Une tourterelle l'hiver

Vous pouvez voir à votre gauche la première photo publiée sur ce blogue en janvier 2014 et, ironiquement, ce n'est ni une photo prise en janvier, ni la photo du mois (je bloguerai plus amplement sur celle à venir). Je voulais marquer le mois par une image hivernale, j'ai pensé à celle-ci que mon père m'a envoyée en novembre. Vous voyez la tourterelle? Les mangeoires du jardin enneigé et les oiseaux, plus particulièrement les tourterelles, pour moi c'est ça l'hiver.

Find the turtle doves

I am longing for snow, so I calm my longing by looking at pictures my father sent me of my very wintery home town of Chicoutimi. Here is one I particularly love, of the family's snowy garden. Can you find and count the turtle doves? The garden is full of birds all year round, various species of birds, but in the last few years there are many and mostly turtle doves. My father loves them and gets protective of them. They are particularly fitting during winter, and I guess even more so during Christmastime, because of this song. Here they camouflage fairly well in the snow, but you can still see them.

The cat and the turtle dove

My father sent me this picture a few months ago, when I started feeding Odin and blogging about him. (And by the way, I know I haven't blogged about Odin since very early October, I promise to make amend soon). This was taken in my parents' back garden, this is the apple tree that for some reason is considered "my" tree (each brother has his tree in the garden) and you see this tabby cat working very hard to hunt a turtle dove, oblivious to the danger. Dad never told me if the tabby cat got it or not in the end. My father loves birds, different ones, he loves to feed them, he loves to have them in the family garden. So he does not like cats. Not one little bit. I know this picture might upset some people, as it shows a side of the felines that are less pleasant to some: their hunting instinct. I should say their killer instinct. 

That said, I love the picture. I find it quite artsy, with the cat blending very well with the background. I find his perseverance commendable. However cruel it may seem, I find the image actually suspenseful. And I don't find it so cruel, to be honest. I don't mind that cats are hunters and follow their instinct. I cannot blame the cat for wanting to hunt a bird. I would rather have him hunt mice, but it is because I don't like mice. And I find it always fascinating, how such a beautiful creature can be so ruthless. Like my brother PJ once said on Facebook, about one of the cats that had turned his own garden into a hunting ground: "Cats are killers, but they are so darn cute." It explains them in a nutshell, I think. I don't know if I blogged this line before, but it deserves to be a great unknown line. And I guess that's why I wanted to upload this picture and blog about it. The moral of the story of the cat and the turtle dove, which the end is unknown to me, is that cats are killers, but they are really cute nevertheless.

Une photo hivernale

Je faisais le tour des photos que j'avais reçu de mon père par le passé dans ma boîte de courriel. J'ai trouvé celle-ci, d'une tourterelle (je crois) dans une mangeoire, elle date de février 2007 et a bien sûr été prise à Chicoutimi. Puisque jusqu'ici la neige ne vient pas à moi, j'en mettrai donc sur ce blogue. Une tourterelle, c'est comme les "two turtle doves" de la chanson. Il n'y a pas de traduction en français de celle-là, pas à ce que je sache en tout cas. En fait si, il y a une adaptation, ou alors une chanson ayant la même origine, mais elle est complètement différente, quoique l'on peut facilement voir les similarités. Enfin bref, ça n'a pas d'importance: une tourterelle qui mange un jour d'hiver enneigé, ça me calme un peu du mal du pays.