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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.

Cats

John and I have raised 7 cats together over 24 years and most of those experiences have been similar. The kit kats have some behaviors that are new to us: they tore up some furniture that they used as scratching posts (all the other kitties only used their scratching toys) and chewed a lot of cardboard (and spit it out) every day (I didn't even know cats chewed cardboard until Buster and Charlie came to live with us).

Tommy got very sick recently with something we'd never experienced before and I freaked out over it. He couldn't walk. He stumbled and staggered and walked only very short distances. His head was hanging down so low it almost touched the floor. I looked stuff up and tried to figure out what was happening but I was totally confused so we took him to our vet. We've learned that some older cats have sudden symptoms of vestibular disease and the cause can be an inner ear problem, a nerve problem or a brain problem. We don't know for sure what is the cause of Tommy's problem but he is slowly getting better as is the usual case for feline idiopathic vestibular disease. He's 15. My sister's cat lived to be 19 (and it was an outdoor cat too!). Tommy is the longest lived cat we've raised. We know with his heart and kidney disease he won't live much longer but we don't understand what his current level of pain/discomfort from the toxin accumulation in his body caused by the kidney disease is. We'll see the vet again in a week.

Yin Yang brothers	Buster and his nemesis, the laser light	Buster in his hammock
Charlie's afternoon nap	Tommy	The boys on neighborhood watch

Oberthur Park

A nice reflected view of the duck pond.	The tulips are blooming	New yellow spring growth on the pines.
Flowering hedges at the mansion's main entrance	Ironwork on the entrance door	I couldn't identify this bird. It's the first time we've seen it at Oberthur Park.

Thabor Park

John shares photos of our closest and favorite parks in each monthly blog. Now that it is solidly springtime in Rennes I thought I'd share a bit more about our 2 gorgeous nearby parks.

Here's a link to a search page for Thabor park which has many informative articles about all aspects of the park. If an article is in French just right-click to translate or paste the url into the translate box on Google translate.

Thabor Park is a stunning public garden in the heart of Rennes, France. This former garden of the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Melaine was laid out by Denis Bühler, a famous landscape designer of the 19th century. This 10-hectare park combines a French-style garden, an English-style park, a grotto, a bandstand, an aviary and an exceptional rose garden with more than 2,000 varieties!

Walking around the park, you'll come across several botanical gardens featuring different species of plants, trees, and flowers from all over the world, including an exotic greenhouse. Thabor has many picturesque walking paths, an aviary with a wide variety of bird species, a children's park.

More spring blooms	Early morning flowers	White ducks outside the aviary
It's a battle between my hayfever and enjoying the beautiful blooms.	More tulips...	and more hayfever...
Reminds me of the many tree tunnels we had in Oregon.	The ducks, geese and chickens were out in the medieval village.	Another view of the poultry village
Some of the chickens came over to see if we had any bird seed.	This little lawn mower robot did a great quiet job.

Around Rennes

Plywood and broken glass are some of the results of the pension protests.	15th Century Saint-Germain	Another view of Saint-Germain
A street in the historic quarter we hadn't been down before.	Palais Saint-Georges Garden	A view of where the garden would be. This was before a canal was created to control the La Vilaine river. (1840)
Love how the older buildings in Rennes are used for more modern purposes. This the the medical physical and rehabilitation center.	Another street in the historic quarter.	A half-timbered house in the historic quarter.
The Lycée Émile-Zola (high school) was opened in 1802.	Mosaics by the Odorico family can be found throughout Brittany.	Notre-Dame-en-Saint-Melaine (11th Century Church)
Cute bicycle child carrier	If you had any doubt that the French like their alcohol just check a glass recycling bin.	Rennes fire department headquarters for eastern Rennes
Bridge and reflection over the La Vilaine river	This marshy area of the La Vilaine river is home to many water birds.	Hard to see, but there's a blue heron and many ducks in this photo.

Europe

Keep your fingers crossed! "Turkey holds presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. They could unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), who have governed for the past 20 years. In that time, Erdogan and the AKP have left a deep mark on the country-expanding the role of Islam in the traditionally secular state and growing Turkey's influence abroad. But years of unorthodox economic policy and a deadly February earthquake have undermined confidence in the government, leading many voters to question the reputation for competent administration that has traditionally been central to the AKP's appeal. After two decades, Erdogan's departure is hard to imagine. Polls suggest that he may be defeated by an opposition candidate, but there is widespread belief that he will do whatever it takes to stay in power, using his incumbency advantages to eke out a narrow victory or challenge unfavorable results. "