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2837. Macnas - 3/31/2005 7:39:22 AM I think, but I'll have to look it up, that stoats are very closely related to weasels, ermine and mink. All mustelids, if my memory serves me right. I think the badger is among that group as well.
I cannot say as to how bad a stoats odour might be, as I have never been that close to one. But I do know that ferrets, particularly male ferrets (called a hob) can stink to high heaven. We used to keep ferrets when I was a boyeen:
Thats a working albino ferret, about to flush a rabbit to the waiting lurcher. I have thoughts that when I retire I'll rear some and relive my youth. 2838. alistairconnor - 3/31/2005 9:40:44 AM I saw a ferret the other day, crossing the road. I think it's the first one I've seen.
Though it could have been a stoat. I didn't ask him.
(anyway I can't think of the French for stoat.)
Old but lame :
What's the difference between a weasel and a stoat? 2839. alistairconnor - 3/31/2005 10:13:41 AM ... one of them's weasily distinguished...
... and ... 2840. Ronski - 4/3/2005 4:04:23 AM The spring thaw:
 2841. Ronski - 4/3/2005 3:35:40 PM That was yesterday. Today, the rain has turned to wet snow. 2842. Ronski - 4/3/2005 4:42:08 PM The aforementioned wet snow:
 2843. jayackroyd - 4/3/2005 4:43:23 PM And we're playing baseball tonight at 8 pm. Idiots. 2844. Ronski - 4/3/2005 7:08:42 PM Ground squirrel, in tree.
 2845. Magoseph - 4/3/2005 7:43:06 PM 
My son just sent this picture, which he took this morning--he has a new program and I haven't learned yet how to resize before transfer to Shutterfly.
2846. alistairConnor - 4/3/2005 10:08:35 PM ... and the other's stoatily different
(in case you were wondering) 2847. Macnas - 4/4/2005 9:31:55 AM Not really no. 2848. Magoseph - 4/4/2005 10:30:57 AM In the last picture above, what type of bird is the one in the middle? 2849. Ronski - 4/4/2005 11:56:43 AM Looks like male house finch. 2850. thoughtful - 4/4/2005 3:17:42 PM I always have trouble telling the purple finch from the house finch.
Purple
.jpg)
House
 2851. ronski - 4/4/2005 3:28:57 PM The purple has more coloring and deeper coloring. In the photo, the one on the right is clearly a female house finch, which has a broken-striped belly.
The one of the left is harder to discern; maybe a sparrow. 2852. ronski - 4/4/2005 3:29:21 PM No, I think it too is a female house finch. 2853. thoughtful - 4/4/2005 6:04:59 PM most likely since they travel in bunches
maybe i've not seen a male purple finch and that's why i can't tell them apart.
just like with our downey woodpeckers... I was busy debating if they were downey or hairy until the hairy woodpecker came to visit. The size was stunningly different and I've never confused them again.
2854. Ronski - 4/5/2005 12:26:35 AM Last light:
 2855. Magoseph - 4/5/2005 12:37:20 PM Thank you, Ronski and thoughtful--there's a place on my son's property where the migrating birds stay a couple of days, hundreds of them- lots of grain for his birdfeeders, he says. 2856. webfeet - 4/5/2005 1:48:14 PM O que je suis contente de quitter la France!
I have never been happier, never been more delighted than to leave la maison de belle mere. Provence, you say? I can no longer hear the cicadas sing. The sweet smell of lavande drifting in from the garden? Non, plus! Only the sound of belle mere sucking on her teeth disapprovingly, like a glacon at the end of a meal. "Tu veux encore un petit peu plus?"
"Non, merci." Cubes of rabbit in a mess of a sauce. Degoulasse.
France, you know that place where American tourists go for the gastronomic experience of a lifetime? Non, non non! That France may exist to the happy tourists laughing over a pichet du vin rouge in the cafes, but not chez belle mere, where it's either regime or little easter lambs in a bed of potatoes and grease.
Not only does belle mere hold me fatally responsible for frenchcat's paunch, but she is now waving pictures of a trim and scary looking Diana Ross in my face, "Quelle est mince!" she says holding up Paris Match, as if to remind me that a woman thirty years my senior has a better ligne than me.
Hello, I'm not fat!
Most people when they think of spending two weeks in Aix en Provence, sigh with plaisir. They are the lucky ones. They haven't stayed with belle mere...La plus les choses changent...
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