The Academy Award won by Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth has everyone talking about the greening of America, but on a more local level there has been plenty of activity in the greenhouses around town in preparation for the greening of Newtown in the next month or two. The nurseries and garden centers are already tending flats of sprouts that will be spring’s first plants and flowers. If you are looking for signs of spring outside, see if you can find some witch hazel. The witch hazel I bought last year from Tom Johnson at Lexington Gardens is blooming this week.

This week, while walking by Edmond Town Hall, a I saw Clark Kathan, who, along with his maintenance crew, keeps the circa-1930 building running. Clark pointed out to me that the daffodils are starting to burst through the ground on the sheltered, sunny south side of the building. If you should be in the area, the flowers are located next to the doorway near the southeast corner of the building.

Speaking of the greening of America, the Newtown Historical Society is sponsoring a talk on that subject on March 12 at the Booth Library, but it’s not what you think. It’s about the greening of America that took place in the mid-19th Century when Irish immigrants flooded to America fleeing religious persecution, economic hard times, and famine. Phil Gallagher, a retired social studies teacher from Bethel, will be the speaker. The program comes during the run-up to the greenest day of the year — St Patrick’s Day.

We know that Newtowners are generous when it comes to charitable donations, but it is especially wonderful to know that this sense of generosity is being instilled in our younger residents, too. Instead of the usual piles of presents for her birthday, Newtown seventh grader Stephanie Clavette asked her basketball travel team to bring donations for the Newtown Family Counseling Center to her birthday party at Danbury Ice Rink last week. Now there’s a class act.

Having a full-time position managing the kitchen and cooking for an exclusive golf club would be enough work for most chefs to juggle, but Newtowner Patrick Wilson has settled down from a recent working vacation in Japan just long enough to be asked by the Culinary Institute of America to judge the four-day, 60-hour Pro Chef Certification Exam in March. A Certified Practical Examiner of the American Culinary Federation, Chef Wilson has had to prove himself by winning both silver and gold medals in ACF competitions along with apprentice training under other practical examiners in four certification tests. Plus, he is still in training for the Master Chef Exam: no pressure; not a single chef passed this year in that rigorous category.

Near the north driveway entrance to Edmond Town Hall, there’s a snowbank so large that if the town had a mind to, it could rent its use to snowboarders at a handsome profit. The problem, though, would be the snowboarders entering traffic on Main Street when they reached the bottom of the slope.

These first days of March seem to be taking back all the winter weather that the last days of February gave us. The week started off with a snow day for Newtown’s schoolchildren, and from our perspective here in the newsroom at The Bee, it seemed like all of them decided to build snowmen. We got several calls and even more emails from people bringing cute and clever snowmen to our attention. The one that seemed to generate the most buzz was built by an adult. Simon Capener sculpted a 12-foot Homer Simpson snowman on Taunton Lake Drive. You would think Simon wouldn’t be quite so accomplished at snowman building; he grew up in Zimbabwe and has experienced only three winters in his life.

Simon has inspired me to end this week with some of Homer Simpson’s wisdom — three sentences that will get you through life: Number one, “Cover for me.” Number two, “Oh, good idea, boss.” Number three, “It was like that when I got here.”

To that, all I can add is,

Read me again.