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Sunday, March 5, 2017

4 days left in Celebrate Your Name Week... (and what have you done?)

OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL ONE

There are four days left (including today) in this first week of March 2017. As I compose this blog entry, the temperature in NYC (where I live) is twenty-nine degrees; with a "real" feel temperature listed as twenty-six degrees! The Saturday prior to yesterday, which was February the twenty-sixth, the temperature was in the sixty degree range, this day was followed by days that found temperatures climb to the seventy degree range!

That recent warm spell in NYC caused many folks to enjoy the outdoors without having to wear winter attire! Most folks seemed eager to peel off winter jackets! People were not the only living creatures to pull off their bulky coats and heavy sweaters!

Many members of the flora community who reside in my rooftop garden, attempted to rise above their "winter wear" (consisting of bubble-wrap as well the burlap that's over it). This is the winter apparel which Juan V and I dressed them in during our last garden winterizing ritual.

The efforts of certain members of the flora community (such as The Caribbean Parrot Tulips), to break free of winter wear, can be seen in the image atop this blog entry. And I don't think their motive in doing so had anything to do with their name (indicated by the name tag seen in the photo) being associated the Caribbean!

Other tulip varieties that have been planted for the upcoming season attempted to do the same, as evidenced in the images below.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL ONE

All of the tulip varieties are first timers in my garden, although I have had tulips (of some sort or another), here for twelve years! However, the tulips were not the only ones attempting to rid themselves of winter clothes: my crocus varieties behaved the same way as the tulips did during the other week's unseasonably warm spell!

This is evidenced in the following pictures.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1

Be that as it may, the intention re this blog post is not to delve into the particulars of tulips  or of crocuses (which I plan to do later this month), rather, the intention of this entry is to stress the importance of celebrating one's name (as the blog title indicates)!

Names are very important; and my tulips in particular, enjoy wearing name tags to distinguish themselves, as each variety is proud of his/her title!

As a matter of fact, every type of flora which I've grown here has had (or still has) his/her own name-tag, and a handful examples of this may be seen in the following images.

THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF GARDEN NAME TAGS IS FEATURED IN VOL 1

For your information, dear reader, all five of these images that are directly above, have been included in Cam's digital versions of book, Words In Our Beak Volume One.


Cam included them in the book to point out the importance in knowing the proper name of a living or non-living entity. In terms of birds availing themselves of a given name tag with a given flora, here's part of what she had to say: "The name tags truly help us birds to identify what we see when flora-ing (the term bird use when they observe flora)....  and use of name tags is particularly helpful to me during wintertime, as they enable me to identify flora that is buried in snow.
"

In her narrative, Cam also included the way birds make use of the importance of my flora's given name tag, and some examples featuring this phenomenon are posted below.

CAM, THE NARRATOR OF "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"
HOUSE FINCHES HAVE A STORY IN VOL 1
HOUSE FINCHES HAVE A STORY IN VOL 1
DARK-EYED JUNCOES ARE FEATURED IN WIOB
MOURNING DOVES HAVE A STORY IN VOL 1

However, in terms of what she said, I won't do her justice by paraphrasing it here, you'll have to get her book if you want to know this, for, she doesn't like me to quote her! Be that as it may, Cam does admit (within her book) that she and I share a philosophy re names which is this:

"... But getting back to my family, I ‘d like you to know that I have another child, my daughter, Pica-John. However, I have no photos of her, for she is even more camera-shy than her father, but I’ll tell you a backstory regarding how I chose her name, and the names of her siblings.

"I named my other daughter Pica-John, for Saint Francis of Assisi’s mother, Pica. I had not realized that Saint Francis’s mother had wanted to name her son John — not Francis — in honor of John the Baptist. It was Pica’s husband who wanted to name his son Francis. Pica’s husband’s reason for this was he had just returned from a successful business trip to France. 

This historical event was not lost on me since I am somewhat of an advocate for the rights of female birds. Up until now, I have not been able to do much for my feathered comrades’ rights, but I can in solidarity towards my gender, name my daughter, Pica-John.

"I named our son Vincenzo because it means conqueror in many languages (including Latin, Italian and English). From the time he was born, he seemed ready to take on the challenges of life and conquer the world, which I suppose he gets from his mother, yours truly.

"My daughter, Frannie, was named for Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of birds. 

"Names are very important to me. I’m careful about my use of nicknames, especially in regard to my children. Using a nickname for my daughter, Frannie, suits her behavior. Using a formal name to refer to my son, Vincenzo, as well as my youngest daughter, Pica-John seems more appropriate.

"I think my putting an importance on names is akin to the philosophy of TLLG (which is how she refers to me in her book) And you will learn about her beliefs on names in the course of my story..."

In any event, I suppose that one reason the topic of names is on my mind today is because, as I've stated, we only have four more days (including today) in 2017's first week in the month of March.

And the first week of the month of March is also known as Celebrate Your Name Week(CYNW)!

According to Wiki, CYNW, "is a (week long) holiday established in 1997 by American onomatology hobbyist Jerry Hill. Hill prescribed the first full week in March as a week for everyone worldwide to embrace and celebrate his or her name. It's also a week for appreciating names in general, and to have fun getting to know more about names. CYNW is a week set aside to participate in names-related hobbies, activities, and to take part in entertaining and enlightening names-related events. It's a week to develop and celebrate a true fondness for, and genuine appreciation of, names. There are seven components that comprise CYNW: Name Tag Day, Namesake Day, Name Fun Facts Day, Unique Names Day, Learn What Your Name Means Day, Middle Name Pride Day,and Genealogy Day."

The aforementioned link associated with the quote from the Wiki Page is worth referring to, should the back story of CYNW's founder (Jerry Hill) interest you.

As for me, I am honoring CYNW by sharing the importance of names within my garden, as I've just done.

And before I sign off in my post re CYNW, let me leave you with well wishes for a fruitful CYNW and a You Tube video of Shirley Eliis performing "The Name Game." (Directly 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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