Monday, March 31, 2014

Double Dog Rescue Follow-Up : Brewster ! / Gus Gets a New Home!

Brewster is comfy in his new home!
BREWSTER HAPPY IN HIS NEW HOME - 
A couple of weeks ago we participated in a dog rescue transport that took little Brewster from Georgia to his new parents, Leon and Judi in Pennsylvania. Here is a picture of Brewster all settled into his new home.  Leon and Judi reported that Brewster is settling in very nicely.  He is sleeping with his new parents and getting lots of love and affection. 
   To read the full story of all 14 legs of the journey to bring Brewster and two other dachshunds to new homes, check out our earlier blog at: 

 Dog Rescue: Transporting Brewster from Alabama to Delaware!!! 

GUS GETS ADOPTED! - Remember Gus, the chocolate and tan dapple dachshund that accompanied me on an adoption event in Gambrills, Md. at Pet Valu on Feb. 1st? 
  Gus was being fostered by April and her family for a couple of months. 
  After the adoption event, I made a You Tube video of Gus and we updated his profile - then Gus
Gus meets his new family! 




Gus at the Feb. adoption event
started getting a lot of attention. In fact, April told me that there were 5 adoption applications in on Gus after the video and update went live. April was very cautious about sending Gus to the right home and interviewed each potential parent. As a foster parent, it's our job to make sure that our foster kids go to the right home, and April did a great job!  
   To see Gus' story, visit our earlier blog:  Meet Gus the Foster Dog (Dachshund)

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Visting Winterthur: Part 2: "OF COURSE YOU KNOW THAT!"

This is Part 2 of our visit to Winterhtur on March 22 with our friend Cristina. This is entry tells about our encounter with a hyper-historically-educated docent in the 175 room mansion and what the gardens WOULD look like (if it were warm and spring-time).

piano room with lots of flowers
OUR TOUR OF THE HOUSE - Because the mansion is so huge (I believe there are 9 floors) the tour takes people only through the 5th and 6th floors. Within those two floors there is SO much furniture, so much art, so many clocks and antiques it'll make your head spin! 

ENCYCLOPEDIAC DOCENT - The woman that led our small group through the 2 floors dropped so many names about the furniture makers, clocks, artists, craftsmen, history, and even the remodeling of the house that it made our heads spin!  She had to be either a college professor or historian - it was unfathomable to me how she knew so much.
Rob, Cristina and Tom agreeing with Docent

"OF COURSE YOU KNOW THAT!" - After finding out that we are from Maryland, at one point, the docent pointed out a piece of furniture and said to us "look at the legs of this table." We did and tipped our heads like a dog that doesn't understand. The docent said, "Because you're from Baltimore, of course you know the (whatever) design and curvature of the legs is a hallmark of Mr. blahblahblah from the 1820s in Baltimore."   Tom, Cristina and I looked at each other and all looked at her and nodded, "of course," "sure," "yes, he's very famous."  LOL

PIANO ROOM - One of the last rooms we walked through had a grand piano in it, and a woman was playing tunes on it. The room was peppered with live flowers and fragrant. The walls of the room were covered with a wallpaper from China of a chinese mural of mountains, villages and ocean.


THE GARDENS - Tom had visited Wintertur when the 60 acres of gardens were in bloom, and unfortunately when we visited on March 22, nothing was really blooming yet and the high temperature was in the mid-40s.
Photo by Jeannette Lindvig
    Henry Francis du Pont developed an appreciation of nature as a boy that served as the basis for his life's work in the garden. He selected the choicest plants from around the world to enhance the natural setting, arranging them in lyrical color combinations and carefully orchestrating a succession of bloom from late January to November. Du Pont translated his love of the land into a unified work of art that embodies a romantic vision of nature's beauty.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Visiting Winterthur: Part 1: Chilly Tour of Dormant Gardens, Museum

Winterthur Mansion
We visited Winterhtur on March 22 with our friend Cristina to see the Downton Abbey exhibit. We also toured the massive property (959 acres), a huge 175 room mansion and extensive garden (with over 2 million bulbs). 

CHILLY RIDE -  In order to get from the visitor's center to the mansion and museum, we had to ride an open-air tram that seated about 30 people. Because it was only about 45F outside, the wind chill from the drive made it feel like it was near 30F outside so we bundled up! 
The grounds are extensive
 

BACKGROUND -  According to wikipedia, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. . It was the former home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), a renowned antiques collector and horticulturist. 

Tom and Cristina cold on the open tram ride of the grounds.
   In the early 20th century, H. F. du Pont and his father, Henry Algernon du Pont, designed Winterthur in the spirit of 18th- and 19th-century European country houses. The main building became a public museum in 1951.

  It had 2,500 acres (1,000 ha) and a premier dairy cattle herd when du Pont operated it as a country estate.

EDUCATION TIE-IN - The research library serves scholars from around the world, and a university has special educational programs that send students into the museum to refinish items, study the architecture, care for the items, etc. Winterthur sponsors two graduate programs with the University of Delaware.

We'll say this - there's SO much stuff in the house that it would take several universities to bring in their students to take care of things!!! 
 
NEXT: WINTERTHUR: "OF COURSE YOU KNOW THAT!"

Friday, March 28, 2014

Visited Exhibit: Costumes of Downton Abbey: Part 4: Costumes, Snarky Quote, Harem Scarem!

A Look at the exhibit
This is the final blog about our visit to the Downton Abbey costume exhibit. This entry has more costumes and our of our favorite snarky quotes from Lady Violet.



The Downton costume exhibition is from the television series Downton Abbey. The exhibit is currently at the Winterthur estate in Delaware. We got to visit it over the weekend of March 22-23 with our friend Cristina. 

Lady Violet
Some of the lines from various episodes were painted on the walls of the exhibit to serve as a reminder of when a particular outfit was worn. Some were quotes from Lady Violet.   

 
One of our favorite snarky quotes!
WHO IS VIOLET?  - Sharp-tongued, witty Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham is the widow of the late Earl of Grantham, mother of Robert and Rosamund, and mother-in-law of Cora Crawley, and Marmaduke Painswick. She has three granddaughters, Lady Mary Crawley, Lady Edith Crawley, and the late Lady Sybil Branson
 

Lady Sybil's Harem Pants
L to R: Rob, Cristina, Tom

HAREM SCAREM - In one episode on Season 2, Lady Sybill, the youngest of the Crawley daughters (married to Tom Branson and whom died giving birth to a little girl) wore "harem pants."  These pants apparently fell apart right after the filming of the episode! They were fastened together for the exhibit. 

NEXT: TOURING WINTERTUR







Thursday, March 27, 2014

Announcement: New Book "Pets and the Afterlife" Now Available

March 27, 2014
RELEASE: 14-01 New Book "Pets and the Afterlife" Now Available
    WASHINGTON -- The loss of a pet is like to loss of a child to pet owners. The love we share with our pets never dies, and in a new book called "Pets and the Afterlife" by Rob Gutro, the author provides proof that our pets do communicate with us from the other side.   
    "I wrote this book to bring comfort to people who lost a pet and explain how our dogs and cats give us messages from the other side," Gutro said. "I'm a dog dad who lost two of my own beloved dogs and both have communicated with me, just as your pets are trying to get messages to you."
   Rob Gutro is a dog owner, dog rescue volunteer, medium/paranormal investigator for Inspired Ghost Tracking of Md. and scientist. In Rob's third book, "Pets and the Afterlife," readers will learn how dogs, cats, horses and some birds have the intelligence and ability to send signs to the living after they pass. They will take comfort in knowing our pets are around us from time to time in spirit and recognize the signs they give us.
   In addition, readers will learn about the different levels of intelligence that a pet develops and how they are used to communicate signs to the living after the pet passes away. Rob shares scientific studies that prove our pets emotions and personalities. Read the science behind why living pets can sense entities. The author even takes the readers on a paranormal investigation where one of his dogs helps solve a mysterious canine mystery. Learn how our pets in spirit wait for us when it’s our time, what a pet’s ashes can do, the difference between ghosts and spirits and the science behind the energy they use to communicate with us.
    "The book also features my dog Buzz who was killed in an accident as a puppy, and became the world's greatest canine communicator in the afterlife," Gutro said. Rob's childhood dogs recently also made an appearance as his mother passed away.
     Three of the chapters are written by well-known mediums whose own dogs returned and communicated with them to assure them they were at peace. The book features medium Barb Mallon, Ruthie Larkin the Beantown Medium and Troy Cline. You'll read how Rob's dog Sprite passed and came to all three of these mediums with similar messages and how he revealed his presence to many people in the form of butterfly.
   Read an amazing story of how a ghost dog rescued a young girl who grew up to work for dog rescues, and how Rob encountered a tiny ghostly dog in a famous museum in England.
    The author has been interviewed and featured in the Washington Post, MSNBC, Paranormal Underground Magazine and has appeared on many paranormal radio programs including "Coast to Coast AM" syndicated radio with George Noory. He has been a guest on radio programs in the U.K. and the U.S. that include such as Unknown Paranormal Radio, Ghost Chronicles Radio, the Haunted Syndicate Pararadio Show and others. He will be appearing at various book festivals in Maryland, and the PARACON in Pensacola, Fla. in August. See his website for other appearances and interviews.
    Rob maintains a weekly blog, Facebook and Twitter pages, where he posts about paranormal topics, and where people can share their stories or find other resources on the paranormal. The books, "Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead," and "Ghosts and Spirits: Insights from a Medium," are available in paperback and E-book, on Amazon.com and other outlets. Published by CreateSpace, Inc. 
For the author's blog and upcoming appearances, visit:  
www.facebook.com/RobGutroAuthorMedium
# end #

Who I am

I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob

A Classic Country Music Station to Enjoy