Sunday With Spike

Nearly two weeks earlier I visited the really awesome Christmas store at Valley View Farms in Cockeysville, where I saw all kinds of ornaments on sale—including hedgehog-shaped ornaments. Some of them were made from glass, which I thought were cute and lovely, but I didn’t buy because they were a bit on the pricey side.

I purchased the two other hedgehog ornaments that were on sale. I felt that it was a great way of celebrating my first Christmas since I brought Spike home from the pet store just 11 months earlier. I bought two hedgehogs because I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. The left hedgehog in the picture below was made in the Phillippines by a company called Brushkins and it’s made out of bristle brush. The right hedgehog looks like it’s made from resin or some similar material and it was made in China and distributed by Kurt S. Adler. Both of them are very cute and they are currently hanging on my tree.

As for Spike, I had an interesting problem. On Election Night I was completely out of his Ultra Bites Fruit & Veggie Treats that I use as part of his regular diet and I was also running low on his Pretty Pets, which is also part of his diet. So I drove 30 miles to the pet store in Columbia that is the one closest to me that has hedgehog food for sale. The store was out of the Ultra Bites so I made the short-lived experiment on buying guinea pig veggie treats as a substitute only to have Spike ignore it. (I ended up making another pet store run a few days later to buy the Ultra Bites for Spike.) The store had the Pretty Pets but I found that the bag was more expensive than usual but it was the only bag of Pretty Pets left in stock so I bought it.

When I got home I discovered that I had purchased the 8 pound bag, when I usually purchase the smaller 3 pound bag. The problem is that Spike only eats 3 tablespoons of food a day so I began to fear that the larger 8 pound bag will go stale before Spike has the chance to eat all of it. So I decided on another experiment. When I ran out of what was left in the 3 pound bag, I opened the 8 pound bag and filled up the 3 pound bag.

Then I took a Hefty gallon freezer bag and filled that up with some more of the 8 pound bag. Afterwards I put a chip clip over the 8 pound bag. Then I took the freezer bag and what’s left in the 8 pound bag and stuck it in the freezer door. I know that bread can freeze pretty well so I’m hoping that it’s the same for pet food. I’ll find out in a few months whether pet food freezes well or not. Only Spike can make that decision. (LOL!)

Speaking of Spike, here’s a recent photo of him sitting pretty under his infrared light (which is why there’s a heavy red overcast in this shot).

Valley View Farms, Cockeysville, Maryland, December 3, 2012

While nearly evey year I make at least one visit to Homestead Gardens (which I did a few weeks ago), there’s another nursery that has a Christmas shop that’s just as grand as Homestead Gardens. It’s called Valley View Farms and I still have memories of the time that my parents made a family visit to that place when I was a child. As an adult I don’t go to Valley View Farms as often mainly because Homestead Gardens is closer to my home. A few weeks ago I decided to attend another session of the Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School at the Wind-Up Space in the northern part of Baltimore and I also wanted to make a trip to the nearby pet store to stock up on more supplies for Spike. I figured that while I was going to be in the area, I might as well visit Valley View Farms so I did so.

At the front door I was greeted by this giant nativity scene that’s available for sale.

According to Valley View Farms’ Christmas page, this store displays over 125 decorated Christmas trees decorated with a selection of over 6,000 ornaments under a canopy of 50,000 twinkling lights. The result is a very bright and festive shop that provides tons of eye candy.

Each decorated tree has a different theme. The ornaments used in each themed tree are sold under each tree.

There was even a tree with a theme based on the rock band Kiss. I never knew there were so many different Kiss ornaments to choose from.

You know that the video game Angry Birds have become extremely popular when you can purchase Christmas ornaments based on the characters in that game.

If there were any ornaments most destined for the bargain bins next year, my vote would go for these ornaments based on Snooki and The Situation from The Jersey Shore, which MTV has recently announced that it will cancel after this season ends.

I’ve always loved looking at Department 56 buildings. I’ve never purchased one for myself partly because they are a bit on the pricey side and partly because I don’t have the space in my home to do a really awesome miniature village layout. But I like looking at them on display in the stores.

This year Valley View Farms had two unique Department 56 nativity sets on sale in two different sizes. They feature Peanuts characters doing a live nativity scene and both are based on a scene in the annual TV Peanuts Christmas special where the Peanuts gang put on a Christmas pageant.

I purchased a nativity scene for myself because it looked more traditional while, at the same time, it was very uniquely made. It’s a wooden piece and I just love the look of contentment on the faces of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. It’s small enough for my home and it’s a one-piece nativity set so I don’t have to worry about keeping track of small parts. Like many other things sold in America these days, this one was made in China but I think it was very well-made.

I also found some hedgehog ornaments at Valley View Farms, which was cool since I now own a pet hedgehog. Despite the fact that I had recently gone through great effort to downsize my Christmas ornament collection, I couldn’t resist buying two of the hedgehog ornaments to celebrate the fact that I brought Spike home to live with me nearly 11 months earlier. I bought two hedgehogs because I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. The left hedgehog in the picture below was made in the Phillippines by a company called Brushkins and it’s made out of bristle brush. The right hedgehog looks like it’s made from resin or some similar material and it was made in China and distributed by Kurt S. Adler. Both of them are very cute.

There was a third hedgehog ornament I saw that I could’ve purchased but I didn’t because this one was more expensive than the other two hedgehog ornaments combined. This type of ornament was made out of glass and it looked lovely enough that I took a photo of the glass hedgehogs available for sale.

The last few photos are ones of the parking lot light displays at sunset, which were pretty lovely.

So after visiting Valley View Farms, I made the short trip to the pet store where I originally purchased Spike back in January in order to stock up on his Ultra Bites fruit and vegetable treats and his cage litter so I won’t have to make any more shopping trips on Spike’s behalf before Christmas. (I wanted to avoid the increased traffic congestion that usually occurs closer to the holiday.) I ate a quick dinner at the pizza place next door then drove to The Wind-Up Space in the northern part of Baltimore where I attended another session of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School.