Here is the really bad news.   I have no idea where my Partridge, my Pear Tree or my Turtle Doves are located at the present time.  My Mom started to tell me some sorry story about the fact that I might be "barking up the wrong pear tree" in expecting these to really appear on my porch, but if there are no REAL birds or trees, then why did anyone go to so much trouble to write this song and then probably sing it for hundreds and hundreds of years?

                                        Life, it seems, is once again, very unfair and VERY difficult to understand.

Mom says there is nothing wrong with continuing to believe in the arrival of the tree and the birds, and if I am going to wait for them, at least I should continue to educate myself and my fans with some facts.    You know how I feel about my reporting job and that I think a BoyBloggingPitBull has a big responsibility and needs to be accurate.    (That is a large word for correct)

So.  This is what my MP (Mouse Person) turned up about the French Hens, three of which I am now expecting to arrive with the partridge, the turtle doves and a tree for them to live in or under.

"The three French Hens probably refer to a variety of chicken from France  (duh...... do you think so? - geeze. I'm a dog and I could figure that out, Mouse!)  . There are many varieties of chicken and in the period during which this carol developed there were three main varieties of chickens associated with France. These were the Crevecoeur, Houdans and the La Fleche. The fact that they referred to a French rather than an English variety of chicken may be an indication that the carol originated in France or the words French Hens may have just had a good sound."

   I don't think a song writer should just throw some words together because the "just have a good sound".     I think someone could get into a lot of trouble on that path.    

                     Now the problem has become to find an accurate photo of The French Hen.   So here goes:

                                                        
THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS A CREVECOEUR.   Ha!   And below, which is down, is a HOUDAN:

  This is my idea of a CHICKEN. Oops, a Hen.   Wow.   I like it.

                                                            
And finally.   The "hens" above are named LaFleche.   To me, they look like the first one, and I pick the one in the middle, the Houdan, as my favorite, so I'm hoping that it is the one that arrives with my tree and my other new feathered friends.    I don't care what my Mom says, I AM STILL EXCITED ABOUT THE NEXT TIME OUR UPS MAN COMES TO VISIT.  

And just to prove to my Mom that my friends are also interested in the arrival of the birds, I got a very nice e-mail today from my good friends Lyn and Karen Lindberg  (these are my friends who take the fantastic WEDDING photos and who Washingtonian Magazine thinks are some of THE BEST in our neighborhood ---- in case you forgot about me telling you not to forget about them)

With the E-Mail was a very, very Happy and Wonderful picture of A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE.    Ha!    Here it is.  I love it.
                                                                     
                                                                       

This picture makes me feel very happy.      Mom says if "all else fails"   that she will get me a cute little picture frame and hang this above my water dish, so I will always be able to remember the Christmas I spent so much time researching little known facts that no one cared about.     Somehow, that sounds like my Mom is being sarcastic (and yes, I do know the meaning of that word).   I don't care, I am doing the world a service by helping everyone to understand a silly song and by the time I am through, I am sure everyone will thank me.

Love and Licks,
Bob
Famous Reporter of Little Known Facts