It’s time to get crafty! We’ve had a few announcements in recent weeks about the first half of a new event at C.H. Booth Library. Now it’s time for part two of the Craft Supply Exchange. Last week the library accepted donations of new and gently used items; everything from inks, pencils, paints, brushes, pastels, erasers, chalks, charcoals, and markers to yarn, fabric, thread, embroidery supplies, canvas, watercolor paper, drawing paper, sketchbooks, construction paper, newsprint, glue, beads, artificial flowers, and much more.

Now that everything has been organized, those who love to create are invited to head toward the second floor of 25 Main Street beginning Monday morning to pick out the supplies of your choice. BYO bag and take what you’d like. The Craft Supply Exchange is first come, first served. It continues during regular library hours through Thursday, April 23. The library is open those days from 9:30 am until 8 pm and you don’t need to have donated in order to browse and select from the supplies offered next week. Have fun!

Belated congratulations to Doug Body, who is celebrating his silver anniversary with Newtown Lions Club this month. That’s quite an achievement.

Great Pootatuck Duck Race ticket sales opened last weekend. As I mentioned just last week, the Newtown Lions Club family-friendly event returns to Heritage Park in June, with dozens of prizes and, this year, new additions including a few nods to America’s Semiquincentennial. Tickets are $10 each. Lions Club member Steve Stolfi, who is putting in a lot of work ahead of this year’s event, said last weekend’s launch was a little chilly, but the sun was shining. This week's photo shows Joan Alexander and Jordan D’Amico making the best of the sun that found them while they were outside Newtown Hardware last weekend.

This weekend, Lions Club members are scheduled to be in front of Yankee Wine & Spirits, within Newtown Shopping Center at 6 Queen Street, on Friday from 5-7 pm; and then near each entrance of Stop & Shop, within Sand Hill Plaza at 228 South Main Street, on Saturday, from 10 am until 2 pm. Next weekend’s schedule has members perching outside Hawleyville Wine & Liquor, 23 Barnabas Road, on Friday, April 24, from 5-7 pm; on the front lawn of Newtown Middle School for the full duration of next weekend’s Newtown Earth Day Festival on Saturday; and then in front of Dunkin’ in Queen Street Shopping Center on Sunday, April 26, from 8 am until noon.

Speaking of next Saturday, I’m hoping for blue skies when we again focus our attention on going green and the importance of caring for the environment. The 2026 Newtown Earth Day Festival will return to the front lawn of the middle school on April 25. As in past years, organizers are planning a full day of family-friendly activities highlighting the abundant natural resources that can be found locally, plenty of live music and entertainment, educational and craft vendors, a silent auction, and much more. The event will also raise funds to put toward a green college scholarship for a Newtown High School student. Check our calendars for additional details.

Ezra the Rooster, the colorful metal sculpture that has been exploring Newtown and serving as mascot for Newtown Historical Society since New Year’s Day 2025, recently took a timely and topical trip. Ezra visited the local branch of The Washington-Rochambeau Trail on April 4, which the historical society posted on Facebook the following day. I apologize for not mentioning this in last week’s column.

Ezra must have been brushing up on his local history, considering (a) Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau led his troops through Newtown in 1781 while heading toward New York to join forces with General George Washington; and (b) the historical society is hosting a lecture this weekend on just that person! Lynn Friedman and Jim O’Brien will present “Rochambeau and The Alliance that Won the Revolution” this Sunday afternoon at 2 pm at Newtown Senior Center. There is no fee to attend, and all are welcome for this, the latest local event ahead of our country’s 250th anniversary in just a few months. That Ezra — such a smart bird.

Were you among those who experienced a brief but relatively widespread in-town power outage on Tuesday? Sam Cross was working on one assignment out on South Main Street when the outage happened, so she did what all good reporters should do: she finished that appointment and promptly picked up the unexpected one, which was centered on a property very close to where Sam already was. While many people in town were trying to figure out what happened (hint: Sam’s story has the answer), fellow Bees at 5 Church Hill Road also found themselves suddenly in the dark for a short time.

Tuesday was such a warm day, we also saw some of our seasonal worker bees start to reappear. Within just a few hours, we had three bees appear in the building. The first was a hornet and we think the second was a yellow jacket. Both appeared in Editorial and we scurried that second one out the front door so quickly, we’re still not sure what it was. A few minutes later Sam Cross found another bee in another section of the building. It took a few minutes, but that winged creature was also captured and reintroduced to the great outdoors. Wednesday morning a grasshopper was spotted on the soap dispenser in one of the bathrooms here. Nature does like to keep us on our toes!

I know many of you went all out with wearing green on St Patrick’s Day. Earth Day returns April 22, and a spot o’ green in your outfit on Wednesday will be a nice nod to the day. According to earthday.org, the theme for Earth Day 2026 is “Our Power, Our Planet.” I hope you’ll power through the next seven days and come back around this time next week, when it will be time to … read me again.