Squirrels In the News: Sweaty Squirrels?

This article has some great information about how squirrels keep cool in hot weather. (Spoiler: it's all in the tail!)

Animals in Heat: Do squirrels and pigeons get all sweaty in hot weather?

I haven't been in the habit of posting links to squirrel news in this blog, but since I've been so terrible about posting lately I figured I should give my audience something.

Found Squirrels: Basket Squirrel

We went to a lovely wedding this weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'll have to put up the rest of the pictures from the wedding on Facebook when I get a chance, but I wanted to share my squirrel sighting from that wonderful day.

This little guy was carved into the basket of hand towels in the restroom at the reception venue. And let me tell you, it was not easy finding a moment alone in the restroom to get a picture of it. I spent at least two hours running back and forth to the restroom trying to get a photo (and let's be honest, I was drinking beer too so there were many reasons for the many trips).

Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn

So I'm a little behind in keeping this thing up-to-date. We visited Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn a few weekends ago. It's apparently quite famous, and has lots of famous dead people interred there (I think most of them were historic sports celebrities, and I'm just really not familiar with them). It was a VERY nice cemetery, probably the nicest I've ever been to. It was filled with trees, green grass, and lots of squirrels.

They have lots of great sculpture, and tons of family mausoleums dating back to the early years of New York City. I love peeking into the mausoleums for some reason. Some of them have chairs and flowers scattered about so you know people have been there in the last six months. And some look like they haven't been opened in decades.

But, as I said, the sculpture was awesome. They just don't make cemeteries like this anymore, it seems! And maybe I'm particularly entranced by it because where I great up nearly all the cemeteries just had the flat headstones, and they were nearly all the same. I was told this was to make mowing the lawn easier, but I'm not sure that's true. Anyone have any insight into this? Is it just the cost?

I did notice that in this cemetery, as in many cemeteries out here on the East Coast, there are big family plots, and a big family plot usually calls for a large and costly monument of some sort. Seems to me that back in Eastern Washington even if a family does have a whole plot, everyone still gets their own headstone and there isn't necessarily a large, shared monument. What sort of zany conclusions about culture can I draw from this?

Anyway, there were a ton of squirrels, but I didn't manage to get any squirrel pictures. We did walk on Nut Path for a bit, which was quite exciting for me.

This is still not a knitting blog.

So I recently took up crocheting, which seems (at least in knitting circles) to be the older, dirtier, and less popular sister of knitting. I kind of like it, because it's REALLY easy and moves along very quickly. I finished my first crocheting project a few weeks ago, a sushi scarf!

When rolled, it looks like a nice maki roll, with fish on the inside, caviar around that, and some sort of green thing (avocado? celery?) stuck in there. Of course, when you unroll it it just looks like some crazy color-blind person's crochet project.

Yeah, not very attractive. I made it for my friend M (of the swing blog; you remember him) who loves sushi and give it to him when he was here a few weekends ago. I do not expect him to actually wear it, for the record. It was a great first crochet project, and I think it's pretty awesome.

The pattern can be found here if anyone is interested.

Governors Island

Well last weekend B and I went out to Governors Island with a small group of friends. Governors Island has a long history of use as a military facility, and was used as a Coast Guard station (I think that is what they call their bases?) from 1966 to 1996. It's now open to the public and accessible via a free ferry during summer weekends so we went to check it out.

The coolest part about the island is probably all the old buildings. While some of the structures are being put to use as museums or cafes or storage space, many of them are just totally abandoned, left as they were in 1996. Here's the old library on the island, neglected. (Don't cry, A!)

They have a huge range of building styles on the island! There is a large fortification called Castle Williams on one corner of the island which dates back to its earliest use as a military facility (it was covered in scaffolding when we were there so I didn't get a picture). And they have some fantastic old officer's housing, also abandoned.

They also have housing that is not... quite so stately or beautiful.

It's really cool to me, though, that this is all abandoned. Like in the picture above, they now have this chain-link fence to keep the tourists out, but if this picture had been taken 20 years ago I'm sure this area would have been crazily bustling with children and Coast Guard parents and diaper delivery trucks and whatever else happens in large buildings with lots of children. And how cool would it have been to grow up in this tiny island full of greenery and quiet, and yet be just minutes away from Manhattan? Very cool.

They have opened up the commanding officer's house, which is a nice big mansion. They've renovated it a bit, I think, but it's lovely. You can tell it was build for entertaining. And it has a great view of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Governors Island was very cool, and although I'm sad that they intend to tear down many of the old buildings, I'm excited to see what they end up doing with the island in five to ten years. It's kind of a hidden gem of the New York City area, in my opinion.

Found Squirrels: The Tudors

So we've been watching The Tudors lately, although we're only in Season 3 as we don't get Showtime and we're watching it on DVD.

Anyway, there was a squirrel in the most recent episode we watched!

This is on a dish of quail eggs that Queen Jane was enjoying at dinner with the king. I got excited and rewound the DVD just so we could see it again. And now I'm posting about it in my awesome squirrel blog, because that's how I roll.

Sunday Night Activity

Giving B another reason to stick around.

I finally figured out how to make a decent dessert pizza.

Found Squirrels: E's Bouncy Chair

So a few posts ago I mentioned that we went to Minnesota for our new nephew E's baptism. While we were there visiting the kids, I noticed this excellent squirrel item that E is currently using.

Yes, E's bouncy chair has a squirrel on it! I was pretty sure that his parents were raising him right, but now I'm 100% positive that they are. I assume that this is some sort of themed line of baby paraphernalia which will be out of production by the time B and I reproduce. This disappoints me, but my sister-in-law has promised to save it for us for when B Junior shows up. Yay!

Brooklyn And Stuff

So we took a little trip to Brooklyn last weekend to meet friends and see the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. I forgot to bring my camera, so I took a few pictures with B's phone. They didn't turn out very well.

And yes, the water really is that dirty.

Anyway, Brooklyn Bridge Park was pretty cool. We saw TONS of babies and pregnant women. Seriously. Swarms. It was ridiculous. And I saw NOT ONE squirrel in the entire park. It is a new park, after all, and all the trees are young so there isn't really a good place to build a squirrel nest (called a drey), but someday this will be prime squirrel property.

There was also a cool metal thing in the sidewalk. I like metal things in the sidewalk.

Found Squirrels: Nicaragua Edition

So my friend J was here a few weeks ago, visiting from Nicaragua where she is working as a Peace Corps volunteer. She mentioned that she had an awesome photo of a squirrel to send me, and of course I was pleased to hear this.

I have received many awesome squirrel things via the email. But this is probably the best the one yet, and certainly the most unusual.

Guys, the squirrel is ON A LEASH and SITTING ON HIS SHOULDER. It's his little friend! His little pet! It's every fantasy I've ever had about squirrel ownership all rolled up into a photo!

(I will note here that all the research I have done about keeping a squirrel as a pet has indicated that they do not make good pets unless you enjoy having the shit scratched out of your furniture and your self every day.)

Now to be fair, the squirrel looks a little freaked out. And a little skanky. Both of these characteristics are common for animals/pets in Nicaragua, as I recall. But wow, I am still jealous of this kid. And so thankful that J has opened up this new world of possibility to me.

Squirrel leash. Why didn't I think of it first?