Memory of a Belgian Escapade...

Brrr, the Belgian cold...
How I love living in the South of France when I see this ;-)

Some colour....

Bidule

Edgar Allen Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

On a brighter note

A little flashback history of Pim, one of the orphaned jack-rabbit twins that arrived at home last Easter and I bottlefed.




For those of you who don't speak French, a (very) quick translation : Pim arrived at Easter with his twin brother Pom. They were six days old. They both made it fine.
Pom decided to go and live a life of adventure on his own in Nature (but came back to visit the garden some time ago) but Pim - who also had the choice since they were both in a badly fenced garden near fields and meadows - chose to stay and wait for me beside the door of the house. He lives a happy domestic life and invents some new mischief to do and send me into a frenzy each day.
So, beware, surprises can happen at Easter ;-)

Rainbow Bridge

Next to Paradise, there is a place called The Rainbow Bridge. When an animal which has been really close to a person in our world dies, this animal goes to the Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills there for all our special friends, so they can run and play together.
There is food enough, and water and sun so that our friends are warm and comfortable.
All those that were sick and aged, regain their health and their youth. Those that were injured or disabled are strong and healthy again, like we remember them when we dream about our happy memories together. All the animals are satisfied and happy, except for one detail : they miss a very special person, a person who stayed behind.

They run and play together but a day comes when one of them suddenly stops and looks at the horizon.
His eyes blinking and a strong look on his face; his body impatiently starts to shiver.
He suddenly breaks away from the others, running rapidly on the green grass, more and more rapidly.
He's seen you and that moment when you're finally reunited with your special friend, you both cuddle in a happy reunion, and you'll never part again.
Happy kisses cover your face, your hands pet that long missed head and once more you look into the trusting eyes, those eyes that had long disappeared from your life but never from your heart...

Then, together, you cross the Rainbow Bridge to Paradise.



Dear little Key, you left today. I am sorry.

A quick thought

Surfing on the web, I came accross a canadian Small Animals Rescue organisation (check it out : here) and this phrase struck me :

Saving one animal won't change the world but surely the world will change for this one animal.

It's my philosophy, please think about it for just five minutes before going to sleep tonight!

A glimpse of truth...

In Pim's lovely eyes and his funny little face ;-)

Happy 2008 !!

I'd like to thank all of you : loyal internet friends - Sarah, Farmwife, Lea - whom I consider as true friends although we never met.
Your friendship has ment very much and I hope that we will continue this way through 2008!
To my IRL (in real life) Friends, I owe an awefully big thank you as well - for supporting me through the good and - more precisely - the bad times.

I wish you all a very happy and wonderful 2008, hoping that you will have mostly good times and luck, and if bad times do come, I wish you a helping hand, a loyal ear and a loving shoulder to cope with it.

At last but not least, to the animals of this planet :
In a world [...] more compete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. [You] are not brethren, [you] are not underlings ; [you] are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendors and travail of the earth
--Henry Beston, The Outermost House

May the human world grow to respect you more and more and see you for what you really are : lessons of life, each and everyone of you.

You are all, human and animal, precious to me.