The great massacre!

Envision this.... you look out your back window and all over your lawn, and floating all around through the air, you see flecks of white down, some small, some pretty good-sized fluffy clumps. You realize you have four cats that love to hunt, and fear that somehow they've managed to catch a large white bird in your backyard. The carnage must be horrible!

I saw just that this morning, and had thoughts of murdered egrets, or even of massacred down pillows or comforters. Fortunately, I knew better.

For, you see, this is spring and the cottonwoods (don't know what they're called in French) have gone to seed. The fluff is quite literally everywhere! After a couple of nice sunny-breezy days, it will drift up like sea-foam in the corners of your back yard. Pretty amazing stuff.