Interview "Paranormal Heart' Talks w/Monique and Rob as New Book Publishes Tomorrow!

New Interview! The Paranormal Heart Podcast welcomes Rob Gutro & Monique Toosoon co-authors of the NEW BOOK coming out tomorrow, Jan 1, 2025: Haunting of Emery Estate! This is a conversation you won't want to miss!

   "Haunting of Emery Estate" already hit number 1 in two categories on Amazon while the book was on pre-order. Today's blog is a captivating interview with a Behind-the-scenes look at the investigation of "Haunting of Emery Estate."  Enjoy this and please order a copy of the book on Amazon! - Rob Gutro  

Video Link:  https://www.youtube.com/live/1IfAi7XeS6E?si=KgeQdkr7jPuNT0-c

Saw an Amazing Holiday Light Display (open thru Feb 2025): Eliot, Maine!!

I remember helping my dad put up Christmas lights outside my childhood home, and I think there's nothing better to light up the long winter evenings than beautiful, colored holiday lights. Fortunately, we found an amazing walk-through display at Sandy Hill Farm, Eliot, ME (southern Maine).  The "2024 Winter Wonders" display is up from Dec. through Feb. 2025. We learned about the 2 million-lights display from a waitress at our favorite breakfast place- so we booked tickets and it was AMAZING. Today's blog shares pictures from the experience (and a GIF I made of 50 pics you can see them quickly in under 1 minute).

(Photo: Rob and Tom in one of the lit tunnels!)

OUR EXPERIENCE - The displays of multicolored lights of the "2024 Winter Wonders" Sandy Hill Farm display were amazing. For 2024, they have over two million lights across a 14-acre light display. Lights go as far as the eye can see, and cover trees from roots to canopy.  The walk takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and the pathway is lit by multicolored light "fences" on both sides.

UNIQUE DISPLAYS WE SAW - There are also a lot of innovative lighting displays, like "wrapped presents" about 15 feet high that you can walk inside and take pictures. "Christmas trees" created by lights that reach 30 feet high, are also walk-in. There are several large "Light tunnels" that extend about 50-100 feet that you walk through on the lit path. 

ANIMAL SHAPED-LIGHTS - There was a polar bear, a unicorn, and of course a Maine Moose all made out of lights. 

OTHER MAINE-THEMED LIGHTS - There was a giant 20-foot -high "wrapped present" constructed from lobster buoys, and an entire Christmas tree constructed from lights and actual lobster traps!  

MORE DISPLAYS!  There was a train with 2 cars made out of lights, that people could walk through and pose for pictures. There was a "hot air balloon" that topped 50 feet high, where visitors walked into the "basket" of lights to pose for photos. We also saw an Airplane constructed entirely of lights, and an actual Bridge that was so brightly lit. 

ABOUT THE LIGHT DISPLAY - Winter Wonders 2024-25 is a World-Class Light Show experience located nearby in Eliot, Maine! With over 2 Million Lights, our engaging, creative, and unique 14-acre light display is the Largest and Most Immersive Walk-Through Light Show display in New England. If you love holiday lights, make sure you don’t miss this experience.

WE RECOMMEND IT! - TIPS BEFORE GETTING TICKETS - Dress VERY warmly and get tickets after checking the weather. I bought tickets 5 days in advance, knowing that the Sunday we visited was the "warmest" night of the weekend (it was in the low 20s)... The previous nights here were in the single numbers!  Also check the weather to ensure it won't be raining or snowing on you. **Strollers are doable, but the pathway is gravel the entire way**

ON DISPLAY THROUGH FEBRUARY 2025-  Get into the Holiday Spirit or visit them after the New Year to bring some light into your January and February. Fresh snow, fresh music choices, and new props will create a beautiful winter landscape. Come to experience farm life and celebrate the seasons!

IF YOU GO: Sandy Hill Farms "2024 Winter Wonders" display is up from Dec. 2024 through February 2025 and it's worth the drive. It's located in southwestern Maine, near the New Hampshire border (which is actually the river that separates the states). 

ADDRESS: 34 Sandy Hill Lane, Eliot, MAINE.

WEBSITE FOR TICKETS: https://www.sandyhillmaine.com/winter-wonders  

FOR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: https://www.sandyhillmaine.com/faqs 

Idiot of the Week: Matt Gaetz - For So Many Reasons

Now that the Congressional Ethics Report is out, it's more than justifiable to deem Matt Gaetz the Idiot of the Week. House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017. He's a pedophile and drug user, not to mention psychotic who promotes conspiracy theories and wants to destroy the government.  Fortunately, this loser didn't become the U.S. Attorney General as Trump wanted. Can you imagine this kind of person as the lead figure for law and order? 

(Photo; Matt Gaetz, idiot of the week. Credit: ABC News) 

Gaetz Ethics Report Released

1440 News, Dec 24, 2024 

The House Ethics Committee released the report on its yearslong investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R, FL-1) yesterday. Read the 37-page document here (click "Committee Report").

The committee found Gaetz obstructed Congress and violated other ethics rules while in office, paying over $90K to 12 women for sex or drugs—including marijuana, ecstasy, and cocaine. One of the girls allegedly paid for sex was 17 years old at the time; multiple women were transported over state lines for the purpose of sex.

The committee cited text messages, travel receipts, financial records, and testimonies from over two dozen witnesses. They found Gaetz violated state laws but not federal ones; the Justice Department dropped a related investigation in 2023.

Gaetz denies all wrongdoing and resigned from Congress last month in a since-dropped US attorney general bid. Committee member Rep. Michael Guest (R, MS-3) included a dissenting statement in the report, finding it a violation of precedent to release a report on a former congressman.

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 Related News: Exclusive: Woman told House Ethics panel she witnessed Gaetz having sex with minor, lawyer says

An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee's investigation into now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for the release of the committee's report, telling ABC News that one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor. "My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor," Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News. STORY: https://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-woman-told-house-ethics-panel-witnessed-gaetz/story?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhfacebook&utm_content=app.dashhudson.com/abcnews/library/media/473431718&id=115897603

Hero of the Week: Anonymous Donor Gifts $3.54 M. to Milwaukee Art Museum

 This week's hero is someone who chose to remain anonymous and gave a large donation to a Wisconsin museum so that children would be able to enter free of charge. Outstanding philanthropy! Museums are a great way for visual learners to educate themselves. 

(Credit: Milwaukee Art Museum) 

Anonymous Donor Gifts $3.54 M. to Milwaukee Art Museum to Make Admission Free for Kids

By Karen K. Ho , December 4, 2024, ART NEWS

The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) will now be free for kids age 12 and under through an anonymous gift of $3.54 million.

The gift will enable the museum to establish an endowment that will fund the admission waiver in perpetuity. The gift went into effect the day of the museum’s official announcement on December 3, 2024.

“It just is one of these gifts that I’m just beyond words, so deeply grateful, and so excited that this will impact generations of kids to come,” Amy Kirschke, the museum’s Barbara Brown Lee Chief Learning and Engagement Officer, told ARTnews. “It’s so exciting. It’s anonymous donor, but to the generosity of spirit, and having been inspired by their own childhood experiences at the museum, and wanting to share that with the community in perpetuity is again just such a tremendous gift.”

Kirschke, who has worked at the museum for more than 20 years, said describing the gift as “transformative” would be an understatement. “So many of our grants we’re so grateful for, but they are a year to year, maybe every two years,” she said.

Both museum spokesperson Cortney Heimerl and Kirschke said the anonymous donor had previously supported other programs at the museum, also anonymously, and wanted to continue to avoid any personal credit for their generosity with this latest gift.

The anonymous gift is intended for youths who visit the museum with caregivers or family units. Kirschke said the museum’s school programs have a minimal fee, and there are other funders for its educational programming and kid-friendly activities. These include ArtPacks and SketchPacks, Family Guides, costumes, Museum Moments cards, as well as hands-on art projects on weekends in the Kohl’s Art Studio.

“Every day, our youngest Museum visitors will be able to access, engage with, and learn from world-class exhibitions and programs free of charge thanks to the generosity of an individual who believes in the power of art to strengthen our community,” Milwaukee Art Museum chief development officer André Allaire said in a press statement. 

 The museum sees approximately 20,000 kids 12 and under visit each year. “And we hope that will only continue to grow with this new gift,” Kirschke said. “Once a family knows that kids are free every day always that means you can come for a short visit or a long visit, and you can come again and again. I think it takes so much pressure off of families and reduces those barriers to seeing the museum as a regular place for them to engage in their lives.”

WHERE IS THE MUSEUM LOCATED? Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museums in the United States. Aside from its galleries, the museum includes a cafe, named Cafe Calatrava, with views of Lake Michigan, and a gift shop. ADDRESS: 700 N. Art Museum Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Awesome Book! The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb

 If you want to read a great book that has mystery, ghosts, a witch, great characters and a story that will keep you reading, pick up "The Tale of Halcyon Crane," by Wendy Webb. In the same genre of paranormal thrillers as Darcy Coates (whom I also love), this book was so, so hard to put down. I read it in line at the grocery store, at the gas pump, in the car (I wasn't driving)- it is THAT GOOD. **BONUS- a link to a short interview with the author about how she came to write the book. My thanks to Kristin for sending it to me. You need to read it!  Today's blog gives a book summary and a link to the short author interview. 

ABOUT THE BOOK: Searching A young woman travels alone to a remote island to uncover a past she never knew was hers in this thrilling modern ghost story

When a mysterious letter lands in Hallie James's mailbox, her life is upended. Hallie was raised by her loving father, having been told her mother died in a fire decades earlier. But it turns out that her mother, Madlyn, was alive until very recently. Why would Hallie's father have taken her away from Madlyn? What really happened to her family thirty years ago?

In search of answers, Hallie travels to the place where her mother lived, a remote island in the middle of the Great Lakes. The stiff islanders fix her first with icy stares and then unabashed amazement as they recognize why she looks so familiar, and Hallie quickly realizes her family's dark secrets are enmeshed in the history of this strange place. But not everyone greets her with such a chilly reception―a coffee-shop owner and the family's lawyer both warm to Hallie, and the possibility of romance blooms. And then there's the grand Victorian house bequeathed to her―maybe it's the eerie atmosphere or maybe it's the prim, elderly maid who used to work for her mother, but Hallie just can't shake the feeling that strange things are starting to happen . . .

In The Tale of Halcyon Crane, Wendy Webb has created a haunting story full of delicious thrills, vibrant characters, and family secrets. 

 SHORT AUTHOR INTERVIEW:  Hear author Wendy Webb talk about her novel The Tale of Halcyon Crane. In this modern ghost story, a mysterious letter lands in Hallie James's mailbox, and her life is upended. What really happened to her family thirty years ago? LISTEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_QK0N-yADo

DISCOVERY: 32,000-year-old saber-toothed cat cub

Here's another amazing discovery from the melting permafrost in northern Russia: a Saber-toothed tiger cub!

(photos: The mummified sabre-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens) found frozen in Siberia (top) compared to a modern-day lion (Panthera Leo) (bottom)/A V Lopatin/Scientific Reports, 2024 (CC BY 4.0)) 

Russian scientists hail discovery of 32,000-year-old saber-toothed cat cub

Reuters/ Unionleader com Nov 25, 2024 

The saber-toothed cat cub is almost small enough to hold in one hand, but its discovery after 32,000 years is a momentous event for paleontologists.

It was around three weeks old when it died in what is now northeastern Russia — and the permafrost has kept it well-preserved ever since.

Scientists from the Academy of Sciences in Yakutia in the Far East say it is a unique find.

“Nowhere else has it been found in such good preservation” said the academy’s Aisen Klimovsky who co-authored a paper on the cub published in the journal Scientific Reports this month.

Unlike previous skeletal specimens unearthed in Texas, this cub still has its dark brown fur.

“This is the first find that will show the world what they really looked like,” said Klimovsky of the Department for the Study of Mammoth Fauna at the institute in Yakutsk, the regional capital.

“It unlocks nature’s big secret, so to speak.”

Researchers stumbled upon the cub four years ago while digging for mammoth tusks near the Badyarikha river in Sakha, also known as Yakutia and Russia’s largest republic.

Bordering the Arctic Ocean, Yakutia is a vast region of swamps and forests larger than Argentina, around 95% of which is covered in permafrost.

Rising global temperatures caused by climate change are melting much of Russia’s permafrost, revealing animal remains and other ancient traces. Earlier this year, scientists at the Yakutsk Institute were able to study a 44,000-year-old wolf carcass pulled from the melted tundra.

The cub is part of the homotherium genus, which lived across North America, Eurasia and Africa from around 4 million years ago to 12,000 years ago. The animals were about the size of lions when fully grown and are known for their serrated upper incisors.

Albert Protopopov, head of the Mammoth Fauna department and a co-author of the Nature paper, said the discovery would be a boon to paleontologists around the world.

“It’s a real sensation,” he told Reuters.

Happy Christmas from our house to yours

 Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, or whatever you celebrate. Here's our holiday card for this year! 

Local Fun: Part 2: "Captains Christmas" and Heated Igloos in Kennebunkport, Maine

In yesterday's blog we toured you through the mansion of Kennebunkport, Maine's shipbuilder, Nathaniel Lord. Today's blog explores the Christmas carriage house next door to it and some wild "heated Igloos." 

 (Pic: Rob and Tom in the Lord Mansion's decorated Carriage House. Credit: R.G.)

DECORATED CARRIAGE HOUSE AND SHOP - The carriage house on the Lord Mansion property is no more than 100 feet from the mansion. The inside has been turned into a retail shop and is loaded with brightly lit Christmas trees and other decorations. There are eclectic gifts, too. Tom bought himself a gnome tree ornament (he's into the gnome thing lately, and has several out in the yard and our backyard forest). 

THE HEATED IGLOOS - The B and B owners had a really unique idea. The set up vinyl igloos outside between the carriage house and the mansion. Each igloo has comfy furniture and are heated. People can rent them for $100 for an hour and are treated to cheese and crackers, drinks and perhaps other appetizers as they enjoy the view of the historic neighborhood.  We didn't rent one, but it's a fun concept. 

Outside the Carriage house there was also a fire pit, so you could warm up after walking around town. It was a nice experience, and there are several other mansions in the area that we would like to explore another time. 

Local Fun: Part 1: Visited the "Captains Christmas" Lord's Mansion in Kennebunkport, Maine

You'd likely be surprised at how many events there are in northern New England in the winter months, and one of them we enjoyed was the "Captains Christmas" in Kennebunkport, Maine. A little history: the town was an important shipping and shipbuilding center in the early 19th century, and those industries were virtually shut down by a British blockade during the War of 1812. Lord was a shipbuilder! Today's blog is Part 1 of our cool, historic holiday experience.

(Photo: Rob and Tom outside the Nathaniel Lord Mansion)

WHAT IS THE CAPTAINS CHRISTMAS? - 2024 marked the third year in a row for the Kennebunkport, Maine Captains Christmas. There are several historic homes, located close to each other that make up the "Captains Collection." These are all homes that were owned by Sea Captains back in the 1800s. After all, Kennebunkport is on the ocean. The Captains Christmas was centered around one of the mansions, which we will walk you through, and its associated carriage house which was filled with Christmas crafts. There were also heated outdoor "tents" we'll show you. Everything was nicely decorated for the holidays!

(Photo: Paintings of (L) Phoebe (Nathaniel's wife) and (R) Nathaniel Lord in the mansion today. Credit: R.G.)

WHO WAS NATHANIEL LORD? Captain Nathaniel Lord (1776-1815) was the son of Tobias Lord, a Revolutionary War veteran and later, a shipbuilder in Kennebunk. He followed his father’s footsteps and ran a shipyard, owning many ships and being one of the most prosperous merchants in the area. Nathaniel used his workers to build this house and its associated barn in 1812. 

(Photo: Nicely decorated entrance to the mansion. Credit: R.G.)

WHAT IS THE NATHANIEL LORD MANSION? The Captain Nathaniel Lord Mansion is a historic house at 6 Pleasant Street in the village center of Kennebunkport, Maine. It is a fine example of Federal period architecture. It remained in the same family until 1972. It is now a bed and breakfast called The Captain Lord Mansion, Inn Spa. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, according to the website "Historic Buildings of New England."

INSIDE THE MANSION - Rooms were tastefully decorated for Christmas with lit trees. The mansion has been beautifully restored, too. We noticed three floors of room for Bed and Breakfast tenants. 

On the first floor, there's a small gift shop, a big living room with lots of seats to relax and it has a working hearth! There's also a big kitchen with what appears to be an old hundred-plus year cast iron stove. 

(Photos: Hallway inside the main entrance and the Rob and Tom in the large living room with roaring fireplace in the background. Credit: R.G.) 

 When we walked into the kitchen to explore, we smelled cookies that were being freshly baked!      (Photo: The old cast-iron stove in the kitchen area. Credit: R.G.)

   

VIEW FROM ABOVE!  One of the Innkeepers realized we were tourists and allowed us to climb a back stairway that wound around and up 4 floors to a crow's nest overlook. The overlook was a small area in an octagon shape- about 10 feet in diameter. It provided at 365 degree view of Kennebunkport. On one side you could see the harbor.  

 I made a short video from the crow's nest so you can see where we were. Link: https://youtu.be/GMMZ_V_W2kQ?si=BrIFZb5yfZc7vvPk 

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Let's go back down the 4 flights with Tom (below)  and into tomorrow's blog that will take you to the Christmas part of the "Captains Christmas" 

 NEXT: The "Christmas Barn" and the Cool Outdoor "Tents" 

Video Interview~ The Three Spirits of Christmas with Sysco and Rob

 Join Rob Gutro and Sysco Murdoch, host of Journey Through the Gate videocast for some Christmas ghost Tales, Some "Pet Tails" and a bit about Lincoln and Fords Theater!

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og80SUJgfLU

Idiot of the Week: AZ Religious Leader Now Jailed, who Sex Trafficked Girls

This week's idiot is another man hiding behind religion to do heinous things. He is an Arizona FLDS religious leader named Samuel Bateman. He has now been sentenced to 50 years in prison for sex trafficking little girls as young as 9 years old. Let me understand this- Republicans think drag queens reading books to kids is atrocious, but they won't go after so-called religious straight people who sex traffic children. Abusers have been known to hide behind religion- just look at the history of various churches over the last 500 years. Here's this idiot's story

(Image: Samuel Bateman, the leader of a small polygamous group near the Arizona-Utah border Coconino County Sheriff's Office via AP

Leader of Arizona polygamous sect sentenced to 50 years in conspiracy to transport children for sex 

CBS NEWS Dec, 10, 2024

A polygamist religious leader who claimed more than 20 spiritual "wives" including 10 underage girls was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Monday for coercing girls as young as 9 years old to submit to criminal sex acts with him and other adults, and for scheming to kidnap them from protective custody.

Samuel Bateman, whose small group was an offshoot of the sect once led by Warren Jeffs, had pleaded guilty to a yearslong scheme to transport girls across state lines for his sex crimes, and later to kidnap some of them from protective custody.

Under the agreement, Bateman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for sexual activity, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life imprisonment, and one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, which is punishable by up to life imprisonment. He was sentenced to 50 years on each count, to be served concurrently.

The rest of the charges were dismissed as part of the agreement.

Authorities say that Bateman, 48, tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The fundamentalist group, also known as FLDS, split from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after Mormons officially abandoned polygamy in 1890.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich sentenced Bateman after hearing statements in court by three teenage girls about the trauma they still struggle to overcome. Although they gave their names in court, The Associated Press does not name victims of sexual crime, and some appeared to still be minors.

Heroes of the Week: Ellsworth, Maine Firefighters Rescue Boy from Frozen Lake /Ice Safety Reminders

This week's heroes are the men and women of the Ellworth Fire Department in Maine, who were called to rescue a boy who fell through ice on a lake in Maine. Today's blog is about that story, Plus,  ice safety points and a short video about when walking on lake ice is safe. 

WHAT ICE THICKNESS IS SAFE ON A LAKE FOR PEOPLE, VEHICLES? First, use caution. Stay off the ice if it's cracked or squishy at the shoreline. Also, dark snow and dark ice can indicate weak spots. According to Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, lake ice needs to be blue to clear. That indicates it is High density, very strong, and the safest ice to be on if thick enough. Stay off if under 4 inches (10cm) thick. 

• 4 inches: Safe for walking, ice fishing, and cross-country skiing, and can support about 200 pounds 
• 5 inches: Recommended for snowmobiles or ATVs, and can support about 800 pounds 
• 8 to 12 inches: Necessary for a small car 
• 12 to 15 inches: Necessary for trucks

Firefighters save boy's life after he falls through ice in Ellsworth, Maine 

Officials say the boy and three other kids ran away from a group home when they made their way across a marsh on Graham Lake and fell through the ice

WMTW-TV Dec 15, 2024, by Connor Clement

ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Maine Warden Service says members of the Ellsworth Fire Department saved a boy's life Sunday afternoon after he fell through the ice on Graham Lake in Ellsworth.

Officials say the boy and three other kids ran away from a group home when they made their way across a marsh on the lake and three fell through the ice.

The Maine Warden Service responded around 2:30 p.m. with nine wardens, including a K-9 unit and an airboat. A Warden Service airplane arrived within 20 minutes and spotted the kids from the air.

Two who fell through the ice were able to get out on their own, while the other was in the water until crews with the Ellsworth Fire Department pulled him out.

"Ellsworth Fire Department saved his life," Sgt. Alan Gillis of the Maine Warden Service said.

Three of the four kids were taken to a hospital to be treated for hypothermia. Gillis said all of them are expected to be OK.

The Ellsworth Police Department and the Mariaville Fire Department were also on the scene.

Gillis said this is another reminder that "ice is not safe to be on in many places." VIDEO FROM THE MAINE INLAND FISHERIES AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: https://youtu.be/30bwBccdKQI?si=CSnxyOl9Km7gf3-1

Read the book "The Christmas Dog" by Melody Carlson

 In September, I picked up the book "The Christmas Dog" by Melody Carlson and decided I would read it and share it before the holidays. It was a good book that makes you think about your beliefs vs. your behaviors, and how a little dog can change your world for the better. Today's blog is my take on the book and a summary of it.

MY TAKE- It's about a senior citizen who assumes the worst in her neighbor, a stray dog, her granddaughter and others, and is proven wrong by all of them. The woman keeps talking about being a Christian and trying to think the best of people while doing the opposite throughout almost the entire book. Fortunately, she gets several wake up calls! I confess while reading it, I wanted shout at the woman and tell her to stop being so selfish and suspicious. Fortunately, a little dog helped turn her world around. It's a good story that will keep you reading, and make you think about practicing what you think you believe in.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Betty Kowalski isn't looking forward to the holidays. She just can't seem to find Christmas in her heart. There's church, of course. But who can she bake for these days? And who would care whether or not she pulled out the Christmas decorations? Her new neighbor just adds to the problem. He's doing home improvements that don't appear to be improving much of anything. These days when Betty looks out the window, she sees a beat-up truck, a pile of junk, lots of blue tarps, and--horror of horrors--an old pink toilet. But when a mangy dog appears at her doorstep, the stage is set for Betty to learn a very important lesson about what Christmas is all about. This contemporary Christmas story is a timely yet gentle reminder that God can work miracles through something as seemingly insignificant as a little brown dog.

Remembering Ed of "Kindred Spirits" - on the Anniv. of his Passing

Today's blog is about a special man named Ed whom I befriended from spirit. Ed passed in 1996, and I never met him in person. However, because of my gift of mediumship, and because Ed's spirit has been around me since 2005 when I met Tom (he came along for the ride), I've had a lot of amazing adventures with him from the other side and wrote a book about them.

Remembering Ed of "Kindred Spirits" - on the Anniv. of his Passing 

Today is the anniversary of the passing of Ed, the Spirit I befriended and who has been communicating with me since 2005. He's the topic of my book "Kindred Spirits: How a Medium Befriended a Spirit." - So this week I'm keeping watch for signs from Ed, as you should for your loved ones on the anniversary of their passing, or their birthdays.

ABOUT THE BOOK: It's uncommon for a medium really get know a spirit so well that the living person considers the spirit a best friend. But that's exactly what happened to medium and paranormal investigator Rob Gutro. Gutro, best-selling Amazon.com paranormal author, medium and paranormal investigator recently published his story "Kindred Spirits: When a Medium Befriends a Spirit."  In fact, the spirit of Ed helped solve the mystery of his own death. 

TO BUY ON AMAZON: https://tinyurl.com/y9an9jo2

When Rob met his partner Tom in 2005, Ed's spirit came along for the ride. Tom knew Ed but Rob never met him since Ed died in 1996. Over the last 14 years, Ed has communicated with Rob so much, that he now considers Ed a good friend. Now, Ed often communicates to Rob and has revealed his sense of humor, his heart, and helped solved the mystery of his passing. Ed's "Spirit Treasure Hunt" showed his family he's with them, too. Ed even sent a look-alike to rescue Rob during a vacation in England. As you read about this special spirit named Ed and his sometimes funny communications, you'll learn signs your loved ones send. This book will teach you how to be more aware of messages from your loved ones in spirit.

"Being a friend with Ed in spirit is like having a friend who lives in another state," Gutro said in describing his relationship with Ed's spirit.

DISCOVERY: Woman Hiking in Alps accidentally discovers 280 million-year-old lost world

Dinosaur fossils are fascinating to me, and this recent story is about a woman hiking in the Italian Alps that came across a huge area of fossils!! 

(A large boulder with fossilized footprints of amphibians and reptiles aligned to form tracks. (Image credit: Photo by Elio Della Ferrera, © Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape provinces of Como, Lecco, Monza-Brianza, Pavia, Sondrio and Varese.)

Woman accidentally discovers 280 million-year-old lost world while hiking in Italian Alps

LIVE SCIENCE, By Sascha Pare  November 19, 2024 

A woman hiking in the Italian Alps discovered a fragment of a 280 million-year-old ecosystem, complete with footprints, plant fossils and even the imprints of raindrops, researchers have confirmed.

Claudia Steffensen was walking behind her husband in the Valtellina Orobie Mountains Park in Lombardy in 2023 when she stepped on a rock that looked like a slab of cement, The Guardian reported. "I then noticed these strange circular designs with wavy lines," Steffensen told the newspaper. "I took a closer look and realized they were footprints."

Scientists analyzed the rock and found that the footprints belong to a prehistoric reptile, raising questions about what other clues beyond Steffensen's "rock zero" were hiding in these Alpine heights.

Experts subsequently visited the site multiple times and found evidence of an entire ecosystem dating back to the Permian period (299 million to 252 million years ago). The Permian was characterized by a fast-warming climate and culminated in an extinction event known as the "Great Dying," which wiped out 90% of Earth's species.

Traces of this ecosystem consist of fossilized footprints from reptiles, amphibians, insects and arthropods that often align to form "tracks," according to a translated statement. Alongside these tracks, researchers found ancient traces of seeds, leaves and stems, as well as imprints of raindrops and waves that lapped at the shores of a prehistoric lake. Evidence of this ancient ecosystem was found up to 9,850 feet (3,000 meters) high in the mountains and down in the bottom of valleys, where landslides have deposited fossil-bearing rocks over the eons.

The ecosystem, which is captured in fine-grained sandstone, owes its amazing preservation to its past proximity to water. "The footprints were made when these sandstones and shales were still sand and mud soaked in water at margins of rivers and lakes, which periodically, according to the seasons, dried up," Ausonio Ronchi, a paleontologist at the University of Pavia in Italy who examined the fossils, said in the statement. "The summer sun, drying out those surfaces, hardened them to the point that the return of new water did not erase the footprints but, on the contrary, covered them with new clay, forming a protective layer."

(Image: Reconstruction of a lake scene 280 million years ago during the Permian period. (Image credit: Drawing by Fabio Manucci./ LiveScience) 

The fine grain of this sand and mud preserved the finest details, including claw marks and patterns from the underbellies of animals, according to the statement. The researchers said the imprints come from at least five different animal species, some of which may have reached the size of modern-day Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), growing to between 6.5 and 10 feet (2 to 3 m) long.

  "At that time, dinosaurs did not yet exist, but the animals responsible for the largest footprints found here must still have been of a considerable size," Cristiano Dal Sasso, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Milan who was the first expert contacted about the discovery, said in the statement.

The fossils offer a window into a fascinating, long-gone world whose inhabitants went extinct at the end of the Permian — but they can also teach us about the times we live in now, the researchers said in the statement.

Many of the prehistoric imprints uncovered would have remained hidden were it not for climate change, which is rapidly reducing the ice and snow cover in the Alps. "These fossils … testify to a distant geological period, but with a global warming trend completely similar to that of today," the researchers said. "The past has a lot to teach us about what we risk getting the world into now."

History: Black Cake, A Christmas Treat Emily Dickinson Loved To Bake

Did you know writer Emily Dickinson also liked to bake?  She even had a favorite cake to bake around Christmastime. Recently, the New England Historical Society published an article about her favorite treat to bake, called "Black Cake."  Since yesterday's blog was about baking I did, the blog about "Black Cake" seemed like an appropriate follow-up.   If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

 Black Cake, A Christmas Treat Emily Dickinson Loved To Bake

New England Historical Society, Dec. 7, 2024

If something called a black cake sounds like a perfect Christmas sweet from a famously reclusive poet prone to contemplate death – well, it is.

Emily Dickinson not only wrote stunning poetry, she was a terrific baker. She baked for her family, and often sent cakes and breads to her friends along with odd little notes. She was a private cook who baked as indefatigably as she wrote. And one of the things she baked was a black cake. She developed into an accomplished baker as well as a poet. She wrote some of her poems on kitchen paper and even wrote one on the back of a recipe for coconut cake.

Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson was born into a prominent Amherst, Mass., family on Dec. 10, 1830. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a trustee of Amherst College; her mother, Emily Norcross, was a homebody who spent decades of her life bedridden with chronic illnesses. Emily Dickinson learned to bake bread at the age of 14.

(Image: A retouched daguerreotype of Emily Dickinson. Daguerreotype of the poet Emily Dickinson, taken circa 1848. (Restored version.) From the Todd-Bingham Picture Collection and Family Papers, Yale University Manuscripts & Archives Digital Images Database, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.)

The Black Cake One of the delicacies Emily Dickinson baked was a black cake. It started out in England as a fruitcake or plum cake, cakes made with dried or fresh fruit. As Bruce Kraig explains in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, English women in the early 1800s began to make their plum cakes darker. They did it with treacle, a syrup made during the refining of sugar.

The so-called black cake spread to the British colony of Jamaica, where it got darker and boozier.

American women began to make it too. In 1832, Lydia Maria Child wrote a cookbook recommending using molasses instead of treacle. Click here for the Jamaican version of the recipe, which includes a LOT of rum!  

Holiday Baking, First 2 Snows and My "Ghosts of Christmas Past" Lecture!

Three things that will get you in the spirit of the holidays are baking, snow and stories about ghosts of Christmas. That's what today's blog is all about! Our friend Jeff and his famous dog Myrtle visited to help with the baking. Days later, we received our first snowfall here in southern Maine, and locally, I gave a lecture about Christmas Ghosts and I was so honored that 5 of our friends came to listen.  

(Photo: Rob and Jeff baking Christmas Oatmeal Cranberry cookies)

CHRISTMAS BAKING -  On Sunday, Dec. 1st our friend Jeff and his dog, Myrtle visited for the day. After a great lunch out, Jeff, who is a pastry chef, volunteered to help make my Oatmeal Cranberry cookies for the local neighborhood Christmas Cookie Swap on Dec. 7th. The recipe is on the lid of Quaker Oatmeal boxes and for many years, I've been substituting cranberries in the place of raisins.

(Photo: Tyler and Dash relax next to cousin Myrtle while their dads bake. Tom and Cody were napping!)

Jeff was very careful in mixing ingredients separately, while I likely would have inadvertently mushed together (when they shouldn't be), so I was grateful to have his guidance. We baked for a couple of hours while listening to Classic Country Christmas music (Jeff loves Loretta Lynn and I love Dolly Parton - so it was the perfect choice).

(Photos: 100 cookies later, they were packed in containers for the cookie swap!)

MORE COOKIES- During the evening of Dec. 14th I baked another homemade batch, too.  
 

FIRST & SECOND SNOW ARRIVED AND LEFT!  On Thursday, December 5th, southern Maine received its first snowfall (2 inches) of the season. That meant it was about 4" under average snowfall by the time this storm happened. The snow began just before midnight on Dec. 4th, mixed with rain throughout the night, and in the morning temps dropped so it turned back to snow, providing a festive scene out of my home office window!  On Monday, Dec. 9th we received the 2nd snowfall of about 4" - which I shoveled 3 times in 2 days because I didn't want the snow to be heavy. By Dec. 11th, heavy rain washed it all away.  

10 SEC SNOW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/luBxSOeLI5c?si=_bwBie48NPvgD4ZW

   

CHRISTMAS GHOSTS & SURPRISE SUPPORT! I gave a lecture and powerpoint presentation at a local library on Dec. 14th 

called "Ghosts and Spirits of Christmas Past and Present"  Tom came with me and helped me set up, and he helped arrange the room. Five of our friends showed up at the lecture, and I was so honored. A huge thanks to Laureen, George,  Albert, Michael and Dan. 

(Photo: Me outside the William Fogg Library, Eliot, ME)

 The stories are based on chapters in my book "Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead."   For more info visit www.robgutro.com

Unfortunately, Michael and Dan couldn't stick around, but Laureen, George and Albert did, so we grabbed a tasty early dinner at the 207 Tavern. (Photo left)