Night falls earlyL'ennui. Ou la fatigue. Ou la déprime. De l'amour. Ou saisonnière. Ou la grippe tout court.
Who knows.
I must report on Eugénie G. Toad. Eugénie is not in her toad house. She has not been seen since the first day, when she settled into a burrow and began to tunnel. I thought the hole meant she was there, but, being unable to refrain from being certain, I removed the dry linden leaves, reached in and felt the inside of the tunnel with my fingers. I was rather afraid to stick Eugénie in the eye, since they dig backwards, pushing the dirt up and out, but I felt nothing but the end of the tunnel, somewhat abruptly. Eugénie had gone.
Was ittoo hard to tunnel in that location, beneath the yew? Was it not to her liking? Whatever the reason, she is wherever she is, I'm unreasonably sad about it, and the several toadlets I removed from the skimmers and the pool, preparing to close it for the winter, didn't stay long in the toad house either. I added, by the way, another one. Both are vacant. They don't even seem very interested in the shallow pool I made for them to sit in.
In the days that I waited and hoped to see Eugénie again, witnessing the massacre of the toads trying to cross the road that cuts across the forest at the center of the boucle de la Seine, I joined Froglife, and I wrote to ask them who might be organizing here in France to do something with amphibians other than eat them.
For the record, we do not eat toads.
Also for the record, I do not eat frogs.
I received a reply from Lucy in the UK (I love that name), who offered to put me in touch with Ninon, near Rambouillet. Lucy told me that they use a system of fences along the road side and pitfall traps to collect the toads, adding that "this system is very popular in Europe but for some reason is not widely used here." This year, according to Lucy, the group in Rambouillet "helped 4,000 toads across the road!"
I love the exclamation point. I love the enthusiasm for the toad lives saved for another season, or at least until they migrate again.
Now, to contact Ninon and see who they are, what they are doing, and how I can set up a similar "toads on roads" effort here in the boucle. One reason they don't use the fencing might be the expense in setting it up and maintaining it. I read about that.
As long as Eugénie is safe out there. That's all that matters.
Peut-être je la reverrai au printemps. Peut-être.
Maybe I will carve my pumpkins tomorrow, even though Sam -- 18 now -- is in Amsterdam, and definitely not trick-or-treating (which they now do here in France, too). I still believe in Halloween, even if most of the candy of this season has been "dedicated and prayed over by witches".
Sounds good to this croan.
Just kidding you. Bwa-cacklecacklecacklecakle!!!! Funny, though, that the original blog post, The Danger of Celebrating Halloween: Spiritual Life in God, by guest writer Kimberly Daniels on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network, has been taken down from their site.
Does this mean someone over there at CBN still believes in America as we know it and has a little sense in their head? Evil children, trick-or-treating in America's exurbs with the full approval and participation of their parents. Good God. What is America coming to when parents encourage their children to participate in the work of Satan and to consume the sweets that will lead them to His ways?
I mean think about it. All the shelves in school and public libraries we would have to empty of picture books with reference to this Satanic American holiday! And -- save us! -- "The Peanuts" It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! All the DVDs and VHS tapes that would have to be confiscated, reburned and taped over with Pat Robertson's choice of the best fundamentalist American Christian sermons of all time! And, once, invited by a family with whom my young son and I were acquainted, I attended a Halloween party for families at The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints in Greenwich, CT with quarterback Steve Young's parents present, actually condoning this holiday. Think of it, Steve Young and his wife later defied the Mormon church, actively opposing California's Prop 8 on October 31, 2008!
See? It's Halloween at fault. Now, that is ghoulish. What were the Mormons thinking?
Croak.
....
Who knows.
I must report on Eugénie G. Toad. Eugénie is not in her toad house. She has not been seen since the first day, when she settled into a burrow and began to tunnel. I thought the hole meant she was there, but, being unable to refrain from being certain, I removed the dry linden leaves, reached in and felt the inside of the tunnel with my fingers. I was rather afraid to stick Eugénie in the eye, since they dig backwards, pushing the dirt up and out, but I felt nothing but the end of the tunnel, somewhat abruptly. Eugénie had gone.
Was ittoo hard to tunnel in that location, beneath the yew? Was it not to her liking? Whatever the reason, she is wherever she is, I'm unreasonably sad about it, and the several toadlets I removed from the skimmers and the pool, preparing to close it for the winter, didn't stay long in the toad house either. I added, by the way, another one. Both are vacant. They don't even seem very interested in the shallow pool I made for them to sit in.
In the days that I waited and hoped to see Eugénie again, witnessing the massacre of the toads trying to cross the road that cuts across the forest at the center of the boucle de la Seine, I joined Froglife, and I wrote to ask them who might be organizing here in France to do something with amphibians other than eat them.
For the record, we do not eat toads.
Also for the record, I do not eat frogs.
I received a reply from Lucy in the UK (I love that name), who offered to put me in touch with Ninon, near Rambouillet. Lucy told me that they use a system of fences along the road side and pitfall traps to collect the toads, adding that "this system is very popular in Europe but for some reason is not widely used here." This year, according to Lucy, the group in Rambouillet "helped 4,000 toads across the road!"
I love the exclamation point. I love the enthusiasm for the toad lives saved for another season, or at least until they migrate again.
Now, to contact Ninon and see who they are, what they are doing, and how I can set up a similar "toads on roads" effort here in the boucle. One reason they don't use the fencing might be the expense in setting it up and maintaining it. I read about that.
As long as Eugénie is safe out there. That's all that matters.
Peut-être je la reverrai au printemps. Peut-être.
Maybe I will carve my pumpkins tomorrow, even though Sam -- 18 now -- is in Amsterdam, and definitely not trick-or-treating (which they now do here in France, too). I still believe in Halloween, even if most of the candy of this season has been "dedicated and prayed over by witches".
Sounds good to this croan.
Just kidding you. Bwa-cacklecacklecacklecakle!!!! Funny, though, that the original blog post, The Danger of Celebrating Halloween: Spiritual Life in God, by guest writer Kimberly Daniels on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcast Network, has been taken down from their site.
Does this mean someone over there at CBN still believes in America as we know it and has a little sense in their head? Evil children, trick-or-treating in America's exurbs with the full approval and participation of their parents. Good God. What is America coming to when parents encourage their children to participate in the work of Satan and to consume the sweets that will lead them to His ways?
I mean think about it. All the shelves in school and public libraries we would have to empty of picture books with reference to this Satanic American holiday! And -- save us! -- "The Peanuts" It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! All the DVDs and VHS tapes that would have to be confiscated, reburned and taped over with Pat Robertson's choice of the best fundamentalist American Christian sermons of all time! And, once, invited by a family with whom my young son and I were acquainted, I attended a Halloween party for families at The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints in Greenwich, CT with quarterback Steve Young's parents present, actually condoning this holiday. Think of it, Steve Young and his wife later defied the Mormon church, actively opposing California's Prop 8 on October 31, 2008!
See? It's Halloween at fault. Now, that is ghoulish. What were the Mormons thinking?
Croak.
....
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