Les Oiseaux en Juillet

J'ai trouvé plus des photos des oiseaux d'une promenade au Jardin Botanique de Metz et Canal du Juoy pendant juillet.  Pleins des mères avec leurs bébés!

I found more bird photos from a walk at the Botanical Garden of Metz and Canal du Juoy in July.  Lots of moms with their babies!

 Anser anser (embden) @ Jardin Botanique de Metz

Une oie d'Embden avec son bébé.

Embden Goose with her baby.

Anser anser @ Jardin Botanique de Metz

Une Oie Cendrée pose pour moi.

A Greylag Goose poses for me.

Ardea cinerea @ Canal du Juoy

Un Heron Cendré pêche dans le Canal.

A Grey Heron fishing in the Canal.

Fulica atra @ Canal du Juoy

Une Foulque Macroule a essayé de cacher son bébé derrière des buissons.

A Common Coot tried to hide her baby behind some bushes.

... et une de la Moselle la semaine prochaine.
... and one from the Moselle the following week

Cygnus olor

Un Cygne Tuberculé / Muet s'attend la nourriture à moi.

A Mute Swan expects food from me.

Parc de la Seille

Developed between 2000 and 2002, Parc de la Seille, on avenue de l'Amphithéâtre, was one of the first projects built in Metz's new Amphitheatre district, just south of the train station and the new Centre Pompidou. The paths meandering through the park pass along the Seille, through flower beds, and by the athletics facilities, where I shot baskets at the end of May with an after-school director and a local teen. This gold-toned giant needle is at the top of a hill in the Park. I took a bunch of photos, then walked all around it, looking for some kind of information on it, but got nothin' ... and I was starting to creep the sunbathers and couples out with my camera ... so, I can't tell you anything about it!

Parc de la Seille was developed not only as a pleasant spot for people to enjoy, but also as a preserve, and on the walks I have taken there, I have seen several species of birds flitting about ... alas, I know nothing about birds, so I can only say with a relative amount of certainty that I have seen crows (or is it ravens?) hopping about and a group of ducks making their way along the Seille. No photos of them, though. They moved too quickly!

The park has both raised beds with each species of flower in its own section, as well as wetlands bordering the river. This little blue flower at left was in the latter, and is about 2 cm (1 inch) in diameter, if that. In my Lorraine Flora album, there is also a vibrant orange flower of about the same size.

From the websites where I learned about its background, the Park has lighting, enabling night-time visits. Unfortunately, I never took the opportunity to do that, although I think I would have liked it. Learn more about Parc de la Seille...

- Mairi-Metz
- Tout-Metz
- Loisirs et Sorties

Jardin Botanique de Metz

I ventured out in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week for my walk to take advantage of the relative warmth of a sunny May day. The sun was high, and I headed south, in search of an arboretum I had seen a few days earlier on my way back from a walk along the Moselle. I wasn't exactly sure where it was, so as I walked along, I asked various people where the Jardin Botanique was, and managed to walk right past it twice, before I saw the entrance!

Passing through the gate, I was greeted by a statue on a lawn area that looked like two vultures attacking a lamb, which you can see in my Lorraine Flora album. The Jardin Botanique de Metz is actually in Montigny-lès-Metz, but I believe owned by Metz, and I am not exactly sure whether Montigny-lès-Metz is a completely separate town, or a neighborhood within the city of Metz. It is adjacent to the Chateau de Courcelles, an early 18th century mansion, of which I know little about other than it has recently undergone major restoration. Today, its rooms can be rented out for meetings and conferences.

I headed into the arboretum first, where I found the little green beetle in the photo, above right. I am still learning how to use my camera, so I had to keep futzing with it to get the exposure and focus. Luckily, the little bug barely moved the whole time. But he wasn't the only specimen of the animal kingdom in the structure. As you walk in, there is a fountain with turtles, and in another room there are several birds. You can see them in my Lorraine Fauna album. They have several palm, orchid and citrus specimens in the arboretum, and the fruit looked really good ... maybe because they had signs on them that said hands off!

Back outside on the footpaths, I walked under an arbor with what looked to be yellow wisteria (left). I love wisteria! I have a 50 year old wisteria in my backyard in California that my grandfather planted. Wisteria, a vining plant related to peas with clustered violet flowers , are significant in Japanese (and Buddhist) culture, because although beautiful, they are considered humble, because they face downward. I have since found out these flowers are Laburnums, which are actually trees.

Planted under the Laburnum were several iris varieties, which reminded me of the iris my mom had all around her garden. She started with just a few, through the years divided the rhizomes, and eventually had a riot of violet blooms popping up all over every spring.

Outside the shelter of arboretum and arbor, the paths connect several gardens within the grounds, including a fragrance garden with herbs and scented flowers, an array of different colored azaleas (in the Flora album), three ponds (one is in the Flora album), a rose collection, grasses, flower beds, and several spots to sit and contemplate the world. I walked along a path of square pavers leading to a stone slab (right), which is where I chose to stop for a few minutes and just enjoy the sunshine.

Summer Reading

It is raining, the first in over a week, but unlike the past month, today's rain was an all-day affair and cold! It has been cold enough the last couple of days that I do not venture out without donning at least a sweater, usually two, plus a jacket. As I march down the street at a brisk pace, hoping to warm up, I notice the people around me in spring-like skirts, t-shirts, and light jackets, and wonder if I am coming down with something. I have spent sub-freezing evenings in Truckee (California, by Lake Tahoe) shoveling snow from the driveway dressed in my long underwear, proof that I am not rendered entirely useless in the cold, but the mountains are a bit more arid. The cold here is similar to the Bay Area in that it tends to be humid as well, and the moisture seems to conduct the cold deeper into my body.

This weekend celebrates the L'été du Livre (summer of the book) in Metz, and there is a huge tent filled with books, their authors at the ready to speak with attendees and sign copies of their work. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, I might add, to read Le Parfum (the French translation of Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind). The vocabulary is more than a bit beyond me to try to parse out meaning as I go. So I headed up to the book sale to see if I could find an English translation so I could read them side-by-side, or another book in French that would be easier for me to get through. I wandered through the whole tent once, scanning covers only, to get an idea of what was there. I love history and socio-political commentary, and a few titles caught my eye, but I didn't want to bog myself down in those yet.

Zaz
She is in my Metz Events album.
On my second pass, I stopped at the table of Zaz, whose books are produced by a small printer in the little town of Sarreguemines (I stayed there last November at Auberge St Walfrid, beautiful rooms, excellent food, highly recommend it). She had a book, Mémoires d'un Labrador, with a photo of a black lab leaning on a bed, paw held up as if wanting to shake hands. All of my dogs growing up, with the exception of one sheltie, were black labs. Of course I bought a copy! I skimmed through the first two chapters, and it looks to be an amusing read.

Zaz's links:
...Zaz-Ecritoire
...Blog

Mabrouck Rachedi
Also in the Metz Events album

I continued through the tent, and a man began speaking to me in what seemed to me to be rapid-fire French! I panicked and my brain froze. I picked up one word ... three. It is probably good that someone who works with numbers for a living can recognize them in more than one language. But in this case, it didn't help at all. I asked in my broken French to repeat what he said more slowly, and he said in English:

This is the third time you have passed by, which means that you must really want to read my book!

I was pretty sure I had only been through the tent twice, but I guess it was possible I had ventured down that particular aisle three times. I told him I needed a relatively easy read, because my French vocabulary is limited. His name is Mabrouck Rachedi -- Click here for his Myspace page -- and he assured me that his book, Le petit Malik, would be a perfect read for someone just learning French. If someone makes the effort to speak with me out of the blue, and yes, use one of the oldest sales tactics on earth in making what he has seem to fill my needs, I am more open to what he has to say. Of course I bought a copy of his book! I skimmed through the first chapter at lunch, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I did not need my dictionary to get the gist and was able to figure out most of the new words based on context. So far, it seems a bittersweet tale, although I have only been introduced to one of three main characters.

By the way, Mabrouck has been invited to attend what I think is a writer's workshop at the University of Iowa. Iowa is not exactly one of the more exciting places to visit in the world, but I hope he is able to go, as it seems he will have the opportunity to network with other writers from around the world.
Another man offered to make a little watercolor painting on a card for me as I passed by. His name is Eban, and his books are collections of his paintings and poems. He is from Vietnam, lives in France and has family in the US and Switzerland. I am ashamed to say I did not buy one of his books, although I like his work. I was on a mission to find books that would help improve my fluency in French, and when I am on a mission, I can be pretty focused. If you are of Japanese heritage, his books make nice omiage (hostess gifts, I think is the best English translation) when visiting someone's home.
I saw Veronique, the docent from the museum (she actually works at the library, I found out), who led me through one of the exhibits so she could translate for me today, as well. This time I remembered to give her the URL to my blog.
Learning to make ratatouille tonight... will report back!

Miscellaneous Thoughts

At left is a doggie crypt, which resides in the Musée Lorraine in Nancy. The crypt is for Ninette, a young dog of financier Jacques-Onésyme Bergeret de Grancourt in the 18th Century. I thought it touching he would have such an elaborate mausoleum made for his dog. It made me think of my family's first two labs (Happy and Happy Too) and the Bubbling Well Pet Cemetery in Napa, where my parents have them interred.

Nancy, like Metz, is in the Lorraine region, however, unlike Metz, it is in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. Like the Musées de la Cour D'or in Metz, the Lorraine Museum has artifacts and descriptions of the ancient history of the region. In my Nancy Photo album, you will see a big golden porte, which is one of the entries to la Place Stanislas. Stanislas Leszczynski was an exiled Polish king who was given the Duchy of Lorraine as compensation when he abdicated.

Macarons, specifically, the macarons of Maison des Soeurs, a confection of egg white, almonds and sugar, are a culinary specialty of Nancy. These are nothing like the macaroons we think of in the US. They are more akin to a soft meringue in density and texture, and not as cloyingly sweet. The recipe for these macarons was developed by two sisters of the convent of Dames du Saint Sacrament, who sold them to earn a living when they took refuge with a local doctor after religious congregations were dissolved during the French revolution. The recipe has been passed on to the successors to their shop, outside of which I lined up with a horde of other tourists so I could send some to my father, sister and niece and bring some home with me, as well.

Information on Nancy...

Wikipedia has an English entry on Nancy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy.

The Nancy tourist board: http://www.ot-nancy.fr/uk/centre_historique/index.php.

I jogged to Parc de la Seille today, and saw two men on the basketball court, so I asked if I could shoot with them for a bit. I have not played basketball in 20 years (and it showed), and am not really a basketball person, but it felt so good to do something athletic again. It is difficult to explain, but there is something more satisfying about moving around on the sports field for me than being stuffed in a fitness center.

The two people turned out to be a director for an after school program for troubled teens, and one of his charges. The kid seemed to like the idea of playing basketball, but like most teens, not really keen on listening to what the instructor was saying, so he was doing layups off the wrong foot. The instructor would explain and demonstrate, and the kid would stand there looking like he was paying attention, and then just do whatever he wanted. Oddly enough, watching them made me miss coaching, and working with that age group (yes, I have worked with athletes younger than college age, I coached a team for underprivileged youth back in the day ... way back). It is not an easy age group to work with, but when you make a breakthrough with them, the rewards are much greater. A few of my friends know these kinds of programs are near and dear to my heart. I am contemplating going back and asking if they need a short-term volunteer. Maybe their bookkeeper wants to take a vacation.

I am picking up a little French from Mickaël. As it turns out, he went to school to teach Spanish. He is a good teacher and takes the time to explain grammatical points when I mess up (which is often). And Liz, if you happen to read this, he knows French, English, Spanish, Sign Language, Arabic and Russian. You have three languages in common (although I guess French Sign Language has some differences from ASL)!

I spent the evening fixing my internet connection. AGAIN! The cellular broadband modem stopped working with my Mac last week, and with my PC today. I did a reinstall on the PC, which worked, but it did not solve the issue with the Mac. I am guessing there is a protocol somewhere that needs to be trashed that I am missing. What a pain. Now that I think about it, I seem to remember this happening with my UK mobile broadband modem last year, and they are both made by Huawei. I wonder if it is a Huawei issue, or if I am the only person in the world this has happened to...

Of Racewalkers and Dogs

Today Metz hosted the European racewalking championships. I passed by the course early in the day, and there were spectators, coaches, and a cadre of volunteers lined up along the sides to offer moral support. As the racers came by, names were announced, and people cheered.

I continued on my way to find Fort de Queuleu, with a quick stop to stare at the construction site of the Centre Pompidou, and a side trip to a Park I happened upon on the way (entry and photos on those to come later, I hope). I also passed a basketball court, and something in me really wanted to play, even though I have not played in over 20 years. I think the competitive urge dies slowly. Maybe it never does.

The walk was a little longer than I anticipated, and I contemplated taking a shorter route home, but wanted to swing by the racecourse again, so I went back. The spectators and the announcer were long gone. Most of the people remaining were volunteers, and even they were silent and looking a little impatient. But there was one volunteer out there, still cheering on every racer that came by with the same enthusiasm I'd seen him display several hours earlier. His name is Henri (blue shirt in photo), and I felt thankful that he was there.

I admit I am not much of a racewalking fan, but back in the day, I ran 10,000 meters on a 400 meter oval (25 laps). The 10,000 was when everyone else went to lunch! Not many people stayed to cheer on the 10k runners, and even fewer hung around long enough to see in the stragglers. I have done my share of straggling, and have always appreciated the few empathetic souls who are there shouting encouragement to the bitter end. This small mention may not be much, but it is my tribute to Henri and others like him.

I went for another short walk after dinner to work out some of the kinks in my legs. On the way home, I passed the bleachers that had been set up for the race, oblivious to much of the hubbub of cleanup going on around me. And then a dog barked and growled, startling me so much I jumped and let out a yelp! There was a shepherd guarding equiment behind a set of barriers, and I had walked too close to his area! I laughed and noticed his handlers sitting nearby. They seemed amused by my reaction, and friendly, so I ran home, grabbed my camera and ran back to ask if I could take a photo of their dog (right - there is another photo of him in my Lorraine Fauna album). He is a beautiful shepherd, lean, with long, lanky legs. His handler had an iphone, and I entered the url for this blog directly into it, and saw yesterday's entry clear as a bell on his screen ... wow!