Family

The Yellow Bag - Eliza's firstbook!

Eliza, talented and energetic as she is, has penned her first book - "The Yellow Bag: A Therapy Dog's Story." (Bren helped her. I supplied photos.) She doesn't have a publisher yet, but in the school we visit regularly several teachers and parents have already purchased copies at $40 a pop (our cost) run off on Apple Iphoto system. Bren reads it to the classes of Kindergarteners and so far it has been very well received by both adults and children.

We're not looking to sell more copies - unless we find a publisher - but we thought some of you might like to see it, so we placed it online here as a PDF file. it is a rather large download - about 15-megabytes - so be patient.

King Richard's Faire with M and K

Bren and I had a great time yesterday at King Richard's Faire with M & K. Here are some visual highlights. (Click an image for alarger version.)

The opening:

Pleasing the crowd with a little opening humor. . .

Getting into the swing of things with a swan ride . . .

Not to mention some jousting int he fall sun before the royals . . .

A quick lunch, then decision time . . . of all the choices, what to do next? Hawks, of course! Like this beautiful perrequin falcom who came around drumming up business for the coming falconry show . . .

A red tail hawk - one of the raptors we seem to see most around here - put on a good show and posed for a close-up:

The Harris Hawk, a colorful favorite, was the real show-stopper, flying through a hoop and later landing on a volunteer's outstrecthed - and gloved - hand.

As for the falcon - well, before going AWOL he put on a show swooping close over the crowd and chasing a lure. But he tired of the make-believe and cut out on his own over the neighboring cranberry bogs to find some real game. Before he did, I got this shot of one of his dives:

He did come back in an hour or so. Meanwhile we took in some more shows and the kids took their turn with the playful gargoyle.

Everyone was looking forward to the cat show, but a couple jugglers did a wonderful job leading up to it. The one I caught - twice - was also a fire-eater and very, very funny, as you can see from this reaction:

Talk about a hot time - I think I understand some of the principles at work here, but still . . .

The cats seemed particularly restless - maybe because it was the last show of the day for them. But this leopard just wanted it's tummy scratched.

And this cross between a tiger and a lion is truely HUGE.

But he seemed to have sense of humor as well - and that resulted in one of my favorite shots - just love the expressions ;-)

Do you know these two?

Owings sent me this wonderful old photo with the following note:

Question: Any idea who the folks are on the attached? Somebody gave Dan a framed photo of my parents wedding -- he thinks he got it from my dad, who was cleaning out his attic. But it's also possible my Dad got it from Pop-pop's house. The photo got damp somehow and Dan took the frame apart to avoid ruining the photo. Behind the wedding photo was the attached. The back says it's from the Photograph Studio of Hutzler Bros., Baltimore, Md.

I have a pretty good idea, but I'm not absolutely positive about the younger person. So, what are your ideas? (The answers should come easiest from my generation, but I know some of you are very good at figuring this stuff out. ) As before, your answers/comments shouldbe emailed to me and I will post them with my answer. Email to gstone@umassd.edu (The "comment" feature no longer works. I've disabled it because of comment spam.)