NormandieCJ
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normandiecj.bsky.social
NormandieCJ
@normandiecj.bsky.social
2.2K followers 2.7K following 7.2K posts
British. Living + working in FR 🇫🇷 - Normandie / Bretagne 🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 😷
Love: wildlife, cats, dogs, rabbits, hares... food, reading, photography... & life. Somewhat fond of: #TheArchers. Typos guaranteed 😁
Pro: vax, masks, Europe. Anti: DMs
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normandiecj.bsky.social
😁

No, I thought I'd spammed #ORC enough with Rufus 😺 photos so this morning, I included a perky little robin instead.

Rufus is a rescue we adopted 2 wks ago - a Maine Coon X - and he's proving to be an 'interesting' lad. Eg, he figured out how to open our bedroom door. At 2am. 🙄
December 8, 2025 at 8:31 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
He's 7 so we kinda expected him to be a bit less demanding than a younger cat... but he's clearly had some difficult times in those 7yrs. It's definitely a case of him finding his feet (& boundaries) with us. He only arrived 2wks ago & I can see he's already more relaxed generally - which is +ve. 😺
Tabby / tigré cat standing on a wooden chest to give himself sufficient height to press down on door handle - metal handle visible on his right, paw on top. Rescued from the streets of a suburb south of Paris, he was nursed back to health by the rescue and we adopted him 2 weeks ago. We've never adopted an adult cat so it's proving a voyage of discovery for all of us. :-)
December 8, 2025 at 8:17 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour Guy & ORCers. ☕

I'm up earlier than recently due to an extremely vocal and persistent Rufus rattling the door handle to the bedroom. 🙄 Apparently he suffers from separation anxiety at night. We'll leave the radio on for him this evening. 🙄 😄

Hope everyone has a good-to-excellent week. 🤞
Perky robin redbreast standing on gravel on a grey winter day.
December 8, 2025 at 6:54 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour Hilary and ORChestra. ☕

Dark, cold... because December. 🤷‍♀️

May go for a walk later but depends on the weather. There's no fun in walking in the rain. No particular plans for today but it will fill with little things that give me joy (one of them likely feline 😍)

Have a good Sunday all. 🤞
Three winter roses in a (just visible) glass vase - from a few weeks ago. Several varieties, pinky apricot and pale-to-mid pink. Very little scent at this time of year.
December 7, 2025 at 7:29 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
The key works. 😄

I thought he was reaching from the ground but turns out he is using an adjacent wooden trunk to give him height and stability and then leaning out to depress the handle from above. This seems to display a worrying level of efficient problem-solving. 🤨
December 6, 2025 at 4:33 PM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Happy #Caturday 🥰

Brown tigré / tabby cat, on a shelf in his 'catio', carefully judging the capabilities of the photographer... and clearly failing to be impressed. 😬
December 6, 2025 at 7:30 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
The day is perking up nicely.
Pink streaked dawn sky, countryside, bare trees mid-ground and a line of distant, misty hills behind. Pink and orange streaked dawn sky behind the dark silhouette of an old, timber farm building.
December 5, 2025 at 7:46 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
😁 With Rufus's determination to scale every summit, that's a little too close to the actual truth. Within 30 mins of his arrival 12 days ago, he was investigating the feasibility of using the tv as a launch pad. 🤦

TV now has a safety bracket. Clock and pictures have been rehomed. 🙄
December 5, 2025 at 7:14 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Yay to both dates / events !

And has A recovered well from his health hiccup? 🤞
December 4, 2025 at 10:55 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour Clare & all ORCestra members.

Update on Rufus 😺 - the wound is healed, cone has gone (till the next time he misjudges something 🙄) He's an adventurous lad & he has to explore by climbing the top of every cupboard, wardrobe - even cast an enquiring eye on the oak frame... above the stairs. 🤦
Alert brown tabby tigré cat lying across the top of wooden stairs with metal balusters. Behind him is a half-height stone wall. Large tabby cat with fluffy tail standing on hind legs assessing whether it's worth climbing up a wooden door (with decorative grille and half-panelled in glass) to check egress potential. So. Tabby cat sitting on desk surveying climbing opportunities. The desk is there to assist him jumping onto the 3/4 wall above the stairs. Otherwise we think he might jump up from the far side of the wall and the momentum might cause him to slip and plummet. He has safely explored the wall from the desk but what I didn't anticipate was his instant belief it might be worth trying to jump from the wall to the wood frame set into the wall above. 🤦
December 4, 2025 at 7:16 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour Jules (congrats on your assignment pass even if your axes had a wobble 😁) & ORCestra. 🎶

Another grey day. But we may get periods of brightness later so 🤞

Hope everyone has a pleasant hump day.
Normandie countryside in early winter. Roughly ploughed field in foreground, hedge with bare trees in mid ground - a few small beeches still holding onto golden leaves - and hills just visible behind the hedge in the far distance. Sky was blue but with a good covering of off-white and grey cloud cover.
December 3, 2025 at 7:39 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour, Didi and les ORCers. ☕

Dark, quiet. Haven't looked at the forecast so don't know what today's weather promises. Sheep and chickens still in bed, Rufus has just wrought havoc on the keyboard - Ctrl-Z very useful function. 😉

Hope everyone has a good start to December. 🎁
Christmassy green (foliage) table decoration with gold pine cones, red stars and a short, red, tubby candle (lit).
December 1, 2025 at 7:04 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour ☕

Hope things are good with you today. 🤞
Beach scene, wet sand, small waves rolling in. Pale blue sky with layers of fluffy white clouds. Centre of photo is a horse and owner with a third figure, silhouetted against the sea, reflections on the sand. The young horse was being gently introduced to the surface and the water. Initially he was not impressed, but he gradually relaxed as he was led backwards and forwards.
November 30, 2025 at 9:11 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour toots. ☕

Late arrival here. I stayed up late reading and have been slow off the mark this morning. Nothing exciting planned but may fit in a beach walk later as the weather is bright and sunny.

#BonDimanche to all. 🌞
The town of Granville (Manche, Normandie) from the beach at Saint Pair-sur-Mer. Foreground is sea and a sandbank, mid-ground is part of coastal Granville in the sun, with a bank of light cloud above.
November 30, 2025 at 8:46 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
🤦
Cat in a cone assessing out the escape possibilities of the catio. A determined tigré cat on hind legs looking upwards, paws on the lower bars of the wire. Cat in a cone assessing out the escape possibilities of the catio. A determined tigré cat on hind legs looking upwards as it scales the wire. And we're at the top - 2.4m high. 🤦 He did drop back down successfully and safely.
November 29, 2025 at 4:21 PM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bunch of garden roses, four varieties in a range of colours and sizes - dark red, mid-pink, apricot and golden yellow.
November 29, 2025 at 8:45 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour all and #BonWeekend ☕

As it's #Caturday (and I've been quite restrained on the feline photo front this week, I thought SORCers might like this: 'A Study in Deceptive Book Titles'

Hope everyone has a fine final weekend of November before December bursts in on the scene. 🤞
A brown tabby tigré cat gazing wistfully into the future, wondering how a book can be allowed to be so deceptive. On top of a low chest of drawers, Rufus is lounging on a pile of books, the top one being Diana Henry's "A Bird In The Hand" - an extreeemly good cookery book. Cat is wearing a cone around his neck to prevent him overgrooming a small, healing wound on his leg.
November 29, 2025 at 8:33 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
November 28, 2025 at 10:46 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour toots. ☕

Grey, misty... very Normandie. Nothing dramatic planned today - cooking, need to make some new cushion covers, play with Rufus, read... a touch of sunlight would be nice but... 🤷‍♀️

Have a good Friday and a #BonWeekend when it arrives.
Robin Redbreast being a pop of colour on grey gravel in front of a grey wall.
November 28, 2025 at 7:56 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Morning MDW and all ORCers. ☕

Off shopping soon - need vegetables, apples and cheese so not a major trawl. Very grey, misty morning. Gorgeous day yesterday tho and an excellent beach walk was had at St-Pair-sur-Mer in the late afternoon. Have a good Thursday. 😊
Sunny beach scene, tide way out. Half-a-dozen or so figures dotted around on the sand. Empty seawater pools middle of picture - the plug is pulled in winter leaving them empty as the tide recedes. St-Pair-sur-Mer, south of Granville, Normandie. Sunny beach scene, tide way out. Shows some of the beach front houses mostly shut up now until Christmas / new year. St-Pair-sur-Mer, south of Granville, Normandie. Sculpture silhouette against the darkening beach. Metal, comprises an abstract person leaning against a representation (?) of a tree with wheeling gulls in the sky. My interpretation only!
November 27, 2025 at 8:25 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Or MC cross. S/he doesn't quite have the MC tail - as far as I can see.
November 26, 2025 at 8:28 PM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Nice #sunset over the coast (Baie du Mont-Saint-Michel) this evening.

#Normandie
Gold and orange sunset reflecting over distant sea. Contrails criss-crossing the darkening November sky. Gold and orange sunset over a sliver of sea in the distance. Silhouette of a single clump of distant trees on the horizon.
November 26, 2025 at 6:33 PM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Bonjour Guy (yay!) and les ORCs. ☕

Damp but bright morning here. 'Rufus' seems to have managed to pass the night without leaping up onto the top of the wood burning stove. In a bizarre & spooky touch of synchronicity yesterday, first time ever a red-legged partridge appeared in the garden... >
November 25, 2025 at 7:28 AM
normandiecj.bsky.social
Well, it's a weird synchronicity but... we'd debated and more or less decided on Rufus when, for the *first time ever* a red-legged partridge appeared in the garden. Latin name? Tetrao rufus. 😮
November 24, 2025 at 6:18 PM
normandiecj.bsky.social
😁

They're not great photos - the light in the sitting room at night isn't good. But you get the picture. 🥰
@rolypeck.bsky.social

#ProofOfCat #CatsOfBluesky
Large tigré tabby cat in a cone walking along the back of a sofa covered in throws and cushions. The sofa, not the cat. The photo was taken about 30 minutes after he arrived after a 4 hour road trip from the south of Paris. He's a confident chap. Large tigré tabby cat (Maine Coon croisé, wearing a cone) assessing the best route to the top of a dresser... possibly using the top of a flat screen tv as a scrambling + launch point. (noooo!) TV is now tethered to the wall with hooks and baler twine and clock and pictures have been re-homed.
November 24, 2025 at 8:33 AM