Dreaming of France -- Cats and Postcards

Please join this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.

Inspired by a couple of blogs that I read today, I'm posting pictures of postcards from France with cats. It's kind of a tradition for us, since about 1998 to send home postcards with pictures of cats that look like our cats.
I was reminded of that tradition today when Corey from Tongue in Cheek first talked about pictures on her refrigerator. Then I visited Virginia at Paris Through My Lens and she had a picture of cat lounging on the walk in front of a building with gorgeous green shutters. At Paris and Beyond, Genie had an fluffy orange cat sauntering along the sidewalk.  And then Anne in Oxfordshire writes frequently about her postcard collection. They all came together and I decided to write about some postcards from France with cats, and those postcards are currently stuck on my refrigerator.

Our last cat, the one we got when Grace was a 1-year-old, was totally black like this cat. When traveling in Paris with my friend Michelle, I sent this postcard home to Earl and the kids. I joked that they had left the door open so Buddy had escaped and traveled to Paris.

The next time Earl and I traveled to France, we went to Provence and sent this postcard home to the kids. Again, a black cat that was anxious to get from Ohio to France. 

We never seem to have any trouble finding postcards of cats in different French locations.

 
When Grace traveled to France, she sent home a postcard with cats too.
Does your family have a France tradition?

Saturday Snapshot -- Cat, Crackle Pop

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.
We put our recycling on top of this oak pie safe by the back door. Once the Rice Krispies were finished, the younger cat, Tybalt, decided this box was the perfect cardboard nest for him.

He had no problem falling right to sleep.

Early Thanksgiving

It seems like all of my posts have been fairly negative lately, so I thought I should stop and be thankful instead.
So, here, the Wednesday after Canadian Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for: My husband who, although he came home with only one chocolate bar from France two weeks ago, has worked everyday with only one day off. Sleep in today, honey. You deserve it. And take a second day off this week.
My unswollen, though still flaking, face. I'm on the last leg of the steroids the doctor gave me to combat my reaction to the Aveda moisturizer. With steroids, the medicine steps down. So I started taking six pills a day over a week ago, and now I'm down to three. Before you know it, I'll stop feeling all jittery and need more than four hours of sleep each night. I am accomplishing a lot since I don't need sleep. When you get up at 3:30 a.m., you can get an amazing amount done by 6. It's like the day's half over.
A second car. We've been a one car family since Labor Day Weekend when Spencer drove in front of a truck and, basically, had the front end of his Honda Accord taken off. No one was hurt, but for over a month now, we've had one car. That means I've just driven everyone where they need to go rather than Spencer or Earl (or Grace while she was still home) taking a car. Somedays, I never sat down in my house, just walked in the door after work and drove people around all evening. But now we have a second car. That the boys can drive to school or Earl can take to Home Depot. It's an Explorer, but, since two of my children have totaled cars and I have one more learning to drive now, I wanted something big enough to keep him (and the rest of them) safe -- just in case.
I'm also thankful that two of the college classes I'm teaching will end next week and I'll have a mini vacation, teaching only five course through Christmas.
Other things, yes, the weather has been gorgeous. The cats took a nap outside in the hammock with me yesterday. Well, I napped. They kind of clung to the hammock.
And when Tucker was hanging outside with me and the cats, he asked to take a picture of Tupi's fat hanging through the hammock. Not mine.
See, lots of things to be thankful for.
How about you? Are you thankful for something?

Bird Watching

To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post on Alyce's blog At Home With Books. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don’t post random photos that you find online.

On a run this week, I saw a friend out looking for his escaped cat. I told him I would look as I ran. That's when I saw this black cat sitting and staring into a tree. I thought maybe he had the other cat cornered so I turned around to see what he was staring at.
This is what I saw.

Someone had conveniently placed a birdhouse in the crook of a tree and the cat was ready the minute the birds thought about emerging.
I laughed when I realized what the cat was doing. I tried to lure him away.
He gave me a look of disgust.

Then went back to his birdwatching.