MOVED IN

I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been so busy moving to an apartment in Los Angeles. I only have a few days before I leave for Paris to start the French film, “…Et Si On Vivait Tous Ensemble” (“..and if we all lived together”). And only a week after I get there before I begin shooting. Whew! I feel betwix’t and between….not really out of Atlanta, not really here…like I’m in a dream. I like my new digs. Very small but it’ll do. Careful shopping at The Container in Atlanta and Bed Bath and Beyond out here have enabled me to put lots of stuff into small places. Much of the furniture I am surrounded by here are pieces I had at my home in Santa Monica 20 years ago, then they moved to the penthouse I shared with Ted on the top of the CNN center in Atlanta then they moved to my office, then to storage. They’ve been waiting for a nice new home.

I have a high up view onto the Hollywood Hills to the north. It’s Peaceful and looks a little like the coastal hills of Portofino.

 On another note, a pair of Mallard ducks have take up residence in Richard’s pool. Richard doesn’t know about ducks and thought the showy one with shiny green neck with white stripe was the female. Wrong: in the bird world, it’s the males who have bright plumage, not the females who are sort of earthen colors better to be camouflaged while they sit on their eggs. They wouldn’t want to attract attention/danger from predators. Maybe the couple will have a brood/gaggle/flock…not sure what the right word is for a Duck family. I bet one of you tells me. At my friend’s Paula’s pool, I once saw a mama duck with 7 ducklings. Very cool. 

In fact, Paula’s about to arrive with her daughter, Hannah, my goddaughter, to see the apartment and go to dinner. Troy and Simone are supposed to come too but I haven’t heard from them. Rats!! Zzzzzxxx

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42 Comments
  1. My late husband often boasted the fact his feathered friends were more spectacular than the female.

    To which I would reply the rooster was a case in point, all cock with no doodle do.

  2. If it weren’t for Donald and Daisy, I wouldn’t even know ducks came in different genders.

  3. Also, the males need to be brighter to attract females in the first place! And it’s mating season so they are particularly bright!

  4. Jane, what a wonderful life! Waving hello from Dallas/Fort Worth!!

  5. Welcome Home, dear Jane! Good to have you back on the Left Coast! I too just moved into a much smaller abode, and still getting over the shock…Ciji Ware’s book “Rightsizing” was inspirational, several of my friends are now reading it…My former husband and I were at Femmy DeLeyser’s class the night our daughter was born – I still have the book the two of you did! I’m a photographer (link, above) currently moonlighting as the archivist of pioneer environmental activist, Ellen Stern Harris. Best wishes for a pleasant and peaceful settling in….Thanks for all the great global and national help you have been through the years! xoxo Loretta

  6. My husband and I call baby ducks “biscuits” because that’s just what those beyond-cute little puffballs look like. Don’t put chlorine in the pool.

  7. Greetings Miss Fonda from New Zealand….Glad that your move went well and you are finally making another Movie!! Cant wait to see you back on the big screen. Stay safe on your travels!!

  8. Hi Jane. We are in the middle of our big trek across American. Yesterday visiting my Aunt Anne, 88 years young in Burbank. Oh, that L.A. traffic is not fun in a 30 foot motorhome. Then today rode the One coastal highway from San Luis Obispo to Monterey tonight. Scary drive in a motor home but oh so beautiful. Tomorrow we cross the Golden Gate Bridge and then on into Oregon, Washington, Montana, Glacier Park, Wyoming. Good luck with you new film in Paris. Have a warm un bagette for me.

  9. Bonjour Jane,
    I am a keen follower of yours from Chamonix, France, about the age of your daughter Vanessa.
    May I suggest a correction in your above post?
    The French title of your next movie should read “Et si on vivait tous ensemble” 🙂
    I wish you a nice moving in week in LA and a wonderful time in France. Hope you will have time to spend time out of Paris and enjoy the rest of the country too (of course I would strongly recommend the Alps and the Mont-Blanc range, but I am not neutral here!).
    I have been looking up to you since my childhood when my Dad introduced me to movies, I learnt a lot about women, success and mistakes from your autobiography, and I really enjoy reading your posts and tweet and knowing that you have so much going on. It is very inspiring.
    Bonne journée !

    Emmanuelle

  10. Ducks…well it depends what they are doing 😉

    It is a flock….but if you want to get fancy ducks in flight is a skein or string…..ducks on water is a bunch or raft.

    Read your blog whenever you post Miss Fonda…..you’re an inspiration!

    Mike (kiwi in London)

  11. Hi everybody. How do I look????

  12. Wonderful blog notes from you Jane. Your new abode may be small but then, it will be easier to clean and easier to heat and cool.
    I am hoping that your book about ageing is going to be available soon. I work as a teacher in aged care and community services in rural Victoria Australia- and would love to have your book as a reference- I just know it will be well researched and presented. Also the excercise program for older people I read about is something I have been suggesting, (to anyone who would listen) is needed, since meeting a 70 year old man on a train who was as fit as a fiddle and instructed older people in fitness, he was a real inspiration to me, who is in their early 50’s something. All the very best in all your work and personal endeavors. Loved the picture of you and Michael Jackson by the way.

  13. Welcome back, Jane! I’ve missed your daily comments. I hope we get a glimpse of your new apartment. I wish you all the best in LA and your new digs. Good luck with the movie shoot in Paris; safe and enjoyable trip. Very excited about your return to the big screen.

    Love and light,
    Bill

  14. Sounds wonderful. Such energy and enthusiasm for this beautiful world around you!

  15. I hope this information can find you , I have sent my script to CAA , based on your contact information and of course your Agent at CAA would not know that you give me that information. I did write a script with you in mind. With the understanding your interested in doing more films in the United States, CAA my think NOT. CAA just thinks it was some unsolicited script.Kevin Huvane, EVP will never even see it or you would not even get a notice of it. Even with the fact that you give me the contact information . YOu do have my e-mail contact information here , at the blog.

    I’m also working on the sublect of Orsen Welles and civil right, how Welles influenced Harry S. Truman over the case of Issic Woodward. Ollie Harrington, public relations director for NAACP enlisted the aid of Orson Welles, who proformed a dramiatic reenactment of the attack on Woodard over Orson Welles Commentaries broadcast nationally on ABC Furious white South Carolinians , denounced the network and demaned Welles be dismissal, ABC canceled the show, bringing the actors social activism to a halt. Foes of racism like actor Orson Welles denounced the atrocity, and the incident also influenced the thinking of a Missouri-born Truman told Walter White, “I had no idea it was as terrible as that. We’ve got to do something. interesting story as well.

  16. Ducks, ducks, ducks! There are so many varieties, which I’m just discovering now, in my fifties, even though I was raised on a farm near here in Saskatchewan and why didn’t I ever notice them before? Now I live right next to a slough (or pond, as some might call it) that has all kinds of ducks. I can watch them from my back step that overlooks the water, and hear them and the other waterfowl and frogs all day and half the night. It’s paradise. Glad to hear Richard, even living in the city, gets to have some wildlife around.

  17. thanks for sharing!just about to turn the french film in France, your second country!!by the way, if i read properly, , you’ll act directly in french? that’s cool! welcome from France! PS/ you’re right in the duck couple, the male is all gorgeous,bright colored, in the human world ,women used mak-up ,and all the fuss, not frightened of predators, and bare the childs!! anyway, it’s good to be a woman, to be seductive, and also to have nine month to bear life, you showed this marvel in your pregnancy book and vid, and i remember a conference from you so humoured and witty speaking of little macho men boys, your gesture , your voice, it’s was stunning,i ‘d like to be able to say it like that! no wonder, you’re such a great actress, and about being a woman with brain, you always show the way, Jane!!!

  18. Wish I could have a life like yours! Sounds amazing even it is a whirlwind for you. Were hardly making it but it’s amazing to hear from some one who has, keeps me inspired as as an artist.

  19. Hi Jane

    I googled. It’s a brace or badling of ducks. Never heard of it.

    We’ve got little ducklings in our park here in Hamburg. Sooo cute. Nature is so amazing.

    Hope you’ll be happy in your new home. I can’t believe how flexible you are in your life. Moving here, there and everywhere. Don’t you just want to settle down? 🙂 Doubt it. Good on you! Never get too soggy, or what was it that Katherine Hepburn said to you?

    I bought the DVD of ’12 Angry Men’ today with gift vouchers I got for my birthday. I love your father in that film. I had no idea it was directed by Sidney Lumet. I wonder what experiences you had with him knowing that he had directed your father. It’s a pity you don’t blog about such things.

    Take care and all the best from Germany.
    Jason xx

  20. Jane, you sound dizzy with busyness! Hope you find some time to rest before beginning your next picture unless you can use dashing about multi-tasking insansity to the benefit of you film character! Wondering about the French thing too – if you’re fully fluent, or need some prep time to get into the rythmn.

  21. Having moved recently,I know exactly how you feel. Can’t wait for your new film. My all-time favorites are “Barefoot in the Park” and Monster-in-Law”.

  22. Per James Lipton in “An Exaltation of Larks”, it is a PADDLING of ducks. If in flight, it is a TEAM of ducks.

  23. brood of ducklings
    flock of ducks
    Gaggle of geese when on the ground,
    flock of geese when flying
    We used to play “name the group of animals” in my family. My favorite is a sounder of red river hogs.

    • LOve this, Kim!! Leave it to you to come up with it. xxxx

  24. The ducks are so sweet Jane!
    Here’s some duck lingo:
    A clutch is the total number of eggs laid by one duck during a nesting session, a brood is the total number of hatchlings, or ducklings in the clutch and a brace refers to a pair of ducks.

    Welcome back to LA! 🙂

  25. Moving is always tramatic, but it can also be fun to create a new environment. As for the duckies, you don’t really want too many ducks in the pool as duck-poo is not conducive to swimming!

  26. Best wishes. Kick butt in France.

  27. i love you for recognizing holla!!!

  28. I love to watch ducks but would not be thrilled at them in the pool. Bad enough the doves that drop their offerings as they fly over. What got me the most with ducks was one trip down to Arizona when the little lake had too many males and not enough females. They kept nearly drowning the females as they tried to mate them.

  29. yep, small apts are cool–as someone or other said, “enough is sufficient”
    –and men ARE surprised when they learn that male birds dress up and the females don’t–I had to explain the same thing to my SO–“Think of it this way,” I told him,”the males wear orange velour and the women wear understated and classy beige”–(there’s a metaphor in there someplace)
    –great news about your work on the French film–will look forward to seeing it
    –stay well!

  30. Hi Jane. Being in the middle of a move is such a crazy time. I did it 7 or 8 times (lost count) and I’m only 16. Although each new house is another new adventure. It seems like you will have plenty of new adventures in this house…starting with maybe the ducks. 🙂 Good luck!

  31. Lovely. Welcome back! One day I’d love to read a book focusing on your geographical journeys.

    A

  32. Which one is they guy and which one is the girl?

    • If you’re referring to the duck, the guy is the colorful one with the green neck and white ring. The brown, plain one is the woman. Camoflaged so when she sits on the eggs predators won’t see her. Makes sense. xx

  33. Oh, yeah. That does make sense.

  34. have painted more than a few ducks in my time as in my reproduction of Mary Cassatte’s “Boating.” i had a Mallard Drake for 12 years when a child, and it died in my arms from old age..gave him a good burial and a tomb stone with with burma shave like inscription. We (with my children) have also raised many ducks and geese too…i really like geese, especially the Brown Chinese male geese, as they are so tame. The female seems to be more independent…more maternally mature and wary…Any goose or duck you raise from an egg will be tame for you, as they imprint on you…and geese are better watch dogs than dogs…Here, there are Muscovy ducks that are actually more intelligent than mallards. They will also perch on a fence or tree and the female makes the male fly across the lake several times for her…they are not so pretty but they are loyal and live in families for years…seem to be very long lived and will hang around as long as you feed them…so i call them beggar ducks…Muscovies are not at all affectionate and you can’t hold them as they are scratchy…if you want a really affectionate one, we had a mix of a Mallard and Tufted duck (female) that really liked to be held…the tufted duck is so pretty too…you should visit a duck farm with your grandchildren…you could have Chinese geese on your ranch…the mature male has a large nasal horn and sounds like a dinosaur…

  35. Duck decoys from about 90 or more years ago are great to have around. Beautiful artwork. On another note: i hope you address in your book on ageing people who will not give up on finding true love again and not just friendship (nothing wrong with “just” friendship). Men are different now. I am a long way from sweet sixteen. But men somehow are changed…not as daring or adventurous or curious…or something. My dates since my husband died have been with real winners, great men of all shapes and sizes…but none I wanted to wake up next to for the long run. Oh, well. The sun also rises. Waiting for your book to make a difference. Of course you’ll be on Larry’s show. He’s so fab.

  36. I’m enjoying your blog and have never followed one before….well done!!
    May I suggest a new name to call yourself….”Lady Jane”.

    Blessings,
    Yours in….

  37. If you have a favorite project you interested in developing, I might be persuaded to put a couple of bucks into it. Been doing film financing on-and-off for 30 years. Put together the financing for 2 members of the “Billion $ Club.” Met you at your book signing at Diesel in Malibu. You asked if we knew one another.

    Not to be discouraging because I’m never that, but rather realistic: Financing is off 80%-90% from 20009. Means less studio productions. Indies are particularly hard hit with the disappearance of pre-sale financing. CAA partners – your agent included – are looking for a buyout. They’re aren’t making any money either. The partners will probably be gone post-buy-out (right now KK&R looks like a probable buyer), their statements to the contrary not withstanding. Relativity may also be gone by year’s end/1Q 2011 (they’re currently financing 80% of Universal’s production, but have their hands at all the studios). Means from a finance/production standpoint things are grinding as close to a halt as one can possibly get.

    • Misspelled my own name. Can you believe that? Its Aleck Grishkevich. Only thing worst could be mispelling misspell.

    • Contact Jean Claude Fleury, prodycer of the film Kerry Washington and I will do next year written and directed by Eve Ensler. You can contact by calling Marie-Cecile Renauld, in Paris. 01 44 56 07 17. Thanks. xx

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