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Search RuthAndJohn.com NOTE: click on the link then put your search words inside the quotes on Google
NOTE: Some of the links are to articles which are in French. Just right-click on the linked web page and select "translate". If you have any trouble with that please let me know and I will send you a translation.
Kitties
Of course we start off our blog with the kitties being kitties. It is so nice living with them. As the kit-kats
have grown they've become a bit more serene and still as loving as ever. Tommy's health is improving thanks to
kidney food and medications. He, too, is loving and playful now. We are so relieved and happy for him.
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| Tommy claiming a piece of paper. | Charlie and Buster following the laser light. |
Charlie always looks like he's thinking of something. |
Along the river
John walks along the rivers and canals a few times a week. He always pays attention to the nutria and ducks
and other birds and relays their adventures including the tale of a little nutria who chased the ducks away from it's breakfast.
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A flock of terns resting on the La Vilaine river. |
A rain puddle froze overnight. | Duck going after some tasty shoots. |
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Political grafitti is everywhere these days. "Death to the bourgeois state." |
A large blue heron on the other side of the river. |
The local cell tower is in the center of this photo. |
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| The beginning of the island in the middle of Rennes where the La Vilaine flows around it. |
Two little nutria. The first we've seen since a cold January. |
This little nutria chased the ducks away from it's breakfast. |
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| A defibrillator in a local café. | Empty early morning streets in Rennes. | Garbage strike to protest the pension reform. |
Strikes
Political graffiti is everywhere these days. "Death to the bourgeois state." "The Republic is in Breakdown."
"This time we are really pissed off." And so they are. Some protesters are violent although I read an editorial which
said those are primarily the Black Blocs. "A Black Bloc can be
defined as a form of collective action of revolutionary militants dressed in black as part of a street protest." The protest tactic first appeared in Western Germany in the 1980s,
prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, when squatter communities with anti capitalist views clashed with police.
It gained international prominence in 1999 in Seattle, when hundreds protested against World Trade Organization talks.
The Black Blocs are usually close to anarchist movements and consider violence as a legitimate means of political action.
A lot of unions are on strike to protest the pension reforms that Macron pushed through without a parliamentary vote.
He knew how passionate the public was about their retirement but he went the route of not allowing Parliament their
vote anyway (the reforms probably would have been voted down by the Minsters). Garbage collectors have been on strike
for more than 3 weeks in Rennes to protest the pension reform. Fortunately the unions announce the strikes ahead of strike
days and public transportation lets us know what is running and what is not so we can plan our trips and appointments.
Still it is a significant disruption.
In the parks
Offsetting the disruption and violence of the protests is the beginning of spring flowers on the ground
and in the trees. We visit Thabor park occasionally and John takes photos of the flowers, the aviary,
a small mock up of a medieval village where poultry wander freely.
Our next door park, Oberthur, has a little cave for explorations and a snake bench for little ones fashioned from a
tree trunk. It also has animal totems in the playground. Again, we are happy with the expansive and beautiful nearby parks.
The French love their parks.
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| Thabor Park | Narcissus bulbs growing near the aviary. | The trees are flowering all over Rennes. |
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| Thabor Park has a mock medieval village where the poultry can roam as they please. | Another view of the "village". | The entrance to our other favorite park. |
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| More flowering trees. | And even more... | Et cetera... |
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| Oberthur Park has a little cave for explorations. |
And a snake bench for little ones fashioned from a tree trunk. |
And animal totems in the playground. |