on Sunday mornings, should contact Michael Lancaster at lancaster_michael@yahoo.com for more information. If softball and baseball scheduling is under way, how far off can warm weather be?

Four Newtown youngsters are featured in a clip from the Bridgeport Hospital’s social media marketing campaign for the new Connecticut Cardiac Arrhythmia Center. The campaign centers on a series of short videos, all starting out with a rhythmic performance, such as the one put on by Celeste and Annabel Caseria, and Gracie and Jackson Douglas of Newtown. The videos then go on to discuss the importance of normal heart rhythm, with a demonstration by nurse practitioner Cathy Wright on taking a pulse reading. Follow this link to view a few seconds of “Do You Have Rhythm,” as presented by Celeste, Annabel, Gracie, and Jackson: www.youtube.com/doyouhaverhythm#p/u/3/aKUIfSbpRQc.

Someone linked me into a bing.com video of a cat-ographer this week, wherein viewers could see the wide, wide world from a cat’s point of view. Cooper, the picture-taking kitty, wears a tiny, lightweight camera on his collar and records the places he goes, the people he sees, and lots of other low to the ground images. It seems this Ansel Adams of the cat world has taken more than 40,000 photographs. Hmmm. I wonder what kind of newsy news for this column I would come upon if I started wearing a discrete little camera around my neck? Smile! You’re on Candid Cat-mera!

Jane Audet had to be a little discreet, and keep a good distance, when photographing this visitor to her yard, earlier this month. This very large bobcat cruised casually through her Albert’s Hill yard, and that of her neighbor’s, Donna Solomons, one morning at about 10. “I was on hold with our insurance company, dealing with an ice damage claim, when Jane kept buzzing in,” Donna tells us. Jane was frantically trying to call, to make sure that the two whippets owned by Donna were not outside. “They have a habit of getting in tussles with animals — skunks, and raccoons — and Jane was concerned they might have met their match with this bobcat,” said Donna. All’s well that ends well. The dogs were inside, and this buff cat headed off into the woods.

It looks like the local Discussion Salon group is returning to its roots. The social events discussion organization, open to all, and founded by Sandy Hook businessman Ben Roberts, met at demitasse — formerly the site of Mocha Coffeehouse — in Sandy Hook Center this past Monday evening, and hopes to continue holding its weekly gatherings in the café from now on. The Discussion Salon met in Mocha for quite some time, until that coffee shop closed last May. The group has been meeting at a few other places in the meantime, including My Place Restaurant on Queen Street, but seems to have gravitated back to Glen Road. Maybe it’s the pull of the river? Or is it the coffee?

Congratulations to the Newtown High’s girls’ basketball team, which won its South-West Conference Tournament semifinal round game on Tuesday, beating Brookfield 57-40. By doing so, the team earned a spot in Thursday’s championship game. So by the time you read this, even more congratulations may be in order. Go, Hawks! (Hawkettes?)

Venture Crew 270 will be selling some tickets at the door Saturday evening, February 26, but I hope you thought ahead and ordered your tickets for the three-course pasta dinner the group is hosting that night, in the Great Room of the Newtown Congregational Church, 14 West Street. Salad with grape tomatoes and vinaigrette, spaghetti and meatballs — and sauce, of course — with garlic bread, and bread pudding with cherries and vanilla sauce make up the menu for the 5:30 pm meal. The Crew is also holding a silent auction at the dinner, with lots of great items from local merchants. And if that’s not enough of a draw, guests get to vote on an array of homemade desserts by Venture Crew members, making the end of the meal twice as sweet. Tickets are $10 per person, up to four per family, then a discount applies for the remainder of the family members. See you there!

Donna Monteleone Randle is among those working to organize an ecumenical Seder to take place on Sunday, April 10, at 4 pm. She already knows the day, date, time, and even many of the local clergy who have promised to participate in the special event (among them Rabbi Shaul Praver from Adath Israel, Pastor Kathie Adam Shepherd from Trinity Episcopal, Monsignor Robert Weiss from St Rose, and Pastor Mel Kawakami from Newtown United Methodist) but there is still a mountain of work to be done between now and that Sunday afternoon six weeks from now… including selecting a location. Donna already has some women from the synagogue helping her to pull together the menu and order of the service, but she is looking for more volunteers to help with all aspects of the event. “This is a community event. You do not have to belong to an organized church [or any other formal group] to participate,” she emphasized this week. “This event is an ecumenical observance of a religious celebration which coincides this year with both the Christian and Judaic calendar. The idea is to give people an opportunity to participate in a Seder, but in a religiously neutral environment.” That’s why, in part, Donna is hoping to hear from residents of all ages to help organize, publicize and prepare some of the food for the event. Anyone interested in helping out in any way is encouraged to call her at 203-364-9772 or send an email to ndrandle@charter.net.

It’s that time of year in New England, when the sunny days balance out with freezing cold nights: just the recipe to get the sap flowing in the maple trees. You don’t have to go all the way to Vermont, though, to find nature’s sweetener. Connecticut is one of the country’s largest producers of maple syrup. If you take a drive around and look into the wooded areas, you will see plenty of webs of tubing winding from maple tree to maple tree to sugar house, or spigots tapped into trees allowing the sap to flow freely into buckets hung beneath. Check out www.connecticutmaplesyrupfestival.com to find out more about state-produced maple syrup, and sugar houses you can visit. Sounds like a whisker lickin’ good time to me.

I’ll be on the prowl (sans camera) for more news, next week. I hope I can count on you to… Read me again.