Sad Day

April 4, 2026 Timothy Price24 Comments

Sunrise

Laurie called me early this morning because Marble Kitty was having problems breathing. She took her to an emergency vet, and Marble had fluid pressing on her lungs. The vet removed the fluid and Marble had a collpsed lung with a mass in it. A long story short, she didn’t make it. Sadly we lost one of the sweetest kitties.

Between back and forth with Laurie on Marble’s condition, Marina, Socrotis and I went out to buy bread, and then in the afternoon we went to dinner in a restaurant by the sea.

It’s been raining on and off all day, and the area has received “buckets of rain” over the past few months, so the vegetation is green and wildflowers are blooming everywhere.

Dinner

View from the table

Local black cat

Long Legged Buzzard

Assissin Bug

Local frogs

We heard a chirping sound that sounded like a bird, but it was coming from under a concrete slab, and Merlin Bird ID could not identify what it was. Marina looked under the concrete but could see anything. I took photos under the concrete, and after I processed the photo, I found the frog on the right-hand photo with its head sticking up out of the water.

Houses with a great view

Handicap access to the water

This sweet dog came out to greet us

Sunset to the east

Cool lights over the dining room table in the Airbnb I’m staying in down the road from Marina and Socrotis.

France Day 16 Chateau d’If

May 28, 2013 Timothy Price15 Comments

Our last day in Provence, and the sea was calm enough for us to get a boat out to Chateau d’If, the island castle turned prison that was made famous by Alexandre Dumas in his novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The most famous prisoner on Chateau d’If was Edmond Dantes, Dumas’ fictional character who was wrongly imprisoned on d’If for 14 years, and who meets the Abbe Faria after Faria digs a tunnel into Dantes’ chamber. Faria educates Dantes, Dantes escapes posing as the dead Faria, and becomes the Count of Monte Cristo. Even though Dantes and the Abbe never existed, there is a tunnel adjoining two chambers that are labeled Abbe Faria and Edmond Dantes. The castle is in great condition with access to almost every room. In some of the rooms they have sound effects to give added ambience. There are lots of seagulls nesting on the island, and ignoring the signs saying that seagulls are dangerous, I got very close to one that sitting on her eggs. She was very vocal about my close proximity, but simply held her ground.

France Day 12 Cassis

May 24, 2013 Timothy Price10 Comments

Cassis is a beautiful village tucked into a cove with a couple of small, but nice beaches. It’s like a dream village for those who would like to get up, have coffee looking out on the water, lay in the sun and wade in the clear, blue water. There is a scenic road the winds along the cliffs above the sea between Cassis and La Ciotat we were going to drive, but it was closed. The road up the mountain on the way was so steep that the VW Up! we are driving could barely get Up the road — truly “hors catégorie” on the grade of that road. The last photo is face of Mont Sainte Victoire. Cézanne painted the profile of the Sainte Victoire looking east.