Or, “NEVER Eff*** with a Librarian”
Those who know me know I went to library school, even worked as a librarian and an archivist. Those of you who know me and are also librarians and archivists know that it is never wise to tell lies about factual matters around a librarian or an archivist because WE WILL HIDE YOUR SHIT WHERE IT WILL NEVER BE SEEN AGAIN!
It’s also unwise to say things in conversation that can be easily verified later as being false. And there hangs the tale…
Among the dinner topics last night, it being Friday the 13th of October (read through this to see why some people find that date, uhm, unauspicious — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar ) was the question of whether or not there were squirrels in France.
One of the members of the dinner party asked if there were any squirrels on the estate and Himself replied in a baronial manner that, in fact, there were no squirrels on the estate nor in France, but that there were squirrels in the UK, the red ones being harassed mightily by those dastardly imported grey ones from the Colonies. And there followed much back-and-forth about the squirrels in the UK…
Being as squirrels are just bushy-tailed rats, I smelled one, pulled my phone out of my pocket and quietly and discretely did a quick search, turning up this little gem —
http://www.planetepassion.eu/mammals-in-france/Red-squirrel-Sciurus-vulgaris-Ecureuil-roux-in-France.html — but kept it to myself, having actually seen something large enough to be one in one of the upper limbs of a tree earlier in the week.
So today, I was standing in the back doorway, enjoying a tasty orange, gazing at the colors of the trees as they turn, when the resident grey heron made a grand entrance over on the lake. I thought I’d slip upstairs, grab the telephoto lens and snag a shot from the from the window.
So I quickly got upstairs, went to the already open window and sat looking, in vain, for the heron. As I did, something moved in my peripheral vision but I wasn’t quick enough to see what it was. A few minutes later, once again, there was a shadow flickering by but this time I spotted it. And turned the big lens in its direction:
The very Baron himself was positively shocked when I showed him this photo.
Yeah, right. There are no squirrels at Le Chateau des Araignées, nor any in all of France.
And NEVER f**k with a librarian/archivist.
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