Are you tired of cooking dinner and want something delicious cooked by someone else? You not only have the Southport General Store as a solution or a restaurant downtown, you can call Sandra Seifert at 207-633-3546 to order a “Free Lasagna and Love Takeaway Supper.” The first 75 callers will be served. You can either pick up your meal between 1 and 2 p.m. at the Southport Town Hall on Feb. 13 or you can ask for it to be delivered. Thanks to the Southport Island Association for organizing this way to “celebrate our community.”

As tensions rise between Russia and the west, if you have any questions about that situation, in addition to following the news, you might want to ask Paul Zalucky. Paul, who in his professional life worked in this area, has been sending me many articles and been kind enough even to Zoom with me in conversation to increase my understanding of the situation. If it weren’t for Covid, we could all get together to be better informed as these scary actions unfold. One can only hope that diplomacy ultimately works.

Jack and Barbara Bauman were walking the track at the Y on Friday morning and again on Monday, keeping a lively stride. Great to see Jack back to exercise after a spell in the hospital a month or so ago.

A new resident on the island as of last July is Leigh Perkins who bought a home on Dogfish Head Road near the Baumans. She has had an interesting career first as a litigation lawyer, then a trade journalist, and then as an English teacher at the Brooks School, a boarding school in Massachusetts where she grew up as her parents were both on the faculty, and where she attended secondary school. While teaching at Brooks, she traveled with her students to a variety of countries helping the students explore other ways of life and nudging them into personal connections to help them overcome fear and mistrust of other peoples and cultures.

A connection she still maintains is with Shabana Basij Rasikh, whom she first met when Shabana was an Afghani student at Middleburg College. Ms Perkins was teaching the book “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, set in Afghanistan and wanted her students to relate with understanding to the area and to the culture. She asked Shabana to come talk with her class.

This week Leigh is off to Rwanda to visit Shabana and the school she founded in 2016 for Afghan girls called SOLA, School of Leadership, Afghanistan. The school relocated from Kabul to Rwanda last August when the Taliban took over their country, making education for women very risky. The 250 faculty and students from 28 provinces hope this journey is really just a year abroad study, and that they may return to their homeland. You can hear Shabana tell her story on a TED talk accessible at https://www.ted.com/talks, or Google SOLA.

After returning home Leigh plans to help teachers and students create real time global experiences in the classroom through live virtual field trips, where everyone comes into the picture on equal footing.

The wind and rain storm last Monday took down a big tree on Campbell Road where neighbors lost power, but CMP was quick to come to make repairs. Driving on Cross Road in mid-morning I screeched to a halt before hitting a small, dead tree that topple just in front of me. Later on Route 238 a large dead tree fell across the road in front of a truck that was in front of Anne Vatabedian and me. Fortunately the truck driver was able to haul it off the road so we could proceed, waving aside any help from me in my OSHA hard hat.

News from the school pond is that students and others may be able to skate on it this year, although the town will not dig it out until the time is right. The water level is down about two feet making the pond about six feet deep at its deepest point. If Gerry can find his yellow flag, or if someone can make him one, he will hoist it on the flag pole in front of the Southport General Store indicating the pond is safe for skating. Meanwhile, the school children have skates and helmets ready.

Those of you who are good with figures, the budget committee needs members. Please talk with one of the selectmen if you are interested.