Cheshire, CT USA: March 2015
Just wanted to share a few updates. I spent the first day or so here in CT, making a few friends and enjoying mellow time at home. The hairless guy Groot came from the Millersville hoarding case, and my host traveled all the way to PA to pick him up from the nice folks at Dakota's Dream and Small Angels Rescue. Groot is still quite scarred from the experience and terrified of other rats, so this might be as close as he gets to making a rattie friend!
The handsome blonde boy is Ninja, whose cagemates were too busy snoozing to say hi.
Mini science lesson - those bones come from many of my host's travels! The elk scapula is from AZ, the turtle bones from SC, the fisher cat is local here in CT.
Got to listen to some rat-appropriate music
Our first adventure: learning about African art, right here in my host's living room, since her PhD is in anthropology. smile emoticon Me and a group of Pende Minganji dolls.
Posing with a Songye Nkisi figure.
I also tried on a little passport mask that is of unknown origin. A little mystery is always good!
We visited with a friend in MA, then headed off to Wachusett mountain for some skiing. We rode on a chair lift, and I went down the hill with my host in a pouch, but we need a little more engineering for me to really ski with her. We'll try that this weekend at Okemo using my mesh backpack.
Got to see the historic Bullock lodge, and make some bear friends!
Thursday afternoon my host and her friend packed up a huge SUV full of skis and supplies. They rented a big house in Vermont to have a birthday party for three March birthdays, with 16 people attending. I love parties and I was excited to see a new place! We stopped off at a locally owned grocery store and took a few photos - who knew you could get booze and ammo in the same store?! No guns for me, but I was impressed with their cheese selection!
They had a funny cow statue out front so we made sure to get a picture there too.
My host told me the house was a castle, but I thought she was just joking around. I put on my toasty flannel shirt, since I heard that people in Vermont dress that way and I wanted to fit right in.
We drove up a really long, windy, slightly terrifying dirt road to get to the house for the party. My host was getting slightly nervous, and her friend driving was pretty worried too. I couldn't see from the back seat, but that was probably best. Once we arrived the view was breathtaking, and the scary drive was totally worth it! We had arrived at The Grahall Estate in Cavendish Vermont. Grahall Estate sits on 300 acres of Hawk's Mountain, and it's modeled after a Scottish castle. The estate is 20 minutes from Okemo ski resort, which was our other destination for the weekend. What a cool house! There was a giant kitchen, enough bedrooms for all the guests, and many fireplaces for keeping cozy. My host was really excited about the impressive library, too.
Time to unload the car and get ready for all the guests!!
Friday and Saturday we went skiing at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow Vermont. Okemo's a pretty big place, with over 650 acres to ski!
Nearly all of the mountain was still open this late in the season, so my host was itching to get on the slopes. She's a pretty good skier, but I stuck to the bunny slopes since they didn't have a helmet in my size. Safety first!
Everyone was really friendly and happy Friday because it was warm and the snow was soft. It hurts a lot less when you fall that way!
My host came back by for a picture with me after she was done skiing. I should have brought some sunglasses too, it gets bright out there on the snow!
After skiing, we went to meet the final arrivals for the weekend who were flying up from the Southeast. I think some of my host's friends are pretty silly. One of them came to dinner dressed like a unicorn, so I had to get a picture with her too!
We had a yummy meal at a fun Irish pub near the ski hill called Killarney. They gave us a private room, but the bar had some really fun live music too!
Saturday we went back to Okemo. Some of the party guests took lessons while my host and a few of her friends went to explore the other areas of the mountain. My host has been here several times and says she really likes it. The more experienced skiers kept talking about skiing black and blue trails, which sounds sort of painful. When they told me it wasn't about bruising, it was about the trails themselves, I still didn't understand. The snow all looks white to me! They talked about skiing trees and bumps too, which sounds a bit weird. Maybe I just need to learn some more ski lingo. Since it got super cold overnight, the snow wasn't nearly as soft and friendly Saturday. People kept calling it not-so-nice names like "dust on crust" and "glacier-iffic" and seemed slightly grumpy.
I wasn't grumpy at all. I spent most of Saturday in the lodge relaxing. I found a cool little pub upstairs called the Sitting Bull. Hmm, cow statue at the grocery store, bull at the pub. People in Vermont must really like cows! After skiing, we went back to the estate. My host's partner made a fabulous dinner for everyone: baked salmon in lemon dill butter, chicken marsala, green beans with toasted almonds. I love that these people love to eat! We had lots of great food, yummy wine, and a huge roaring fire. Ahh....this is the life!
Hi friends! New England in early spring has been great! Here's a few silly selfies with my new best buddy Azizi before I ride off to my next adventure in Tennessee. My host Elizabeth says she'll miss me heaps!
The handsome blonde boy is Ninja, whose cagemates were too busy snoozing to say hi.
Mini science lesson - those bones come from many of my host's travels! The elk scapula is from AZ, the turtle bones from SC, the fisher cat is local here in CT.
Got to listen to some rat-appropriate music
Our first adventure: learning about African art, right here in my host's living room, since her PhD is in anthropology. smile emoticon Me and a group of Pende Minganji dolls.
Posing with a Songye Nkisi figure.
I also tried on a little passport mask that is of unknown origin. A little mystery is always good!
We visited with a friend in MA, then headed off to Wachusett mountain for some skiing. We rode on a chair lift, and I went down the hill with my host in a pouch, but we need a little more engineering for me to really ski with her. We'll try that this weekend at Okemo using my mesh backpack.
Got to see the historic Bullock lodge, and make some bear friends!
Thursday afternoon my host and her friend packed up a huge SUV full of skis and supplies. They rented a big house in Vermont to have a birthday party for three March birthdays, with 16 people attending. I love parties and I was excited to see a new place! We stopped off at a locally owned grocery store and took a few photos - who knew you could get booze and ammo in the same store?! No guns for me, but I was impressed with their cheese selection!
They had a funny cow statue out front so we made sure to get a picture there too.
My host told me the house was a castle, but I thought she was just joking around. I put on my toasty flannel shirt, since I heard that people in Vermont dress that way and I wanted to fit right in.
We drove up a really long, windy, slightly terrifying dirt road to get to the house for the party. My host was getting slightly nervous, and her friend driving was pretty worried too. I couldn't see from the back seat, but that was probably best. Once we arrived the view was breathtaking, and the scary drive was totally worth it! We had arrived at The Grahall Estate in Cavendish Vermont. Grahall Estate sits on 300 acres of Hawk's Mountain, and it's modeled after a Scottish castle. The estate is 20 minutes from Okemo ski resort, which was our other destination for the weekend. What a cool house! There was a giant kitchen, enough bedrooms for all the guests, and many fireplaces for keeping cozy. My host was really excited about the impressive library, too.
Time to unload the car and get ready for all the guests!!
Friday and Saturday we went skiing at Okemo Mountain in Ludlow Vermont. Okemo's a pretty big place, with over 650 acres to ski!
Nearly all of the mountain was still open this late in the season, so my host was itching to get on the slopes. She's a pretty good skier, but I stuck to the bunny slopes since they didn't have a helmet in my size. Safety first!
Everyone was really friendly and happy Friday because it was warm and the snow was soft. It hurts a lot less when you fall that way!
My host came back by for a picture with me after she was done skiing. I should have brought some sunglasses too, it gets bright out there on the snow!
After skiing, we went to meet the final arrivals for the weekend who were flying up from the Southeast. I think some of my host's friends are pretty silly. One of them came to dinner dressed like a unicorn, so I had to get a picture with her too!
We had a yummy meal at a fun Irish pub near the ski hill called Killarney. They gave us a private room, but the bar had some really fun live music too!
Saturday we went back to Okemo. Some of the party guests took lessons while my host and a few of her friends went to explore the other areas of the mountain. My host has been here several times and says she really likes it. The more experienced skiers kept talking about skiing black and blue trails, which sounds sort of painful. When they told me it wasn't about bruising, it was about the trails themselves, I still didn't understand. The snow all looks white to me! They talked about skiing trees and bumps too, which sounds a bit weird. Maybe I just need to learn some more ski lingo. Since it got super cold overnight, the snow wasn't nearly as soft and friendly Saturday. People kept calling it not-so-nice names like "dust on crust" and "glacier-iffic" and seemed slightly grumpy.
I wasn't grumpy at all. I spent most of Saturday in the lodge relaxing. I found a cool little pub upstairs called the Sitting Bull. Hmm, cow statue at the grocery store, bull at the pub. People in Vermont must really like cows! After skiing, we went back to the estate. My host's partner made a fabulous dinner for everyone: baked salmon in lemon dill butter, chicken marsala, green beans with toasted almonds. I love that these people love to eat! We had lots of great food, yummy wine, and a huge roaring fire. Ahh....this is the life!
Hi friends! New England in early spring has been great! Here's a few silly selfies with my new best buddy Azizi before I ride off to my next adventure in Tennessee. My host Elizabeth says she'll miss me heaps!