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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Tuesday's Truths WK 25: Time to MOVE ON! (But Proceed With Caution)


Welcome to Week 25 of my Tuesday's Truths series here on Blogger! I wasn't able to publish an entry for this series last week (1-17-17) because of a malfunction in equipment that impacted my ability to work on-line. GRRR. And if another Tuesday truth be told, I got caught up in the frenzy of the then upcoming USA presidential inauguration (which took place on 1-20-2017). But time marches on!

Today, January 24th, 2017, marks the forty- first anniversary of my grandfather's death. He can be seen in the image atop this blog entry. I've been told that this was his confirmation picture, although I have no idea of when or where he was confirmed. Religion and/or going to church was not a topic of conversation I had with him.

I am the first of his nine grandchildren and can be seen in the following image that features seven of the grandchildren who were born at the time the photograph was taken.


I'm sitting on his lap in this photo and I appear to be looking at my watch. The picture was taken at my grandparents' home, a place where I spent a lot of time, especially after my parents' divorced. But even though I spent a lot of time in his company be it in his home or on day trips to Devil's Lake (seen below where he is holding my raft),


I truly, in spite of my good memory, do not recall any heart to heart conversations that I may have had with him. This fact should not come as a surprise to me: I grew up in a children-are-seen-and-not-heard household. However, my grandfather's act of holding my raft within the lake's muddy waters, probably surmises how he apparently cared for my well being.

In fact, my first full year here on Blogger (2010),  I wrote about my grandfather and his probable influence on my maintaining a garden on my rooftop in NYC, and I stated the following:

"The virtues  he had are too many for naming in blog format. It is because of him that I have a great love and respect for the elderly and that I enjoy doing my volunteer work which is visiting the elderly — especially those who are homebound.

"'Old people. They're the survivors, they know something, The very old, they are miracles like the just born; close to the end is precious, like close to the beginning." This quote is from one of my favorite plays, I'm not Rappaport, written by Herb Gardener, the cartoonist turned playwright as mentioned in my first entry. Though I never  gardened with my grandfather, I believe my love of gardening came from him. My urban gardening endeavors in my 'Manhattan back yard' are a tribute to him.'"

And folks who follows my musings here on Blogger, tumblr, Facebook or hometalk, surely know how much my garden and the birds which visit it, have enhanced my life (and hopefully the lives of others). I can only pray my work as a writer will have impact on others in a way that writers (such as E.B. White) have had on me! In fact, just three months from today, on March 24th 2017, it will be sixty-six years since the publication of the short essay, WINTER BACK YARD (posted below) which was written by him!


Anyone who follows my cyber-space activity also will probably recall how much I appreciate this author's work. The essay posted above was taken from a collection of White's writings that are included in the book, E.B. WHITE WRITINGS FROM THE NEW YORKER 1927-1976, which is edited by Rebecca M. Hall.

This is a book I've read over and over again, but for some reason, I missed noticing this particular essay, which is somewhat surprising, given that in it, White lends a nod to one of my favorite bird types, the dark-eyed junco, pictured below.

DARK-EYED JUNCOES ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"
DARK-EYED JUNCOES ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"
DARK-EYED JUNCOES ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"
I have been uplifted whenever this bird variety graces my urban garden (which is on a rooftop in NYC).  This bird type comes to me in late October and usually leaves on April 15th, which might be because that is the day income tax is due!

In any event, I truly adore juncoes and his/her "colleagues," which makes me identify with E.B. White's "description" of this member of the fauna community.

For your information, the dark-eyed junco has been introduced in both the iBook and ePub version of Cam's book, Words In Our Beak Volume One.



However, much more information regarding this amazing creature will be introduced in subsequent volumes. And while this particular blog entry has focused largely on my grandfather, it was my grandmother, who, suggested to me (soon before she died which was a little over eleven years after his passing), that I "get back to (my) writing."

My grandmother can be seen sitting next to my grandfather in the second photograph atop this entry and she can be seen with him in the following images.



The first of the pictures above is one you might recognize from a prior post here on Blogger; and the second image shows her (with him) on the bank of the same lake featured in the third picture of this entry. The following picture features her with yours truly in an an image that was included in a prior post here on Blogger.


I am grateful that I have finally heeded (with the help of Cam, my visiting cardinal, who was named for both my maternal grandmother and maternal grandfather) my grandmother's final suggestion to me (to get back to my writing. And I hope I continue to do so; the soft-cover version of the book, Words In Our Beak Volume One, that I wrote with Cam, is finally underway!

Moreover, Cam and I are busy completing volume two, where we will be discussing an array of bird-types; including the dark-eyed juncoes featured in this entry.

ADDENDUM FALL 2018: 

The non-hardcover version (or versions)  of volume one within the Words In Our Beak book series that are mentioned in this entry may only remain available for a limited time, but 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 CollectionKaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

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