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Sunday, April 22, 2018

"For the beauty of the earth..."



It's now Earth Day 2018 and in last evening's entry here on Blogger, I promised to post photographs of some of the "beauty of the earth" that I came upon when walking (yesterday) along the Greenway that's parallel to the Hudson River, as well as some of the beauty of the earth that I came upon when walking in Central Park.

There was so much "beauty of the earth" around me that it's impossible to get it all into one blog post, so I'll simply refer (with my images) to the lyrics in the hymn (being sung in the video posted above) that starts out proclaiming the following:

For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies
Over and around us lies

Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise

And indeed as always, the beauty of the skies was all around making certain unusual features of tress in both Riverside Park and Central Park stand out (as seen below respectively).



Moreover, the"beauty of the skies," caused many to look up and a passerby pointed out a nest that had been built within a treetop on the UWS:


The aforementioned hymn goes on to say:

For the beauty of the hour
Of the day and of the night
Hill and vale and tree and flower
Sun and moon and stars of light
Sun and moon and stars of light

Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise

Additionally, the flowers in both Riverside Park and Central Park certainly showed the beauty of the hour:



And so did the tulips in my rooftop garden, as evidenced below with photographs of my two of my tulip varieties, the Elegant Lady Tulips (seen in images 1-4) and the Monte Orange Tulips (seen in (images 5-8 ).

OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE
OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

These tulip varieties have had an especially hard time what with the severe weather conditions that caused me to have to bring them inside my home (which is hard on their well being), so I'm thankful to see that they still have any sign of life.

The same is true for my Hot Springs Water Lilies, featured in the next set of pictures.






But getting back to the For The Beauty of The Earth hymn, there's the next two stanzas;

For the joy of human love
Brother, sister, parent, child
Friends on earth and friends above
For all gentle thoughts and mild
For all gentle thoughts and mild

Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise

For each perfect gift of thine
To our race so freely given
Graces human and divine
Flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n
Flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n

Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn, our joyful hymn of praise

This our joyful hymn of praise

And I confess I rarely take pictures of people (because I hate to have mine taken), so, in honor of this Earth Day, I'll close with different pictures of the "beauty of the earth" that I came upon in both parks yesterday.

The first four feature pictures birds (a lone Khaki Campbell duck, male and female Mallard ducks, as well as a lone house sparrow) that I saw at the Hudson River which is slightly south of Riverside Park.





The next set of pictures feature other forms of "the beauty of the earth" that I came upon in Central Park: a female Northern Cardinal wearing a bracelet, many American Robins (but am only featuring one here), a pair of Mallard ducks, a Ruddy duck (who was featured in yesterday's entry, many squirrels (but only one is featured here), young turtles catching some rays and an adult turtle swimming.


CARDINALS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

ROBINS ARE FEATURED IN VOLUME 3






If seeing the "beauty of the earth" doesn't inspire one to celebrate Earth Day EVERY day by taking actions to protect nature and the environment, I'm not sure what will.

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