Friday's Follow-Up Re A Visiting Jay

Atop this entry is a copy of a Mutts cartoon created by Patrick McDonnell. It was initially posted in celebration of the 2018 Winter Solstice and I thought of the sentiment expressed by Mooch during the nor'easter which occured in NYC this past Monday (2-1-2021).

As I said in my blog post about the event (which I published the next day) an array of bird types (including a lone American robin, several Dark-eyed juncoes, a number of House sparrows, an entourage of Mourning doves, and a lone Northern mockingbird) spent a lot of time in my garden during this storm. 

The day following the storm, which happened to be Groundhog Day, a Blue jay stopped by my place.

The Start of 2017's Memorial Day Weekend

A BRAMHALL CARTOON

The cartoon (by Bramhall) that's posted atop today's blog entry might look familiar to you, dear reader, as I've featured it at the start of the Memorial Day weekend (which is today), in bygone years.

This cartoon is so poignant, that it bears repeating as we embark upon another Memorial Day holiday.

An UPDATE: Tweeting and Reflecting (Details on The New Direction for TLLG on Blogger)

Tweet! Tweet! (View One)
I also posted this image on WBU-MICH FB Page

Tweet! Tweet! (View Two)
I also posted this image on TLLG'S FB Page

It has been over a month since I posted here on Blogger, and I'd like to use today's entry as an opportunity to state what my intentions are for this blog in the days to come, for I feel I have gotten away from my original hope re this endeavor, an endeavor I began on the last day of 2009, when I set up this blog, stating:

"Now that I've gotten the setting up of my blog underway (and making my New Year's resolution to stick with a posting schedule, it seems I may be passée. I understand many people have moved on to Tweeting. It is my life story summed up in ten words: at the airport when the ship comes into the dock. Being a reflective soul, I'll probably stick to blogging over tweeting. Besides, as it is, while some of my posts will be snippets and captions, others may border on mini essays. My temperament reminds me of Herb Gardener, whom I happened to meet while working at a theater (but that is as 'they' say, another story), and he told me that before becoming a playwright, he was a cartoonist and when the 'bubbles of dialogue got bigger than the cartoon-characters, it was time to be a playwright.' Similarly, as opposed to tweeting, blogs let you generate more in-depth content. I see them having greater resilience in terms of perception. But they require what many people seem to consider long-term commitment today:setting aside 20-90 minutes daily, weekly or semi-weekly. Still some bloggers are providing insightful or informative blogs which I hope to do also. I am in it for the long haul, and perhaps the Charles Schultz cartoon posted below sums it up:"

Now, today, March 6, 2014, as I look back on my initial (December 2009) intent for this blog, which was at a time I knew very little about social media, I realize that in some ways, I've succumbed to the "pressure" of tweeting, albeit through my Facebook (FB) and Pinterest postings being automatically tweeted (it's rare that I compose a direct tweet from twitter), and I've neglected what is near, as well as dear, to my soul: generating more in-depth content.

The First Day of Christmas 2018

Upon seeing this Bill Whitehead cartoon, I thought of the Mandarin duck who has been visiting Central Park and can be seen in the next set of pictures.

SHOP FOR MY MANDARIN DUCK RELATED ITEMS ON FAA

SHOP FOR MY MANDARIN DUCK RELATED ITEMS ON FAA

SHOP FOR MY MANDARIN DUCK RELATED ITEMS ON FAA

For just like the newsmaker (Santa Claus) in Whitehead's cartoon, IF this duck thinks everything is about him, he's right.

Just a reminder, dear reader, please don't forget to get my Mandarin-themed products (via Fine Art America) for your true love during these upcoming 12 days of Christmas; the first of the twelve days is today!

I'm sure your true love will like my Mandarin items as much as — if not better than — a partridge in a pear tree, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, five golden rings, six geese a laying, seven swans a swimming, eight maids a milking, nine ladies dancing, ten lords a leaping, eleven pipers piping, and twelve drummers drumming!

As for Whitehead's holiday cartoon, here's another...

.... this one caused me to think of seeing the Jolly Green Giant in Macy's 2017 Thanksgiving Parade...

... where spectators took advantage of the medicine in laughter and shouted, "HO! HO! HO!"

Facts re Decoration Day

CARTOON BY JOHN T. McCUTCHEON

The cartoon by John T. McCutcheon which is posted atop this Blogger entry, is featured within prior entries here on Blogger. It was initially published in the year of 1900, with a caption accompanying it stating: "You bet I'm goin' to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up."

As most of you probably know, the 2020 Memorial Day holiday took place (in the United States) this past Monday, May 25th, as it is currently celebrated on the last Monday in May. Prior to it being celebrated on the last Monday in May, the traditional date for Memorial Day was May 30th.

Friday's Feeling is FROM THE BIRDS

Certain birds are speaking out via a cartoon by Dan Regan (which he did for Shoebox) that something has to be done re the naming of certain birds.

Saint Patrick's Day 2019

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, dear reader! As you can see, I'm honoring it with a cartoon by Dan Regan, that's posted atop this entry and was sent to me in bygone years.

#MondayMotivation?

It's Monday; and so, anyone who follows Twitter, knows this means the topic #MondayMotivation is trending, but this is not just any Monday, it's the first Monday of a New Year and motivation might be a bit higher.

The image atop this entry is from a Peanuts' tweet on the subject of #MondayMotivation that I saw quite some time ago. When I saw it, my initial thought was what does this particular cartoon have to do with motivation?

This cartoon appears to be more about perseverance (which Charlie Brown seems to do on a number of occasions) than motivation.

Perhaps I see CB's drive to "kick it clear to the moon," as perseverance since I'm one who perseveres, as evidenced by the information re my fundraiser on Facebook.

By the way, for those who don't do FB but would like to contribute, please refer to the lefthand side bar of this blog. The information is posted below the Donate Button (which is the eighth item in that sidebar's list) and thanks.

Reflecting On 01-01-01

Happy New Year to you and welcome to my blog, The Last Leaf Gardener. Since tomorrow is the start of not just a new year, but a new decade, I find that I look back to how the decade began. The year 2000 began with all the Y2K frenzy. The following year 2001, came in much more peacefully, as evidenced in the photo above of a snow sculpture of the Madonna with Child, which I saw in Central Park on 01-01-00, after a winter snow storm. 

Unfortunately, that peacefulness would ultimately be shattered within nine months and eleven days, on September 11th, 2001 when airplanes flew into the World Trade Center, murdering thousands of people.

Today as I return to this peaceful image snow sculpture image, I'm reminded of the freedom to create. Snow sculptures that often pepper Central Park after a snow storm are one result of that freedom. I imagine the snow sculptures bring joy to those who create them, and joy to those who, like myself, see them when they walk in the "winter wonderland" of Central Park. However, since snow melts, these are fleeting moments.

Draw A Bird Day 2019

Today is Draw A Bird Day, a longstanding holiday which was created in honor of the dearly departed, Dorie Cooper, who died when she was a child. In bygone years, I have written about little girl and her "role" in the  creation of the holiday. 

Within some of the aforementioned entries, I've included a a copy the photograph atop this post that features one of the ways I was taught to draw a bird by using my hand as a model. In any event, it seems birds learn to draw humans in a similar manner, as evidenced in the cartoon directly below.

That being said, in terms of humans drawing birds, Charles Schultz often comes to my mind.

Monday's Memo: Volume 3 is Finally Available!

Chris Deatherage, who is the designer of my web-site, patriciayoungquist.com, and the formatter of my Words In Our Beak book series posted a copy of the cartoon atop today's blog entry on one of his  social media venues. In his posting, he stated, "These people (in the cartoon) should read WORDS IN OUR BEAK, VOLUME THREE wherein Cam, our female cardinal narrator, teaches readers several ways to winterize an outdoor garden."

I am happy to announce that Chris and I have now received our copies of volume three! The book (pictured below) looks great and with the winter season upon us, I encourage gardeners to heed Chris's opinion, "... read WORDS IN OUR BEAK, VOLUME THREE wherein Cam, our female cardinal narrator, teaches readers several ways to winterize an outdoor garden."

SEE PRESS RELEASE

Winterizing an urban garden is a only one portion the story within this volume of the series. As the front flap of this book (seen in the image below) states...

DETAILS RE BOOK JACKET FOR VOL 3

... this particular book" brings to a close the stories told by Cam, a feisty and beautiful female cardinal living year — round in a New York City garden.

"In this volume, Cam describes two methods for winterizing an urban garden as well as her interactions with some new diners at TLLG"s bird feeders. She also clues the reader into why birds seem to 'hide' in their surroundings.

"Visit one last time with Cam as she chronicles the habits of her avian community, what it is like to spend time in this special urban garden, and why — for all the hazards of bird life and garden greenery — New York City is still the place to live."

Words In Our Beak, Volume Three is currently available on Amazon, but it can also be ordered by any bookstore if you give the title and/or ISBN which is 978099637853.

FALL 2018 ADDENDUM: 

Hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can now be found wherever books are sold.

MY BOOK SERIES

Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books. Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021:

When the third volume of the hard-cover version of Words In Our Beak was released, I withdrew from promoting my former versions of Words In Our Beak. 

The very first one is an iBook and went into Apple's book store in 2015.

This was followed by an ePub version...

..that is available on Amazon and was also published in 2015.

Subsequently, Words In Our Beak's digital versions were published as a soft-cover book (with slight variations) by MagCloud in 2017.

Its press release can be read by clicking here.  [The press release does note my Kindle version of the digital Words In Our Beak, but I withdrew it from Amazon a few years ago and at this time, I do not intend to make it live again.]

Now with the release of BIRD TALES....

... I've been advised to make mention of my early versions of volume one of Words In Our Beak, they do vary ever so slightly in content from the hard-cover version of volume one. 

As of this addendum, I do not intend to create digital or soft-cover versions of Words In Our Beak Volume Two or Words In Our Beak Volume Three.

Thursday's Thoughts: Trust Mary Oliver's "Rx"

Once upon a time, on the date of April the twenty-fourth, in the year of 1969, United Artists released  the movie,  If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium. The story-line chronicled the humorous adventures of a group of American tourists taking an eighteen-day guided bus tour of nine European countries.

According to Wiki, the film's title was "also used by a 1965 documentary on CBS television that filmed one such tour, was taken from a New Yorker cartoon by Leonard Dove. Published in the June 22, 1957, issue of the magazine, the cartoon depicts a young woman near a tour bus and a campanile, frustratedly exclaiming 'But if it's Tuesday, it has to be Siena,' thereby humorously illustrating the whirlwind nature of European tour schedules."

The movie's title, If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium, over the years, has subsequently been used to describe a number of situations. In fact, for a number of weeks, here on Blogger, yours truly ran a series of blog posts called If It's Tuesday, It Must Be tumblr, and, readers were invited to read what I had posted on tumblr.

However, I no longer post on tumblr regularly, my last entry there was in April of 2017. Moreover, on Tuesday, July 19th of 2016, here on Blogger, I announced a new Tuesday series, which is known as Tuesdays Truths. This past Tuesday, September 5th 2017, Tuesday, I posted my fifty-eighth entry for this series. 

Be that as it may, the If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium reference is on my mind once again today, because as I was doing some research on molting, which is what a blue jay visiting my rooftop garden (seen in the image atop this entry) is experiencing, I came across an article titled, If the Blue Jays are Bald, It Must Be August.

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

A BRAMHALL CARTOON

As I mentioned (on Fb) yesterday, which was the onset of Memorial Day weekend for 2016, Bramhall's cartoon/mini comic strip,  (above) has always been one of my favorite Memorial Day commemorations. In bygone years, I've written about this solemn holiday here on Blogger, and you may refer to my musings by clicking here.

"YA-BUH-DA-BUH-DUE"

Because I have missed a couple of days of posting re my garden upheaval, I thought I'd post today even though it's not one of my scheduled days, and besides, today is an important day in United States history, as forty-two years ago today, the first episode of The Flintstones, a cartoon series, aired on television, making the phrase "YaBaDaBaDo" popular (the word is pronounced as it is spelled in the title of today's blog entry).

I cannot take credit for remembering the significance of today; as it is Cam (a cardinal who regularly visits my terrace garden) who reminded me of this fact. 

It came up in a conversation I had with her when I was discussing my sequel to one of my garden themed Virtual Stories (mini movies and flip books) within my You Tube Library. 

The one Cam and I were discussing is titled Words in my Beak (Book One), and it featured her exclusively. I was letting Cam know that in the sequel I may include the other birds (Cam's entourage) which also visit here. At this time the birds who come to my garden to nosh include Cam's child, as well as her significant other, house finches, mourning doves, and blue jays.

Cam was apprehensive about sharing the spotlight and pointed out to me that the book's title is "my beak" and not a plural pronoun! Cam explained that her beak is very versatile, and, she told me that one of her ancestor's beaks was the basis for the way birds' beaks were used in The Flintstones! Then Cam referred me to the following video on You Tube!



I had forgotten that in this cartoon series a tip of a bird's beak was "used" as needle for a record player (a turtle); and that its beak followed the groove of the record. Cam glowed with pride for her bygone ancestor whose beak inspired the Flintstones' record player needle. And, in fact, Cam had been gesturing so much as she related the story that she nearly lost her balance (as seen in the image below) from atop the rim of my 'Tamukeyama' (Japanese Red Maple)'s container, a place where Cam loves to perch.

She seems to gravitate towards that vantage point as it gives her a bird's eye view (excuse the pun) into the apartment of the building directly east of me. If it were me, I would not choose that view, as I don't care for television; and, besides, the woman who lives there is constantly using her window sill as an ash tray, as seen in the images below.

Cam is much more tolerant of cigarette smoke than I am; my father had a horrific death due to a bout with emphysema, brought on by his nearly two pack a day Pall Mall habit. Part of his dying words were, "When I die, the cost of cigarettes will sky rocket as the tobacco company will miss my revenue."

Monday Musings: Big Yellow Taxis Go Green! (Honoring Joni Mitchell)

On this Monday after The New York City Marathon,  I'm thinking about how accomplished and exhilarated those who completed it must feel: seeing all five boroughs of NYC, in one full swoop, while exercising, is amazing! I know this from having participated in an event that took me through the streets of all five of the cities' boroughs in one afternoon.

The Inspiration of Saint Francis

Saint Francis of Assisi's works are the inspiration for the cartoon created by Patrick McDonnell that can be seen in the image posted atop this entry.

The caption of McDonnell's (creator of the Mutts comic strip) cartoon comes from a hymn about this saint which you can hear @ https://bit.ly/1OyEDyX

As many of you probably know, Saint Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals; particularly birds.

Memorial Day 2020

A BRAMHALL CARTOON

As many know, Memorial Day (which is being celebrated today), was first widely observed on May 30, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers.

But in 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees; the change went into effect in 1971.

According to Wikipedia, "The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress' change of date within a few years.

"Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocate returning to the original date, although the significance of the date is tenuous. The VFW stated in a 2002 Memorial Day Address:

"Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day.

"Starting in 1987 Hawaii's Senator Daniel Inouye, a World War II veteran, introduced a measure to return Memorial Day to its traditional date. Inouye continued introducing the resolution until his death in 2012."

This fact re switching the date of the holiday may be the reason that a number of Americans seem to have forgotten the true meaning of this solemn day; as poignantly illustrated in the cartoon by Bramhall, seen in the image atop this entry.

The Sunday Before Memorial Day 2017

IMAGE CREDIT

The cartoon by John T. McCutcheon which is posted atop this Blogger entry, was published in the year of 1900, with a caption accompanying it stating: "You bet I'm goin' to be a soldier, too, like my Uncle David, when I grow up."

As most of you probably know, the upcoming holiday taking place (in the United States) tomorrow, is Memorial Day, as it is currently celebrated on the last Monday in May. Prior to it being celebrated on the last Monday in May, the traditional date was May 30th.

When life "hits you in the head" with a brick:"Stay hungry, Stay foolish . . . "

The video posted above is something most Apple product lovers have seen. However, in my blog entry of January 18th 2011, I promised to put up a post outside of my regularly scheduled postings, and dedicate it to Steve Jobs.

The Feast of the Epiphany 2018

Today is The Feast of the Epiphany. According to a web-page on Holiday Insights, "Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar were the three kings (also known as the Three Wise Men) who saw the star over Bethlehem when Christ was born. They followed it to find the Christ child on January 6th. They brought the Christ child gold, frankincense and myrrh." —  And they did it without mobile phones, contrary to what the cartoon atop this entry suggests.