Weird local festivals and events

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Just back from the animal blessing festival!  It's been hard to get back to it since my dog's passing, plus many animals get stressed due to the large amount of people, other animals and the unknown environment, but I managed to find some good things.

First thing I did that I never did before was to visit the horses area before their parade. I brought a sketchbook with the intent to draw some animals this year. I was afraid of being stared at weirdly or being shooed away, but I got so focused on trying to draw the animals right that I didn't notice. If anything, I did hear comments of "look this girl is drawing the horses!". Seems that people find it to be a nice novelty, and I even caught the atention of the horse owners, who tried to keep the horses still so I can draw them better (they failed, animals are terrible models, but I appreciate their effort ) They even let me pet the horses afterwards.

Later on I visited the center of the festival, the place where household pets get blessed. Saw a lot of dogs, of course, but also cats, bunnies, tortoises, and a few small rodents. I always find it impressive how people will start a conversation with the smallest amount of input. I saw a woman carry a huge cage with two zebra finches and I commented "hey, I know how these are called in english, but not in spanish". Lady proceeded to talk about her birds, how she got them from the CEO of a defunct TV channel from here, and her past experiences with other birds. I also commented that I'm an artist and I'm interested in drawing her finches live, and while she was busy at the moment (getting them blessed + then she had another thing to take care of later), she gave me her phone number and told me her finches know tricks, and even showed them to me. They can "show their eye" or "show their beak" on request, and apparently they can also look for her owner's niece. I'm very happy with this exchange, zebra finches are lovely and so are their beep-like chirping.

Finally, on my way out, I somehow got a lady to let her budgie perch on my hand. It was a very colorful, inquisitive, tiny and loud bird!

Overall, I had a great time drawing horses, interacting with animals and talking with their owners

[e-]

Frozen Dead Guy Day!
In the 80s a Norwegian man brought his cryogenicly frozen grandfather to the small mountain town of Nederland Colorado. Hoping science would one day be able to resurrect him. He was deported for overstaying his visa but town took it upon themselves to keep the body frozen to this day. The festival is a bit like a hippie-frostpunk version of Day of the dead.