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 New York Faerie Festival

Despite a cold and rainy day, tradition prevailed and I went on my yearly pilgrimage to the NY Faerie Festival -- what the organizers call "a Renaissance Faire with wings," and what I just call a lot of fun. This was the seventh year of the event, and it keeps getting better and better. (The local paper said there were thousands of attendees, even with the bad weather.)

Traditionally, my pal Ellen and I drive the hour or so to get there and meet up with our friend Robin (who lives five minutes away from the festival) and her two kids, my goddess-children Nate (7) and Sophie (8). This year Nate had to go to a birthday party, but Sophie brought her best friend, the charming and adorable Aubrey, who had never been before, and we all had a blast.

I made some new friends (and in case you're wondering what I was dressed as, it was "a very wet witch.")

Me, Robin, Sophie, and Aubrey

Ellen and two very happy girls

Robin was captures by some goblins who seem to have left their mark on her

A very tall faerie creature

A traveling magician enthralled the girls with his uncanny skills

 The girls look a little dubious about their meeting with the Faerie Queen...and rightfully so. I'll bet you thought she only existed in my books!

There were lots of amazing crafters. I mostly restrained myself, only getting a pottery beer glass, two dragon soaps, and an herbal roll-on.

All in all, it was a lovely day, despite the rain, the chill, and the accompanying mud. After all, any day spent with those you love is magical!

One Saturday in May

It's a well-known fact that I spend most of my days off at home--usually writing, sometimes working in the garden (more about that in my next post) . But yesterday, the first Saturday in May, was an exception.

My lovely friend Rob owns a store called Imagicka in Binghamton (a little over an hour away from me) and I'd promised him that once the snow melted I'd come do a book signing. (I did one there last year after The Witch's Broom came out, and it went really well; Imagicka is a fabulous Pagan/New Age shop, so the folks who go there are my peeps.) Since the signing fell right after my birthday and Beltane, we kind of went with that theme, and I baked some Beltane cupcakes and brought flowers to give out to everyone who came. One fan even brought me a present (as if driving an hour and a half to see me wasn't gift enough) and another friend of mine drove all the way from New Jersey to see me, although she swore that it was at least in part because she needed an excuse to get out of the house!

Here are a few pictures from the signing:

Me and the lovely Rob. You can see a little bit of how cool the shop is.

Niala, who brought not only a gift for me, but one for my friend Jo who is recovering from a heart attack and is stuck in rehab. Niala said she'd been there and knew what it felt like. How sweet! I have the best readers!

The fabulous April S., who I met last year at RoberCon, with Jennifer and Leigh

My pal Karen who is a Betty (some of you know what that means) and came a long way to see me! As you can see here, I sold a bunch of the novels, too, not just the Llewellyn books.

My best bud Ellen, who kindly does the driving so I don't have to and is generally a good sport. We always have a great time together.

Beltane cupcakes

Beltane flowers, being checked out by Luna

 One of the reasons I like doing signings at Imagicka is that my friends Robin and George and their kids Sophie and Nate live about fifteen minutes from there, on the way home. So Ellen and I got to go hang out with them after the signing and have a fun belated birthday/May Day BBQ. Because of Life Stuff on both sides and the horribleness of the Winter from Hell, we hadn't seen each other since Yule Dinner Party--WAY too long! Getting to spend time with my favorite kids in the world (and their fabulous parents) made the day perfect.

This was us, so there were three different kinds of dessert :-)

The only one not squinting was Nate, who was smart enough to put on his sunglasses.

Sophie showing off one of their new ducklings, brought home that very morning.

One of our patented Aunt Debbie and the kids silly face photos

Sophie showing off their cool fire pit. No, we didn't light it with her on there. Or at all, alas.

Nate wanted me to watch him mow the lawn (with dad George's help)

My beautiful birthday flowers, picked out by Sophie because she thought they looked like fire. Very fitting, since the Baba Yaga book I'm working on right now revolves around fire!

Home again, around 8 PM--the moon looked amazing in the pre-dusk sky. We could see it our entire drive back, even though it was still light out.

All in all, a wonderful Saturday. What did you do this on your Saturday?

A Day at the Faerie Fest

One of my favorite days of the year is the day I spend at the NY Faerie Festival in Ouaquaga, NY (right outside of Binghamton in the middle of some beautiful countryside). The Faerie Fest was started by some local folks from the Binghamton Pagan and musical community five years ago, and I've made it there for 4 years out of 5. I always have a blast. Of course, part of that is because the Faerie Fest is located just down the road from where my wonderful friends Robin and George live, along with my goddess-children Sophie (now 7) and Nate (6). So every year, my pal Ellen and I make a pilgrimage to the Festival, accompanied by Robin and the kids.

These are a few of the things we saw, experienced, and enjoyed:
All sorts of entertainment, including a parade with the Queen of Faerie and her court, a dragon, and lots of great music...

One of the highlights for me was getting to see one of my favorite New York State bands, Frenchy and the Punk

 Lots of hard work and imagination meant that everywhere you looked, you saw something clever and magical in the woods.

This guy was actually overhead, up in a tree!

 We bumped into Patsy, one of the Blue Moon Circle ladies. She and Karen are involved in the event, and Karen's guy Glen actually owns the beautiful piece of land the event takes place on.

The kids had a blast wading in the creek (there were mermaids in the creek too, but they were on break while we were down there).

 Can you tell we were having a good time?

Another bonus was getting to meet Dawn Hunt, the author of a great little magical cook book and creator of her own yummy line of magical cooking oils and other goodies. (Yes, of course I brought some home with me!)

 

And LOOK! I found a little Chudo-Yudo! 

(The white pit bull/dragon in disguise from WICKEDLY DANGEROUS)

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the company was great, and I really enjoyed having a rare day to just relax and have fun. If you ever get the chance, you should go. It's magical!

Ellen, me, Nate, and Sophie at the end of the day--tired but happy.

The Really Wonderful Fabulous Day

This weekend was mostly about madly working on revisions on Baba Yaga 2 before sending them off to my editor Leis, and tearing out part of the garden, but in between, I managed to spend time with some of my favorite people--my friend Robin and her kids, my goddess-children Sophie (6) and Nate (5).

As regular readers of this blog will already know, the Wright clan (including hubby George, who was off coaching soccer and couldn't join us) are as much extended family as they are friends, and I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like since they moved about 45 minutes away some years ago.

But when we do get together, boy do we have fun!

 I picked up four little pumpkins from the local farmstand store and we decorated them with markers (way less messy than trying to carve out big ones). The (coff) grown-ups had just as much fun as the kids, and Robin and I got to chat and catch up as we all sat around the dining room table.

 I'm not sure which was cuter--Nate or his pumpkin. (And look at the chalkboard placemat on the table--I got them each one from The Artisans' Guild and Nate wrote his name!)

 Sophie may be only six, but she has a very sophisticated palate (Nate wants to be a chef when he grows up, so it is a very foodie household). She requested sunflower seeds and dried cranberries on her turkey sandwich.

 We also had apple cider and apple cider donuts from the same farmstand store. Yum! (The extra couple of donuts got sent home for Daddy, because I am just that nice.)

 Sophie and Nate showing off their chalkboard art.

 We didn't really do anything special-just hung out together and had fun. But it was still a Really Wonderful Fabulous Day and one I'll remember for a long time to come.

I hope you did something fun this weekend too!

Now I'm off to The Artisans' Guild to redo the front window with shop co-founder Ellie, then go out to lunch with her and our friend Bobbie to celebrate Ellie's [number redacted] birthday :-) After that...revisions!