Karine Ardault

Do you remember Violette?

While I am in the plane flying back to Arusha I thought I should post about Violette.

Do you remember Violette? She is the poor little hedgie Ben and I rescued one night. Pour thing, she was not in shape at all. She was one-eyed and one of her feet was missing. She stayed home for one month more or less but as we were going back to France we had to release her.

When we rescued her she was in very bad shape, not even reacting when we were manipulating her. She also got hurt a bit when her leg got caught in the shower grid. And, a few days after we rescued her we noticed that her wounds on her back, where some of her spikes were missing, was fresh and a bit infected. It was smelling quite bad.

So as we knew we would be living for holidays soon we started a program so we could release her in the best conditions for her. She was not difficult with food at all and she was ok with the cat food. We were also giving her insects as often as we could, which in Africa is quite regularly! We also took good cart of her damaged skin and spikes. She did not like that much but she let us do what we had to do so she could heal properly, the base of her treatment being Aloe Vera gel on her skin and removal of dead tissues.

The weekend before we left for Europe we went in the coffee plantations area and released her. she looked quite happy to be back in the grass. I hope this little one is ok as she is quite vilnerable because of her wounds and missing spikes.

GOOD LUCK Miss VIOLETTE!

Ps: All photos were taken by Ben

Paris bis

I am going back home on Sunday and hopefully Ben will be picking me up at the airport. Usually I come back earlier than he does so no one is waiting for me at the airport.

I am waiting for the the moving company to come and pick up my shipment. 2 boxes. That is 25 kg. Most of what we find there is art related, mainly canvases. I hope nothing is going to be stolen this time!

The BNF is a great place to make photographs: lines, textures, reflection, glass, colors, architecture...

I have been having a lot of fun with my cameras. I did not take that many pictures but I am quite happy. My foot is still hurting me so I cannot walk as much as I would like. I am learning how to use the D300. Slowly. The manual is impressive!

An old shop facade in Paris.

Paris!

I thought I would have time to blog but time went too fast.

Holidays started quite bad when 3 hours before boarding the plane in Arusha I twisted my ankle very badly. On landing i went to the doctor and x-rays! Nice way to start holidays, isn't it? Then I used crutches. I am still suffering and I expect that it is going to take quite a long time to heal.

Summing up:

• I have a new camera: a Nikon D300. I LOVE IT.
• Paris was great
• Time with Ben was great
• The dollar is too low
• the euro is too high
• Brussels was great
• Nice pictures were taken
• I started to use a Holga
• I bought a new photo bag: awesome
• I did not rest enough
• My foot is hurting me
• I find that I love taking the metro and the bus
• I discovered a photo book shop in Paris
• I miss Miss Muffin
• I miss my super doggy too
• I am happy to go back soon - I miss my home

Below are some of the pictures i took with  my new camera, the D300. It is called Dédé.

   

Cuddle

Some pictures of Cuddle my super dog! and tomorrow more about my ankle, my new camera and Violette!

And in the US, I have been...

there:

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Countries were I have travelled

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

painting

This is the results of this week lesson with Paulette Insall "All about faces" Class. I did not have the right colors to mix for the face shades expect for one but I think I managed. Globally, I think the lady is a little pale but right now I think she is looking ok for a first one :-)

And another Saturday without power

I was woken up by the rain this morning. it was raining heavily. In the living room too! Still I went for grocery shopping. The good side of it is that other people stayed home so there was no traffic and it was easy to park! That was the good side of the rain. Driving in the puddles of water was fun too...

Ben was not flying today (happy face there). We played with our respective computers until the power went out after lunch time. so I made some art.

Below is my first try at making a mosaic with some of my flickr pictures.

 

1. DSCN0966web, 2. DSCN0959web, 3. _K112101web, 4. _K112093web, 5. _K081929web, 6. _6040016web

I should do that more often.

Violette is still home. from the start I found she was smelling quite strong even after having been given a bath. I noticed this morning that the smell is coming from her back were she has been wounded. There is a lot of dead skin. It was not easy to spot because spikes are very close to each others and there was no blood. So now the priority is to have all the dead skin on her back removed slowly and she is going to have massages of her back twice a day with aloe vera. She is recovering are new spikes are already coming out from under the skin.

That's all for today

Sky

 

Fly.....

landscape

This picture was taken during one of our little drive around Arusha. One of the many rifts around here.

Sorry, not much time lately... I am spending way too much time in Office so no time to play!