Now you can have dessert after your tacos. Lil’ Pop Shop, a locally owned artisan popsicle shop, officially opened today at 265 S. 44th Street, between Honest Tom’s Taco Shop and Tampopo. The owner, Jeanne Chang, lives right around the corner and said that she was very excited about opening the shop in the neighborhood.

The shop hours are Tuesday-Saturday 12-9 p.m., Sunday 12-5 p.m., maybe longer or shorter depending on how traffic is, Jeanne said. Also, a mobile cart will be out starting Wednesday and hours and locations will vary.

The popsicles are made on the premises using mostly locally grown ingredients.

The current popsicle flavors include Chocolate w/ Salted Caramel Brownie, Lime Mint, Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade, Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk and many others. All flavors sell for $3 each.

Jeanne is still working on her online presence. We’ll pass that along once it’s up and running. For now, the shop can be reached at 510-919-0784.

Spruce Street traffic is being diverted between 40th Street to 34th Street as Penn students pack up for the summer. That section of Spruce Street will be closed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today and tomorrow.

The eastbound 42 bus is turning down 42nd Street to Baltimore Avenue. Even bicycle traffic is being diverted on parts of Spruce.

The upside of the traffic diversion is that it’s almost “Penn Christmas” – the curbside rummaging that accompanies the student move out at the end of every school year. To lighten the load on the landfill, Penn is once again organizing donations from students – everything from clothes to microwaves to television – that will be sold to the public on June 2. For more information on that, visit the PennMoves website.

Spaces are still available for a terrarium workshop hosted by VIX Emporium and taught by artist Beth Richey. The workshop is next Saturday, May 19. Beth will teach you how to create a low-maintenance plant ecosystem in a jar – a little world with wild-gathered moss, water, and pretend inhabitants that Beth makes out of clay.

The workshop fee is $15 and includes instruction, moss, some decorations and other necessary materials. Bring your own jar with a tight-fitting lid, no more than 6″ diameter. There will also be a few jars available for purchase at the workshop, as well as special discounts on handmade miniature glass animals in stock at VIX.

To register for the workshop, please visit this page. The workshop is at 1 p.m. in VIX’s back room, 5009 Baltimore Avenue. If it fills up, a second session will be added at 2 p.m.

We couldn’t find the residents of the house on the scene. If anyone knows them and they need help, please let us know and we’ll pass it along.

8:15 p.m. We went to the scene. The fire is extinguished, but the top two floors appear to have been destroyed. It’s a duplex and the adjacent house at 5024 Cedar Ave. also sustained some damage.

7:23 p.m. A reader reports a fire at 5026 Cedar Avenue this evening. Stay tuned as we are trying to get more information on it.

Local photographer Stephanie Ricci sent us this awesome photo of a West Philly porch. Thanks Stephanie!

Send us your neighborhood photos to: editor@westphillylocal.com. Please include your name and your photo’s title.

Update (05/10): Pigpen was found the other night and is back home (see Comments).

Neighbor Stacey is looking for her beloved cat Pigpen who seems to have gone missing. Stacey believes he escaped last night as she was letting her dog out before bed and she unfortunately didn’t realize he was missing until this morning.

He’s a small, thin, orange cat, approximately 10lbs., wearing a bright red breakaway collar with an identification tag (unless it came off of him). He’s normally very friendly and chatty but he’s not used to being outside so most likely he’s scared and holed up somewhere. He was last seen on Sunday, May 6, at 10pm on 49th Street between Walnut and Locust.

If you’ve seen Pigpen, please contact Stacey at: litelysalted@yahoo.com