Turkey Trot & Other Delights

I took myself for a walk today and took my camera with me, something I've never done before, except of course, traveling around Paris. I thought, why not? For one thing, there's a bunch (what does one call a group of turkeys?) of wild turkeys making their home in the neighborhood.

Earlier this morning I saw deer and then the turkeys. That is, of course, one of the things about my home that I love, the wild animals that I occasionally see around my home. I've even seen a fox. So I thought if I go out with my camera, maybe I'll get some interesting pictures.

That's a little different than my thought process when going out in Paris, but it's related. I'm having a difficult time making the transition back to what I suppose I must think of as "reality"... that is life now that I'm back in the United States.

So, yes. Turkeys. I didn't get close enough to get a good picture. They were only semi-tolerant of my presence. I walked down the road that runs from my house to the ocean. It's foggy out this afternoon and very damp. It's been raining pretty much non-stop since my arrival home last Friday, or so it seems.

I do intend to continue this blog. I'm not sure what it will turn into, not pictures of Mendocino, but for the moment it's part of the transition, I think.

I've been reading about Paris this last week. Just before I left, I went back to Shakespeare and Company and purchased a book on the history of Paris. I've been reading it—so far from the Roman beginnings to the reign of Louis XIV. It makes sense to me on a number of levels. First of all, I usually have a sense of where things are now. Almost everything I'm reading about has some sense of familiarity. And it's exciting because I'm seeing the roots of some of what everyone takes for granted about Parisian culture. For example, I've read all about the roots of the Latin Quarter and the way academia developed in Paris in the middle ages. I've also read a lot more than I had a about the café culture.

It makes sense that now that I can't walk out the door and into the world of Paris, I'm finding other ways to keep myself connected. Books. I've also been reading about the literary community, Hugo and all the others that were around in the early hours of the Romantic movement. I've been delving much deeper into Hugo's story and his influence.

All this because I'm about to rewrite the beginning of the book. I've even made one sweep over the terrain in the last couple of days. I'm not satisfied, but I'm closer. I spent about three hours drawing out a map of the area that the main thrust of the book takes place in—the 9th arrondissement from the Grand Boulevards in the South the Montmartre border in the north... from Porte Saint-Denis in the east to Rue Blanche in the west. This is where I lived and where I walked the most. In fact, I covered almost all of it by foot. Almost everything I read about, I've seen. I've gathered more background since coming home, from the Paris history and from several of the books that I couldn't take with me when I left for Paris, that are now of new interest.

So. It's probably going to take another few days or so before I figure out how to make the transition, especially here, in the blog. But that is my intention. I do have a book to write. And I intend to use this format to help myself along.