Tuesday's Truths WK 29: It's Valentines Day!

On this twenty-eighth week of my Tuesday's Truths series, I'd like to remind you, dear reader, that today is Valentines Day!

According to Wikipedia, "this holiday first became associated with romantic love within the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart", as well as to children, in order to ward off epilepsy (called Saint Valentine's Malady). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline [an example of this can be seen in the picture of one of my figurines — wearing a heart-shaped halo — that is atop this entry], doves, [an example of this can be seen in the picture below, which is of the real ones, albeit mourning doves, who are spending time in the Ailanthus Trees in the courtyard adjacent to the building where I live],

and the figure of the winged Cupid. [an example of this can be seen in the picture of another one of my figurines which is posted directly below].

Wiki also states that "Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards."

During bygone years, my way of keeping with the 19th century tradition of handwritten valentines was to create a limited edition of handmade ones and examples of them can be seen in the following pictures.

These cards are included in a flip-book presentation that can be found within my Vimeo Library.

Be that as it may, regarding my creating greeting cards, at this time I'm concentrating on postcard varieties that are fauna-flora-insect themed.

As of this posting, I've created twelve different types and they can be seen in thumbnail format in the following pictures.

Larger images of each of these thumbnails may be viewed in one of my prior entries here on Blogger, as well as within the store-front pages of my website.

Every image is a replica of ones included in Cam's book Words In Our Beak Volume One.

And while the postcard images that are of birds in pairs (cardinals, house finches and mourning doves),

make a great Valentine, getting them in time to give to the one you love today, might be hard because it would be too late for you to mail them!

However, there is an option for getting these cards to the one you love in time for this holiday — if you find yourself at The Raptor Trust (a bird rehab facility in New Jersey), or if you can visit The Bartow Pell Museum. Both of these places carry my postcards in their gift shop, but you'd have to a see your intended valentine in person, making mailing a card unnecessary.

Be that as it may, should you still need a gift for your Valentine, and are crunched for time, you might want to consider getting the iBook or ePub version of Cam's book, Words In Our Beak Volume One. 

Since these versions are available on line, you can have this book to give to your Valentine immediately! Whatever you do, dear reader, to honor this Valentines Day, I wish you a great one!

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. Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.

MY BOOK SERIES

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.