Arbor Day 2018

Today is Arbor Day and as you can see in the Mutts comic strip atop this entry, Mooch and Earl are celebrating it by planting a tree, much to the delight of a bird! Unfortunately, for me, my Arbor Day is being spent with one less tree in my rooftop garden.

Yesterday when Juan V was here to help me with flora placement after I de-winterized my garden, we discovered that my Acer palmatum (AKA 'Shisitatsu' Sawa), a type of maple tree which I have had since 2008 or 2009, had to be  uprooted for the tree had died.

We sort of expected that this might happen when we winterized my garden on November 30 2017, for it wasn't looking too healthy at that time, but we decided to see if a winter's nap might help the tree to rejuvenate.

The picture directly below is a partial view of how my garden looked after we winterized it last fall and the photo below it is a duplicate that I've affixed arrows indicating the place where my Acer palmatum lived out his last few months of life.

"WORDS IN OUR BEAK"'s STORIES ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

"WORDS IN OUR BEAK"'s STORIES ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

The top arrow features his branches while the second arrow features his burlap blanket.

This tree can be seen during his better days in the next image (within the circle) which was taken by Robert Wood in 2013.

"WORDS IN OUR BEAK"'s STORIES ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

Robert is the brother of my dearly departed editor, Peggy Wood, who died in the winter of 2014.

But getting back to my 'Shisitatsu' Sawa, he may not be the only casualty in my garden, for appears my white roses (which were planted in May of 2017) may not survive, although there is a slight chance that they will. I'll know more about their prognosis in the coming days.

Overall, given the rough winter we had in NYC, my flora is looking good. Surely, I will miss my Acer palmatum, but I am grateful for the trees still living in my place.

These trees can be seen in the next image, here they are standing strong and ready to thrive in my now de-winteruized-ready-for-spring garden and they are celebrating Arbor Day 2018 with me!

"WORDS IN OUR BEAK"'s STORIES ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

The various types of my trees are indicated in the duplicate image (and description) below.

"WORDS IN OUR BEAK"'s STORIES ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

Number one indicates my Beech Tree (whose Latin name is Fagus sylvatica), which is so far off camera, but you can see it in the first one of the photos above. It is at the far right wearing autumn colors.

Meanwhile, Number two indicates my Japanese Larch (Larix Kaempferi), while number three references my Crabapple Tree and number four refer is referring to my 'Tamukeyama.'

Trees as you most likely know are truly appreciated by birds and a few of the ones which grow here are featured in volume one of my Words In Our Beak book series.

ADDENDUM FALL 2018: 

Hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can 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 Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021:

When the third volume of the hard-cover version of Words In Our Beak was released, I withdrew from promoting my former versions of Words In Our Beak. 

The very first one is an iBook and went into Apple's book store in 2015.

This was followed by an ePub version...

... that is available on Amazon and was also published in 2015.

Subsequently, Words In Our Beak's digital versions were published as a soft-cover book (with slight variations) by MagCloud in 2017.

Its press release can be read by clicking here.  

Now with the release of BIRD TALES....

... I've been advised to make mention of my early versions of volume one of Words In Our Beak, they do vary ever so slightly in content from the hard-cover version of volume one.

As of this addendum, I do not intend to create digital or soft-cover versions of Words In Our Beak Volume Two or Words In Our Beak Volume Three.