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Monday, February 27, 2017

In Honor of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

CAM, THE NARRATOR OF WIOB

Today, February 27th, 2017, would be Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 210th birthday; and although I have been very familiar with many of Longfellow's works, the wild birds who visit my rooftop garden, as well as the flora I grow have reinforced his quotation, "The best thing one can do when it's raining is let it rain," Cam, the cardinal pictured above.

Cam and I have referenced this quotation in the book, Words In Our Beak, Volume One...



... when we explain how birds withstand rain, as she is doing in the first photograph above; and, as a pair of blue jays and a lone mourning dove are doing in the images below.

BLUE JAYS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS
MOURNING DOVES HAVE A STORY IN VOL 1

The book also references Longfellow's wisdom re rain in terms of flora, especially when it comes to the flowers of a Paeonia suffruiticosa (Tree Peony), as seen in the photos directly below.


PEONIES ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1
PEONIES ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1

These images of peonies were featured in a prior entry here on Blogger that I posted a number of years ago!

Recently I returned to Longfellow's quotation re rain and birds, but it was in relation to the fact that bird types known as the American Robin, as well as Mourning Doves, seem to apply the prolific poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wisdom of letting it rain, to letting it snow; as evidenced in the following pictures.

ROBINS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3
MOURNING DOVES ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1
MOURNING DOVES ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1

The latter of the three pictures posted directly above, is included in a fairly recent entry here on Blogger re Longfellow.

Be that as it may, as  I was doing my research for this blog entry, it dismayed me to read of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's sorrow re the circumstances surrounding his wife's accidental death. Please refer to this Wiki Page if you are interested in the details of that tragic event.

Moreover, another fact re Longfellow that I had not realized was that the pop singer, Neil Diamond's song, Longfellow Serenade, was about Henry Wadsworth! DUH! And so, before I sign off, dear reader, I'm saying thank you for your contributions, Henry Wadsworth; and I'm posting a You Tube video of Neil Diamond performing this song (below).



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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