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Wednesday, December 27, 2017

My rescue tree was fit to be tied (sort of). Wednesday's Wisdom


Yesterday was Boxing Day and a woman who lives in the building directly across the courtyard from me came over to my place with her friend who has traveled to NYC for the Christmas holidays. They helped me string lights on the Christmas tree which I have in my rooftop garden. (This tree is a rescue as I mentioned in a recent entry here on Blogger.)

The results of their welcome labor can be seen in the photo atop this entry. I've affixed a red arrow (left) to the image to indicate a plug (right) that leads to a power source which will accommodate the lights on my tree topper. I hope to put it up in the coming days, but first I need to find a way to secure it to the tree because it gets very windy in my garden.

In fact on Christmas night, prior to the day I had arranged for them to come over for a cup of salted caramel hot chocolate (in honor of my "tree lighting" ceremony), my rescue tree toppled over! The top of my rescue tree landed in my bird bath, whose water ultimately froze over night; as seen in the next picture.


Upon my discovering what had happened to the tree I was very concerned that I would damage it when I attempted to remove it from the frozen waters of my bird bath.

Therefore, I boiled water to break the ice in hopes of my being able to "rescue" my rescue tree from its apparent fate in my garden. I'm used to breaking up ice in my bird bath. I do it frequently so that my avian friends can be assured of having a source of water when weather conditions are like this.

Thankfully, I was able to break up the ice without damaging the sweet tree, which I propped against the railing (that surrounds my urban garden), and a Northern mockingbird popped by to check out the situation as evidenced below.


My neighbor and her friend helped me tie the tree to the railing before putting on the lights, however, I'm still figuring out how to secure the tree topper which I'll hopefully do before the twelve days of Christmas comes to an end.

But even when the twelve days of Christmas do come to an end, my tree will stay up until — at the very least — mid February so that any visiting birds will have a place to stay warm and to nosh, for this tree will soon be adorned with suet feeders that will function as ornaments. PLEASE STAY TUNED.

Meanwhile, in honor of today's WW (Wednesday's Wisdom), I should clarify a matter re this blog post's title, My rescue tree was fit to be tied (sort of).

I have always thought the expression,  fit to be tied, referred to one's being frustrated with a situation, but I'm mistaken.

According to a page on Grammarist, "Fit to be tied describes someone who is extremely angry, someone who is enraged. Fit to be tied evokes a picture of someone who is so angry that he must be tied up to restrain him from committing an act of aggression. Of course, in most cases fit to be tied is an exaggeration of a person’s state of mind. First appearing in the early 1800s, fit to be tied alludes to the practice of tying up uncontrollable mental patients. This practice of tying up mental patients with rope or cloth gave way to the straitjacket, which was invented in France around 1790. The straitjacket covers each arm and hand, which are then wrapped around and fastened in the back. It is so difficult to escape from a straitjacket that the act is often depicted in magic shows. Though the earliest known use of the term fit to be tied comes from the United Kingdom, fit to be tied is a well-known idiom popular in the United States, particularly the southern area."

That's it for this post dear reader, thanks for taking the time to read it!

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