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Saturday, September 28, 2019

Honoring September's Morning Glory Flower (with a Memory of Barbara Brine)




The photographs atop this entry (and directly below) feature Morning Glories who climb up a metal fence in an area of Central Park located on the northern edge of Sheep's Meadow (mid-Park at 69th Street just north of Sheep Meadow) known as Nell Singer Lilac Walk. I saw them a little over a few weeks ago when taking a walk with CF.





A web-page for the Official Website of Central Park describes the Nell Singer area by saying it "boasts many varieties of its signature fragrant flower from around the world. Artfully composed he walk was designed for the greatest visual effect. Come spring, it's a wonderland of white, pink, and purple blossoms. Twenty years later, Conservancy gardeners undertook the major task of replanting the beds. Today, the little path along the meadow is a spring highlight for Park lovers."

I'm surprised this web source does not state that Morning Glory's grow up the fence (enclosing Sheep's Meadow), for as you can see this vine's flowers are spectacular.

With this month of September coming to an end the day after end tomorrow, I thought I should take the opportunity to publish this non-scheduled day entry in order to give a shout out to this flower type since she, along with the Asters (the flower variety seen in the pictures below that were taken within Shakespeare Gardens in Central Park), are considered to be the birth flower of the month of September.



According to a web-page for The Old Farmer's Almanac, "Asters are mainly symbols of powerful love. Perhaps because of their positive symbolism, according to folklore they were once burned to ward off serpents."

Re the Morning Glory, the aforementioned page has this to say: "Morning glories are simple symbols of affection. Those who rise early may be able to watch their lovely blooms open. Morning glory flowers generally curl closed later in the day, hence their name!"

Their beauty was not lost on my dearly departed friend, Barbara Brine, who was born on October 19th in 1934. Her obituary states, "Barbara Theresa Brine (Bebe) was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 19, 1934, lived most of her adult life on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and died on August 22, 2014 in Centerville, Massachusetts..."

In bygone years, she and I often walked through the Nell Singer area as we made our way to and from respective places of employment or on a leisurely stroll.

The Morning Glory Vine was very special to Barbara and she shared a poem with me that she wrote about these flowers as a child in a Catholic Elementary School; which can be seen in the text-based image (in her handwriting with her drawing) directly below.


Barbara always mentioned that her teacher, a nun, wrote the last line of the poem for her, which somewhat describes the behavior of the this flower.

As  you can dee in the poem, while The Farmer's Almanac called the Morning glory's end of day behavior ("curl closed later in the day"), Brine's and her nun described as "drop it's little head. It's purple flowers in the shade say it's almost dead." This is something I wrote about over nine years ago in a 2010 blog post here on Blogger.

It's hard to believe Barbara passed away a little over five years ago but her legacy lives on through her many good works and through the Morning Glories climbing up the fence in Nell Singer area...





where an Sweet Autumn Clematis also grows (as seen below).

BEES AND AUTUMN CLEMATIS FLOWERS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOK SERIES ("WORDS IN OUR BEAK") 
BEES AND AUTUMN CLEMATIS FLOWERS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOK SERIES ("WORDS IN OUR BEAK") 
BEES AND AUTUMN CLEMATIS FLOWERS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOK SERIES ("WORDS IN OUR BEAK") 

As you can see, bees appreciate this white-flowered vine, as do I, for I grow it in my rooftop garden and feature this lovely flora in volume two of my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak.

his is a photo of my three volume book series, "Words In Our Beak." Information re the books is another one of my blog  posts @ http://bit.ly/2EdADpx
MY THREE VOLUME BOOK SERIES

By the way, bees are featured in volume one of my series. The stories within these books are all set in my rooftop garden, a place Barbra often visited. I am thankful to have known her and like to think that she would've enjoyed my books, given her love for flora and fauna.

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