The straight dope on TwoFrogs

Blogging has been rather erratic lately and I’m sorry about that. It’s not that I haven’t been doing things — I have. Just not interesting things. Does anyone want to read about how I hemmed eight pairs of kids’ pants? I thought not. It wasn’t even interesting to do, much less talk about.  I reconstructed a men’s XL flannel shirt into a nightshirt for myself. But that’s only marginally interesting. If I took before and after pictures (which I did not), you would be hard-pressed to find any discernible difference. All I did was bring in the sides and shorten the sleeves. Not interesting. And remember that sock I was knitting on my knitting board? I’ve been working diligently on it everyday. But if I were to take a picture of that, you’d wonder why it doesn’t look any different than it did the last time I showed you (Answer: I screwed it up the first time and had to start over). I did finish the front panel of a sweater on my large knitting board, but by itself it isn’t a very newsworthy item. Last night I began another picture afghan (Axl #2 — Christmas present for Rana), so once again, another long term project. I think that’s the problem here. Everything that could potentially be of interest is weeks away from being finished. So that’s where things stand, craft-wise.

And now for something completely different.

Tomorrow marks our one year anniversary in the cabin! 1 year, 39 mice, 2 bats, 1 frog, a plague of flies, and 1 flying squirrel later, we’re still here. From creatures in the ceiling to a wild turkey on the deck, we’ve experienced nature in new and exciting ways. Outside, the rain is coming down and inside we’ve got a fire going in the large stone fireplace. Chilly drafts come up between the plank flooring, but, between Axl and Mr. Gren, I stay plenty warm at night. Konik’s 3rd birthday is coming up on Thursday and I was thinking how life in the cabin will likely be among his first real memories. He has vague memories of his bedroom in our previous house, but probably thinks cabin life is completely normal, which I find amusing. We never thought we’d be here a year later. But thank goodness for our friends M & M who have so graciously let us stay here! I don’t know where we’d be, otherwise. It has been a tough year. Mr. Gren continues to search for a job that will support our family while continuing to work at the ol’ home improvement store. There’s just not much out there. There have been plenty of disappointments and we’re weary and life is far from ideal. But, we’re alive and there are bright spots along the way and if we didn’t have hope that someday things will get better we’d never make it.

I realize this is a rather somber post. So for your amusement, please accept this photo of our pet wild turkey.

She’s the last one left of the flock of five turkeys that used to amble down the highway and has decided that our little pocket near the river is a nice place to live. She eats out of our hands. She perches on top of our cars (I’m sure those claws are great for the paint). And, if we park near the cabin instead of up on the hill like we usually do, she gets upset and attacks the car.

Once, the neighbor’s dog got out and chased her. She surprised us all by flying up into a tree. She didn’t look comfortable  at all, but she was safe. After the dog was gone, we coaxed her back down with some nuts.

Sometimes cabin life isn’t so bad. And the scenery can’t be beat.

I’ll see what I can do about some smaller projects. Fun for me and fun for you! Thanks for reading.

 

French Friday #15: Animal Fair

The French like animals. They really like dogs (always run a perpetual scan of the sidewalk about three feet ahead of you to avoid doggy-generated mishaps). Sometimes animals show up in funny places.

A king can't get any respect around here.

This is the statue of Charlemagne in front of Notre Dame. He’s a great meeting place for people and makes a pretty good lookout for pigeons.

 

Cats grow from seed, apparently.

This cat was on the second floor, enjoying his view from the window box on the Ile-de-la-Cité. I hope he doesn’t use it as a litter box, too…

 

That's a 200 year old dog right there.

Napoleon liked his dog so much, he had him stuffed. His name may or may not be Lauro. He lives in a glass case at the Musée de l’Armée at Les Invalides.

This dog sells home decor.

A lot of French shop owners bring their furry friends to work with them. This bulldog was keeping an eye on things at a store in our town.

Spa for goats

This goat was cooling off at Marie Antoinette’s Hameau on the grounds of Versailles.

Go fish!

These are the greediest, noisiest carp I’ve ever seen. They live in the pond at the Hameau on the grounds of Versailles. They’ve obviously been fed a lot. We threw them a few crumbs of a pulverized granola bar and they went nuts.

A crow strolls around the moat at Vincennes.

We weren’t the only ones hanging out at Vincennes that October day.

Do you wannabe a wallaby?

We were surprised to find a wallaby rescue center on the grounds at Chantilly. There were plaques there explaining why and how, but I can’t remember any of that now. Should have taken a picture of the plaque.

Pretty little orange birds. Anybody know what they are?

The Sunday bird market on the Ile-de-la-Cité was pretty cool. We only got to go one time as we were leaving for vacation. There were all kinds of colorful little birds, and also a few rabbits and hamsters.

Zebras in the parking lot, why not?

And you never know when the circus might come to town. This particular circus had set up camp in a huge parking lot near a supermarket in Dijon. They also had camels, reindeer, llamas, and miniature goats out there. They kept the tiger and lion in their cars, but we could see them occasionally.