Good morning, Lancaster County. Patchy fog burns off by nine and then it's mostly sunny and 82, which is about as good as a Friday gets before the rain moves in tomorrow. Start with a hay field in Conestoga that stopped being a hay field.
In today's Lancaster Local:
A field that was mown several times every summer is now a meadow with a trail through it
Free music in a Columbia park tonight, and a juggler in a Strasburg church hall
Saturday looks wet, so two of tomorrow's picks keep you under a roof
A correction on an address we printed Wednesday, for two programs happening this weekend
COMMUNITY NEWS
For decades it was a hay field, and the ground-nesting birds paid for every cutting. Yesterday the Lancaster Conservancy announced that a trail is now open through what it became instead.
The Conservancy says a half-mile natural-surface trail now winds through a restored 26-acre meadow at Safe Harbor Nature Preserve in Conestoga.
What makes it worth a Friday morning is what the field used to be. In the Conservancy's own words, it "was cut and bailed multiple times a year, offering little habitat value because of the harm to ground-nesting birds and small mammals during the hay cutting process." Planning to change it began in 2019.
The seed mix ran to thirty-two species, worked out with the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Pheasants Forever and grown by Ernst Conservation Seeds from local ecotypes. The Pennsylvania Game Commission lent the drill seeder. Five pollinators the state's Wildlife Action Plan lists as needing critical care were the point of it: the American bumblebee, regal fritillary, columbine duskywing, frosted elfin, and monarch butterfly. Another seven acres went into native trees and shrubs.
Conservancy forester Eric Roper put the case for meadows plainly: "Meadows can act as sponges during high water events, absorbing moisture and filtering sediment before it reaches our waterways."
The Conservancy describes the trail as yellow-blazed and about half a mile, with "minimal elevation change and minimal shade" — so go early or late. The preserve is open dawn to dusk. One request: don't pick the wildflowers. Leaving them means wildlife keeps the food and shelter those plants provide.
EVENTS
Two things tonight, a soggy Saturday with good indoor cover, and a week that ends at the fair.
🎷 Music in the Park — Locust Street Park, 550 Locust St, Columbia, PA 17512. Tonight, Friday, August 21, 6:30–8:15 p.m. Free. The Columbia Lions Club has The Maxwell Project on the gazebo playing classic R&B, funk and soul. Bring lawn chairs or a blanket; food trucks and restrooms are there on Fridays, and the park is smoke- and alcohol-free. The series wraps Monday, August 24 with The Nobles, ending at 7:30.
🤹 Chris Ivey Juggling Show — Wesley United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 40 West Main Street, Strasburg, PA 17579. Tonight, Friday, August 21, 6:30–8:00 p.m. Wesley UMC's post calls Ivey "our dear friend" and "a world class juggler who brings his amazing talents and engaging insights and humor to every show." The listing mentions no admission price.
🎲 Dungeons & Dragons — Quarryville Library Center, 357 Buck Rd, Quarryville, PA 17566. Saturday, August 22, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. Registration required and closes at 9:45 a.m.; age 16 and up. Four hours at a table while it rains outside is, frankly, the correct use of tomorrow. It's part of the library's recurring Saturday series.
🏍️ Summer Saturday — Lancaster Harley-Davidson, 308 Beaver Valley Pike, Willow Street, PA 17584. Saturday, August 22, 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Free grilled hot dogs from the Lancaster H.O.G. Chapter, live music from The Kracker Beez, and a motorcycle slow race with a $250 gift card on the line — good for licensed products, not a bike.
🎱 Summer Cash Bingo — Millersville VFW, 219 Walnut Hill Road, Millersville, PA. Saturday, August 22. Doors at noon, Early Bird Blackout Bingo at 1:15 p.m., regular bingo at 1:30. $20 in advance, $30 at the door — call 717-940-4841 and ask for Barb. Saint Paul Episcopal Church in Columbia is running it: every round pays $25 cash, four special games build to a $200 finale, plus raffle baskets and a 50/50. Bring a non-perishable item for the food bank and get a free raffle ticket.
🧶 Crochet with Kasey — Veterans Blanket — Columbia Public Library, 24 South 6th Street, Columbia, PA 17512. Tuesday, August 25, 6:30–8:00 p.m. Registration required and closes at 6:15 p.m. The library's line is the whole pitch: "Hospice is in dire need of veteran's blankets." Bring any hook and any yarn in red, white and blue — acrylic recommended — or whatever you're already working on.
🍻 4th Wednesday Happy Hour — Whistle Stop Plaza, 16 E Main St, Ephrata, PA 17522. Wednesday, August 26, 5:30–7:30 p.m. Mainspring leads with "LAST HAPPY HOUR this summer!" and means it. The Keri Edwards Band plays — Edwards on guitar and vocals, Deb Olsen on drums — with Big Back Burgers and Sweet & Salty Rolled Ice Cream in the plaza. RSVP online.
🀄 Mahjong Nights at ORD & Javateas — Old Republic Distillery Tavern, 3 Dutchland Ave., Ephrata, PA 17522. Thursday, August 27, 5:30–8:00 p.m. Beginners welcome, and you're allowed to just watch. The setting does a lot of work: ORD says its home, the Dutchland Center, was built in 1777 and still has its original stone wall and wood beams. Javateas Coffee Cafe is in the same building.
🦋 The Very Hungry Caterpillar — Environmental Center, One Nature's Way, Lancaster, PA 17602. Friday, August 28, 2:00–3:00 p.m. $2 per person, all ages. Register and prepay by noon Thursday, August 27, online or at (717) 295-2055. Naturalist Ann Strauss reads the Eric Carle book, then everyone takes nets outside to find the real thing chewing through leaves.
🦖 Inflatable Costume Race — Elizabethtown Fair, 900 E High St, Elizabethtown, PA 17022. Saturday, August 29. Registration 10:00–10:30 a.m.; the race is listed at 10:30. Bring your own blow-up costume — the fair suggests a dinosaur, a unicorn or a monster. Its 2026 rulebook is specific: the costume "must have a neck with human head in it," and short blow-ups aren't allowed. Four per heat, obstacles, three divisions, $25 to the winning adult.
One correction, because it matters this weekend: Wednesday's issue put the Environmental Center at 1050 Rockford Road. That's the Parks and Recreation office. The center is at One Nature's Way, Lancaster, PA 17602 — where River Glass Windchimes meets Saturday and the Spider and Insect Hunt meets Sunday. Sorry about that.
Friday, August 21 — Patchy fog before 9 a.m., then mostly sunny and humid with a high near 82 and a light northeast wind. Enjoy it while it lasts: the evening stays dry, showers arrive well after midnight, and Saturday turns wet with a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms possible.
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