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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Light thickens, and the crow . . .

Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

. . . Makes wings to th' rocky wood.
Good things of day begin to drop and drowze;
Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rouse.
Thou marvel'st at my words; but hold thee still.
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
So, prithee, go with me."

Claudia, the crow, pictured at the top of today's blog entry has recently joined my indoor succulent garden, and I overheard her reciting a speech from William Shakespeare'sMacbeth. The speech she was delivering comes from Act Three, Scene Two and is posted here (above) in orange text.

Claudia will only be here for a short while, and because of her abbreviated stay, I want to give her a chance to tell you some of her thoughts  on what it feels like to be a crow as well as have her tour you around my succulent garden.

Before she shares "the helm" for today, let me say that not only is today Thursday, November the Seventeenth; it is also the third Thursday in November, meaning that one minute into the day (12:01) in France, the release of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau, is "permitted" and many folks there turn it into a celebration, proclaiming, "Le Beaujolais Nouveau est ArrivĂ©,and, if you'd like to read more about this, please click on this link to see what Reuters  has to say about this annual "happening". Additionally, last year I posted an entry on TLLG regarding Beaujolais Nouveau, which you may refer to by clicking here

I must confess that, although I appreciate a good glass of vino, Beaujolais Nouveau is not one of them, and so I will leave this particular event of this Thursday, November the Seventeenth, to those who do partake in the Beaujolais Nouveau extravaganzas, while I focus on other events of the day. For one thing, Thanksgiving is now only one week away. It is coming quickly as it always seems to do, which is something I discussed in a blog entry made on TLLG at the beginning of this month; and that you may refer to by clicking here.

For me, because I don't eat meat, nor do I like to eat large amounts of food at one sitting, my preparation for the holiday involves decorating my indoor succulent garden, which I have been doing, since  the departure of Lucifer (pictured below, in an image that you may recognize, dear reader, from previous TLLG blog entries, including one dedicated to when he left my place for his annual hiatus, a short time ago which you may refer to by clicking here).

Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

In any event, as you may recall, Lucifer is a "mainstay" in my succulent indoor garden during the DLS (Day Light Savings) period of spring, summer, and fall, when he "lives" here amongst my strikingly beautiful succulents, where I always place assorted figurines to decorate the succulent garden for the various seasons. 

[You may refer to my past endeavors regarding this by clicking here and here as well as here and here.]

While Lucifer's stay spans the duration of DLS, Claudia, the crow is here for a much shorter time. Her stay spans from the day after Halloween until the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. Claudia is very brave to do this, since this period of time is when many folks put up scarecrows, although not all scarecrows are threatening, as I discussed in a TLLG blog post this past November, that you may refer to by clicking here

Meanwhile, perhaps, as you viewed Claudia's photograph, you may have noticed that she has a spoon in her left hand, and she is carrying ears of corn in her right hand — she is one smart crow — and, according to her, many crows are quite intelligent when it comes to knowing how to use utensils and  tools. Claudia has informed me that crows are being considered up to par with apes when it comes to intelligence, and to prove her point, she downloaded this You Tube video to share with you (see below).



This video is rather amazing and I thank Claudia for bringing it to my attention. She is quite a diva crow from where she stands on the left side of my succulent garden, dressed to the nines, in a little coat and fancy hat; in fact, she never makes eye contact with Henrietta the hedgehog who "lives" in the righthand portion of my succulent garden during this time period. FYI, I have posted a photograph of Henrietta below:


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

Claudia and Henrietta have at least one thing in common: they are nocturnal creatures; and I don't know how they manage to get any sleep in my succulent garden since they are "living" are under a succulent lighting system which is turned on from 6:00 AM to nearly 7:00 PM each and every day! An overview of Claudia and  Henrietta's surroundings in my succulent garden can be seen below.


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

The top left and top right corners feature images of Claudia and Henrietta's jingle buddies, who are so-called because they are pilgrim figurines rendered into bells which hang from my lighting system (which  has a circle around it in both of the bottom images in this collage) during this time of year.

The red and purple arrows point to where each of the jingle buddies dangle from the lights. If a slight breeze blows into my kitchen (where my succulent garden is located), then they jingle and "serve" as chimes, hence the name "jingle buddies" which Claudia and  Henrietta bestowed on them. Other than their agreeing on names for the "dangling pilgrims" and being nocturnal, they keep their distance, Claudia rarely looks into the succulent garden, as you might surmise from the image in the lower left hand corner where Claudia can be seen clutching her spoon. That spoon is to Claudia as the blanket was to Linus (from the well known comic strip Charlie Brown). Linus, as you recall was mentioned in an LLG post this past October in an entry which you may refer to by clicking here.

Henrietta, on the other hand, often stares wistfully into the garden, as the   Humpty Dumpty tries to climb over a wall behind her. This "happening " can be seen in the image at the lower right in the collage posted above and the yellow arrow indicates where Claudia and Henrietta are in "physical relation" to each other within my succulent garden.

The other characters who are in this succulent garden are somewhat lost in the collage; however, their presence is not lost within my succulent garden as the following photographs of them clearly indicate.


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11


Patricia Youngquist uses words and images to tell stories about her passions. Based in New York, she currently is authoring a series of nature books on birds of the city. Now in Apple’s iBooks store @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/words-in-our-beak/id1010889086?mt=11

I have included this post, not as an exercise in showing a how-to-decorate an indoor succulent garden but rather as a way of providing inspiration, in the event you are having one of those emotional, spiritual, or creative dry spells that we all are prone to, especially aound the holidays.

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