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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Oh, Wednesday's Wisdom, Where are you?


Today is Wednesday, a day I usually "reserve" for Wednesday's Wisdom, but I am not sure that I am feeling so wise about my personal or business related affairs today, on this Wednesday the Fourteenth of December, bringing us to the point where we only have eleven days until Christmas, when folks — if they are not already — will sing, "and so this is Christmas and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun . . . .", the lyrics from John Lennon's, Happy Xmas (War is Over). The song is haunting to me because I find it to be a reminder of what I have not achieved and what I've failed in doing, as described in a previous blog post on TLLG regarding this song.

There are also, after today, Wednesday the Fourteenth of December, only seventeen days until New Year's Eve. This is another time of reflection and self-evaluation, a time when some folks make resolutions, something I find myself doing daily, since I fail miserably at keeping ones I make on the eve of a new year.

Last year at this time, on December the Fourteenth, it was much colder, and Juan V and I had braved the elements three days earlier to winterize the eighty plus things that grow in my urban (NYC) terrace garden, which include herbs, plants, flowers, vines, succulents, grasses, plants, salad greens, shrubs, and trees.

However, today when Juan V was here to help me work in my garden, we did not winterize, as the temperatures are still too mild to do so, and while some of the things that I grow are going dormant, a number of the others, including  my vine, known as Rubus calycinoides AKA Ornamental Raspberry and my Helichrysum bracteatum AKA Strawflowers are not ready to succumb to winter. 

They can be seen in the image above, which shows an aerial view of my garden. It was taken by Juan V. The multi-colored cascading leaves of the Rubus calycinoides's remind me of "flowing locks" (please see the yellow arrow I inserted in the image, and to read other posts abut this stunning vine, please click here).

As for my strawflowers (Helichrysum bracteatums) still thriving yellow flowers, I have dedicated some of my recent blog posts to this phenomenon, which you may refer to by clicking here. 

And so, because these and other things (such as the roses on each of my three shrubs) as well as my Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium), are still flowering, Juan V and I just did routine clean-up stuff, and added a few more strings of lights to my Avellana corylus AKA (Contorted Hazelnut or Harry's Walking Stick) which can be seen in the image posted above today's blog entry and the one posted below this text.


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 image directly above shows how I have rendered an image of the Avellana corylus (Contorted Hazel Nut) for a Christmas card which I plan to send to my clients, colleagues and friends. I've just begun receiving snail-mailed cards from others and am reminded that I should start sending my own.


FALL 2018 ADDENDUM: 

I no longer actively produce event program covers, invitations and the types of greeting cards described here or on my website but arrangements might be able to be made under certain circumstances. My focus is on the Words In Our Beak book series, pictured below...

WORDS IN OUR BEAK BOOK SERIES

...whose stories are told from the point of view of Cam, a female cardinal, whose photo is on the cover of each book. Words In Our Beak’s goal is to open readers to a simple understanding of the winged world and their environment. Set in my rooftop garden in NYC Words In Our Beak is directed to children and adults who are curious about birds, and want to learn about them from a unique perspective. The books include hundreds of images of flora and fauna, links to movies, as well as to informative narratives that have been created by the author.

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 CollectionKaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

SUMMER 2020 ADDENDUM: 
                             
"Never say never," the saying goes, and I suppose that applies to saying, "I no longer....," which I did in my 2018 addendum and now I'm here to announce at the advice of Chris Deatherage, my book series formatter, who is also my web-master (for patriciayoungquist.com) I now have some versions of the greeting cards that are referenced in this blog post available via FAA, please click here to view them.

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