A Visit to Animal Adventure Park!

Some of you probably remember the fuss about April the giraffe, whose pregnancy was watched by millions of people around the world. April (and her calf Tajiri) live at Animal Adventure Park, which is less than an hour from my house and right down the street from my friends Robin and George, and my beloved goddess children Nate and Sophie.

On Saturday, pal Ellen and I drove through torrential downpours to get to Robin's house. Thankfully, the rain stopped just in time for our visit to the park. We spent three lovely hours hanging out and meeting all the animals, and seeing the many they'd added since our visit last year (including my favorites, the rare white lions, of which there are only 20 left in the wild and 300 in the entire world) and a kangaroo with her baby poking its head our of her pouch.

You get to feed many of the tamer animals, which is fun, and I got to spend the day with some of my favorite people, too. All in all, a wonderful day.

Here are a few pictures. If you can ever get there, you should really go visit.

April

Ellen making new friends

Wolf!

Black bear

One of the white lions

George, Robin, and Nate taking a break

Kanga and Roo

Little goats. Not endangered, but darn cute

Me with my favorite kids (and our booty from the gift shop), with Ellen hiding

Best portapotties ever

The whole gang at the end of the day

At the Faerie Festival

Every year my friends Ellen and Robin (and Robin's kids Sophie and Nate, my goddess children) and I go to the Faerie Festival, about 50 minutes from my house, and five minutes from Robin's. This year Robin's friend Nichole and her four kids joined us, and we had a grand time, despite the insane mid-90's heat and high humidity. Although we did retreat back to Robin's house for a nice BBQ and eating inside the AC...

Here are a few pictures from the event, which is a little bit like a Renaissance Faire with more goblins and trolls...

Me and my darling Sophie

Robin and Nichole and the kids (the troll wasn't ours)

So many cute dogs! Ellen always makes new friends.

Robin and Nate

It was so hot, the hair was up. Me and Nate, looking mildly overheated but happy.

The Faerie Queen, leading the processional.

I loved the tee shirt Sophie put on when we got home.

What's a faire without goodies?  A new oracle deck (bought from the illustrator, a fellow Llewellyn person) and a cool Matrushka key chain that made me think of the Baba Yagas)

One of the artists did all these cool acorn people! Of course I got the one who was reading a book.

I'm already looking forward to next year. And hoping it is a little cooler...

New Year's Day at Casa Blake

I usually spend New Year's Day happily by myself, but this is a tough one, because I'm losing my beloved Magic on Wednesday. (She's barely eaten in the last few days and is clearly uncomfortable; the tumors are huge now. They'll burst on their own and kill her soon, and I want better for her than that, so the appointment has been made, and I'm keeping her comfortable until then and treasuring every damned moment.)

We started the morning like so many others, with Magic sitting on my lap while I ate breakfast and read my book. She still purred, which made my heart happy. It has always been my favorite way to start off my days, and I'll miss it. Well, actually, I started off the morning staring at the thermometer and making rude noises. But then breakfast. (It was -13 here when I got up. Ugh.)

Breakfast snuggles

That's just rude

Then in the early afternoon, my friend Ellen (who found me Magic, along with her brother Mystic and mom Minerva almost 16 years ago) came over for a low-keyed New Year's celebration geek style: Chinese food, Scrabble, and watching this year's Doctor Who Christmas Special (which I had gallantly held off on watching so we could do so together). We got Peking Duck, one of our favorites, and Magic happily nibbled on a bit of duck meat.

Peking duck? Well, maybe just a bite or two.

 It made me happy to see her taking such pleasure in our treat. (Although admittedly, all the Chinese food in our little town is fairly mediocre. Still, I didn't have to cook it. And I love duck almost as much as Magic does. Ribs, too, although she didn't get any of those.)

Feast!

 The Doctor Who episode was actually pretty terrific, and it was nice to share it with Ellen.

Last time we'll see this

It was great

 Magic spent most of the meal sitting next to me, although she quickly got bored with the duck. She always supervises everything I do, from eating to writing. Not sure how I'll do either without her. Yes, she IS the boss of me.

Sitting next to me, supervising as usual

 Eventually she wandered off to sit on the bed with (but at a reasonable distance from) her brother and his pal Angus.

It was a three cat afternoon when the sun hit the bed

 Apparently she was my good luck charm, because then Ellen went on to beat me. By six points :-)

Ellen pondering a clever word

We play nine letter Scrabble, so we can get even more vicious and make even longer words.

All in all, it was as good a New Year's Day as I could have hoped for, and I even finished up by writing 3,000 words on the current manuscript, after a nap. (What am I working on? Tune in soon, and I'll tell you. I'm just about ready to talk about it.)

I hope your first day of 2018 was a good one, and that if, like me, it is starting off tough, it gets better as it goes along. I am looking forward to sharing mine with you in the days to come.

A Visit to Animal Adventure Park and April the Giraffe

Things have been a little crazy here (what's new, I know) and I realized I never put up a blog post about my visit to Animal Adventure Park last month. Many of you might have followed along last February and March as much of the world watched April the giraffe's pregnancy progress, and the birth of little Tajiri. I certainly got caught up in it, in part because the park is practically in my friend Robin's back yard in Harpursville, NY, less than an hour from where I live.

It had been one of my goals to get to the park to meet April in person, and in August, pal Ellen and I made the trip, joining up with Robin, her daughter Sophie, and Sophie's friend Rosie. It was a blast. It is a small park, although expanding all the time, and it took us about two hours to get around the whole thing, including a chunk of time spent with April, Oliver, and little Taj (who was asleep during our visit, alas, so we could only peek at him). April really is just as sweet as she seemed with the keepers who take care of her, and Sophie and I both took turns letting her take carrots (the giraffes' favorite treat) from our mouths. Here are a few pictures from the day:

Me and April the Giraffe!

Sophie said April's tongue tickled her

More carrots please!

Little Taj!

Sophie, Rosie, me, Ellen, and April

Daddy Oliver

Look how tall!

Ellen made friends with the camels

Lots of different kinds of animals, not just giraffes

Can you tell I was happy to be there?

It was a terrific day, spent in terrific company, and I'm already looking forward to going back next year.

Book Research Taken to Extremes

I've done some strange research for my books in the past. For instance, when I wrote WICKEDLY WONDERFUL, I had to Google "locations of nuclear plants in California." For weeks I waited to see if the FBI was going to show up on my doorstep...

But this weekend I got a little more, um, hands on, with my research than usual. In the manuscript I'm working on right now, the protagonist--who knows nothing about farm animals--has to milk a goat. I had a pretty good idea of how it was done from looking at youtube videos and talking to a friend who used to have goats, but I wanted to make sure I got it right. (If you get info wrong in a book, I assure you, people will tell you about it later. Repeatedly.)

Luckily, one of the artists at The Artisans' Guild shop I run happens to be a nun who is in charge of the animals at the Holy Myrrbearers Monastery where she lives in nearby Otego, so she invited me to come milk one of her goats. My friend Ellen went along to watch, take pictures, and no doubt laugh quietly to herself.

It's not as easy as it looks.

 I had a great time, even if initially I got as much milk on my pants as I did in the bucket.

The goat was very patient with me.

Mother Katherine with another one of her charges

Where the milk ended up!

 There were three adorable little kittens in the barn that had been abandoned across the street not long before. (People do that in the country all the time, alas.) They were happy to clear away the milk I got out of poor Claire. The rest went to her kids, who took it directly from the source.

Lots of goats!

Ellen with her new friend Caliban

 Mother Katherine also tends to many sheep (whose wool is made into the yarn, scarves, and felted insoles she sells at the shop), chickens, and the working dogs who live there.

So tell me, what did you do with your Saturday? And if you're a writer, what is the strangest research you've ever done?

NY Faerie Festival 2017

Anyone who has been following this blog for a while knows that there is one day I look forward to all year--my annual outing to the NY Faerie Festival. It takes place about 50 minutes away from me, in tiny Ouaquaga, NY and it is always a blast. Think of it as a mini Renaissance Faire with faeries, trolls, and the occasional mermaid.

See? Mermaids! Well, er, merpeople.

I always go with my best pal Ellen and our friend Robin, who brings her kids (my goddess-children) Nate and Sophie. Sadly, Nate was sick this year, and had to stay home, but Robin made up for it by bringing her brother, his partner, and their baby, who had come for a surprise visit, and her friend Nichole and her four kids. We were quite the group! This is the gang, minus me, because I was taking the picture.

The large bald guy in the kilt was a parking minion who photo bombed us. LOL

The festival takes place on a lovely piece of land with trees and a stream (see picture above!), and oh, the sights that you see. This year it is two weekends instead of one, so you can still make it to this coming weekend's event if you want to.

Here are a few pictures from the day, which was blessed with fabulous weather (a few sprinkles, but not too hot and not pouring, so really, perfect). Now I start counting down until next year!

It turns out Sophie is an elf. Not surprised!

Crones spinning circle! (Next to the alpaca tent.)

Me, Robin, Sophie, and her best friend Anna

Goblins!

Henna tattoo...of a cat, of course.

Walking the labrynth

Such strange creatures...

Lots of friendly dogs and interesting costumes.

I loved this chair that made it look as though you had dragon wings. Appropriate!

Health food? Ellen seems to think so.

The traditional "GRRR" photo, without Nate this year, alas.

The three amigas.

So many children! But they were all great.

So, tell me, do you have an event or outing you look forward to all year?