A Year of Museum Visits

For Christmas this year, I gave Tammy a gift of 'a museum a month'. I research an area museum for that month which we then visit on a Saturday. 

In January, we visited the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History in West Hartford.  They had a special exhibit on the Wide Awakes and another exhibit on Coffee in CT.  We just happened to visit the Saturday they were offering a docent led tour about the coffee exhibit, as well as, a talk from the local owner of Giv coffee on fair trade practices.  He had samples of his coffee which I tried. I mention this only because I don't drink coffee and haven't tried it since before college.  There was also the permanent exhibit concerning CT's history.  All told, we spent four hours here and no money as we secured free admission tickets from our local library.  We capped off the day at the French restaurant Avert Brasserie for a nice prix fixe dinner.

For February, we drove to Amherst College in Massachusetts for a two-fer.  We began at the Mead Art Museum.  It was small consisting of one floor of art work that was rhetorically social in nature.  We then headed over to the Beneski Museum of Natural History.  The museum has the largest collection of dinosaur tracks in the world and includes the first dinosaur tracks ever studied by a scientist.  We spent around three hours between the two museums and zero dollars as both are free to the public.  For dinner we walked the half mile or so to downtown Amherst and ate at the MoMo Tibetan Restaurant and visited a few shops before heading home.

February Visitors

In November 2024, I posted a blog "Acorns Keep Falling on my Head".  Not mentioned in that blog was that all those raked acorns were dumped behind our backyard fence - piles and piles of them.

Fast forward to February 1st, a Saturday, and I went to let Charlotte out at 5am to do her business.  I always scan the backyard with a flashlight checking for skunks, possums, rabbits, and wild predators.  This morning the flashlight's beam fell on a trio of deer eating from those piles of acorns .  The light caught the deer's attention but was not enough of a concern to make them leave.  I decided I would allow them to eat.  Checking back a half hour later, the deer were still enjoying their breakfast.  Charlotte had waited long enough, I went on the back deck to shoo the deer away.  Nope, they still weren't concerned.  I did finally get them to leave after a few "Hey Ya's".

Later that week, letting Chartlotte out at 3am showed they had returned.  Four of them this time.  Unfortunately for them, I could not allow them a leisure dining experience as previous.  I tried the "Hey Ya's" again from the deck but to no avail.  I let Charlotte out which caught their attention and caused them to scatter.  

This morning, shining the flashlight at 3am showed the number of deer visiting had increased to five.  Charlotte's release scattered them.  They were not to be deterred though.  When I left for work, they had returned and were still there when Tammy went to let Charlotte out at 5am.

We will have to see if our February visitors extend their stays to March.  

Addendum:  This afternoon (February 19) came home to find a deer bedding in the leaves behind our backyard fence.  I had to scare it off so Charlotte could do her business.  Later on, the deer came back with three others to dine on the acorns.  Since it was light out, I captured a photo and video.

Addendum Addendum:  The next morning when it was time to let Charlotte out, the deer were still bedding down.  Charlotte didn't notice them at first but when she did see them walked over to the gate scaring off all but one deer.  Charlotte stood their watching the deer as the deer stood his ground behind the fence with an occasional hoof pound to the ground.  After a few minutes, the deer wondered off only to reappear before I left for work.  Tammy let Charlotte out before she left for work a little later with Charlotte revisiting the deer who was alert to her presence but a bit more accepting.  Charlotte left the deer this time because of the promise of a treat.  The deer have not been seen since.

Puzzling

Now I am not saying we are dissectologists, but lately, we sure could be mistaken for them.  "What is a dissectologist?' you ask.  A dissectologist is someone who loves jigsaw puzzles and were so named as the original term for a jigsaw puzzle was a 'dissected map'. 

Since January, we have completed two puzzles.  

The first one was a round puzzle of 1000 pieces entitled 'Know Your Knots'.  It took us most of Saturday afternoon until midnight Sunday to complete.

The second was an 80's themed puzzle that we picked up at our local library during a recent puzzle exchange event.  It was a 1500 piece puzzle and took us a Saturday afternoon to complete.

Here is a link to an album of these puzzles and others that we have done over the years and taken pictures of -

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BcGTAjkGPESF2SQUA