You might NEVER have an understanding of life's secret! (Tuesday's Truths WK 228)

Have you ever walked along the shoreline and felt as if you were really approaching an understanding of life’s secret, when suddenly you spot shorebirds using their long orange beaks to search for food and are immediately humbled into an understanding that you might never know life’s secret?

This question is posed in IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS, my newest book which is available in Apple's Bookstore.

On another note, the bird type I'm referring to and who can be seen in the photo directly above is an American oystercatcher and is featured in volume three of my hardcover book series, Words In Our Beak, which is available on Amazon or wherever books are sold.

Tuesday's Truths WK 185: Red + White = Pink (Honoring N'tl Pink Day)

IMAGE CREDIT

In an earlier entry today on Blogger, I wrote about the 84th session of #ClapBecauseWeCare, an event that began occurring shortly after Governor Cuomo shut down New York state.

As you may know, re-openings across the state have been gradual and in NYC, PHASE ONE began on June 1, 2020;  while PHASE TWO began yesterday.

These lockdowns and COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic concerns coupled with these new logistics of re-openings have had an impact on my content within this blog, as I've focused primarily on those issues.

I plan to change that and begin to return to other content, starting with today's holiday which is National Pink Day. As you may know, dear reader, I have post entries about the holiday here on Blogger in bygone years.

According to a wikiHow web-page, "Pink is a color beloved by many. It’s popular on clothing, bakery decorations, and flowers, but oftentimes pink dye cannot be found in stores. The truth is that pink is a tint of red and in nature is a combination of red and violet. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to make pink paint, icing, or more by combining red and white."

In last year's post, I included fauna and flora that have pink in their coloring. As a follow up to that post, I published an entry re the coloration of pink in nature.

Currently have some pink geraniums growing ui my garden as seen in the next photo-ops.

GERANIUMS IN MY GARDEN VIEW ONE

GERANIUMS IN MY GARDEN VIEW TWO 

And one of my Heuchera plants is exercising her bragging rights on this National Pink Day because she has pink flowers aa seen below.

OTHER HEUCHERA VARIETIES ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1

Other Heuchera varieties are featured in volume one of my three volume hard-cover book series, Words In Our Beak.

MY BOOK SERIES

Now, in honor of this holiday coinciding with Tuesday's Truths (this will be episode 185) and because the colors red and white are associated with pink, I'd like to point out aspects of nature who have red and/or white in their physical appearance (hence the image atop this entry).

Of course you won't mix their colors to get pink, but seeing red and white coloring in nature makes observing our natural world even more interesting than it  already is; as evidenced in the following pictures of nature with red and/or white in their coloring.

The Latest Status re "Imperfect Strangers" (Friday Follow-Up)

TEXT BASED IMAGE CREDIT

As many of you know during the years 2017 and 2018, I published a three volume book series, Words In Our Beak, where the stories are set in my rooftop garden and told from the perspective of a female cardinal.

THE WORDS IN OUR BEAK BOOK SERIES

And you may also know, from my video on You Tube and/or Vimeo that I introduced my book project, Imperfect Strangers.

"IMPERFECT STRANGERS" VIDEO-1 ON YOU TUBE
"IMPERFECT STRANGERS" VIDEO-2 ON VIMEO

Yesterday on Facebook, I announced that the book is completed and has been submitted!

Saturday's Sequel (to my 5-20-2019 post)

IMAGE CREDIT

This past May I posted some news re a new beach coming to NYC and in my entry I mentioned a tweeter was hopeful that when this happens, Manhattan will be blessed with visits from a shorebird variety known as the American Oystercatcher.

I've been blessed to have encountered several American Oystercatchers when visiting Long Beach on New York's Long Island.

NYC will have a beach in the coming years. (MONDAY'S MEMO)

During one of the cold snaps that we had in NYC this past winter, I saw some news re a new beach coming to NYC (please refer to the screenshot of the tweet which can be seen in the image atop this entry). As you can see the tweeter is hopeful that when and if this happens, Manhattan will be blessed with visits from American Oystercatchers.

Yesterday wasn't a good one for a fish in CP!

As I was crossing Oak Bridge in Central Park in the early evening yesterday, it was especially peaceful because the guy who normally disrupts the sound of birds singing by playing show tunes on his loud instrument (while sitting on this bridge) was not there. I was blessed to spot a lone Great Egret (who can be seen in the image directly above) making his/her way in a seemingly methodical manner as he/she walked across the lake.

A 122nd Anniversary Takes Place today!

Besides this being Plush Animal Lover's Day, today marks the one hundred and twenty-second anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. According to a Wikipedia page, the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

The image atop this post features a driftwood sculpture of her that can be found near to Long Beach's Boardwalk (on Long Island in NY).

Monday's Memory stems from PEANUTS...

.... this strip was published on this day of September 10th in 1982. But Charlie Brown is wrong, Summer is never over on September 10th! The official ending of the season for summer in my hemisphere takes place around September 22nd — twelve days after the tenth, CB!

Tuesday's Truths, the Ninety-Second Week: "Vous pouvez porter blanc toute l' année!"

CoCo Chanel's quote, "Vous pouvez porter blanc toute l' année," that's within the title of today's post may sound familiar to you, dear reader, as it was included in the title of a blog post that I published here on the Tuesday after Labor Day in 2011 (although at that time I was not running my Tuesday's Truths series).

Incidentally, the picture atop this entry was also featured in the aforementioned entry. When I wrote that entry, I referred to the white flowers which were growing in my rooftop garden including a variety of Echinacea, such as the one seen in the photos directly below....

...  as well as the flowers growing on my Autumn Clematis.

I'm not sure why I didn't mention (in the blog post which I've been referencing) the white flowers produced by my Tree Peony — AKA Paeonia suffruiticosa — whose flowers are featured in the images below...

THIS PEONY IS FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

THIS PEONY IS FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

THIS PEONY IS FEATURED IN VOLUME ONE

... perhaps I failed to do so because by the Tuesday after Labor Day in 2011 this particular shrub was long past its thriving days (which always occur in April through early May).

The Sad Story Re NY's Beaches

I have been to a number of NY beaches affected by this heartbreaking news of the discovery regarding medical waste washing up on the shore causing them to be closed in order to protect people and I must say maybe beaches need to be closed to the public to protect the ocean from people.

A Seagull's Work Around to a Cooling Center

When the heat index is predicted to be dangerously high, New York City opens cooling centers in air-conditioned facilities to offer people relief from the heat, but since seagulls don't have access to such places, they have their own methods of getting relief from the heat, which is something I learned on a recent trip (this past Thursday) to Long Beach.

Wednesday's Wisdom: "Summer-izing" Books!

Love this cartoon by Mark Parisi! And for Wednesday's Wisdom, I'd like to offer you a way to "summer-ize" (not summarize) your books, dear reader: Take them with you to the ocean to read during these hot summer days, but do so by putting them in my kaleidoscopic-themed totes that are available from Fine America (FAA).

Since, I'm on the subject of reading at the beach, please let me remind you that while both volumes of Cam's book series, Words In Our Beak ...

VOLUMES 1+2

... are great for reading there (or anywhere), part of volume two refers to Cam's (the female cardinal who narrates these stories) trip to Long Beach (on Long Island) where she and her children came upon the bird type known as American Oystercatchers.

Sunday's Sequel (Re 9/16's Costal Cleanup)

The Canadian geese since in the photographs atop this entry were ones I encountered yesterday, September the sixteenth, when I participated in an event sponsored by Audubon Society NYC, which involved costal clean-up.

In fact, costal clean-up was an event that took place across the entire globe on this day. According to a web-page, "Coastal Cleanup Day was established by the Ocean Conservancy, an organization that work to help protect the ocean from the challenges it faces every year. They serve as a voice for the ocean, speaking of the issues that aren’t often represented through social networking, publicized updates, and challenges like asking your waitress to skip the straw for your drink. Efforts like that work towards a trash free ocean.

Trash in the water impacts the world on many levels, including harming wildlife, humans, and impacting the livelihood of those who work on the ocean. It causes economic damage by affecting tourism and recreation and the money they bring into those communities that are the ocean shore. The Ocean Conservatory knows that solving these issues requires bold initiatives and eliminating the sources of the trash that damages the ocean.

Empowering people to take an active role in the preservation and cleaning up of the ocean are important parts of helping conservation of the ocean. By spreading tips and techniques to help reduce trash they help people everywhere aid the cleanup of our oceans."

My participation led me (via a bus) to The North Channel Bridge area in NYC, where along with a number of other volunteers (some of who can be seen in the image following picture,

which was taken by Danielle Sherman of Audubon Society NYC after we had completed three hours of attempting to clear the beach of items on a form-style check list (as well as items not listed on that form).

They had me at American Oystercatcher!

This past August I received some information from Audubon Society NYC, and it included the image seen atop this blog entry. The correspondence included a narrative stating the following:

Join NYC Audubon, Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, Wild Bird Fund and the Linnaean Society of New York at North Channel Bridge to take part in a multi-state effort to improve coastline habitat. The North Channel Bridge area, used by species like the American oystercatcher, is also a stone's throw away from the Harbor Heron Island and the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Help us clear the beach and raise awareness of the importance of coastal areas to birdlife. Limited transportation from Manhattan available.

The North Channel Bridge Beach Cleanup is part of an annual international effort coordinated in NYS by the American Littoral Society (http://www.littoralsociety.org). It is a global volunteer effort to cleanup beaches for the marine life, shore birds, wildlife, and you- the beachgoer. Anyone can participate and it is a great way to give back and spend time outdoors. No other program in New York does more to improve the coastal environment than the International Coastal Cleanup.

Wear: comfortable clothes and close-toed shoes.

I was very excited to receive this news and grateful about the prospect of taking part in an activity to help shorebirds, however, the last sentence, Wear: comfortable clothes and close-toed shoes, has me somewhat unnerved. This is because I have been wearing a boot cast for five weeks, and as you may know, those "shoes" are not close-toed, as evidenced below.

The image you see features yours truly wearing a boot cast that had some bling. This bling was given to me as a belated birthday gift by a chaplain who also took the picture. It really made my cast look elegant and it made me feel I was far along in my recovery.

This Particular Friday's "FANTASTICK" Fact: "Deep in December it's nice to remember The fire of September that made you mellow."

Before the official onset of summer 2017, which was Wednesday, June 21, 2017, I told myself that I would make sure that I went to the beach once a week. There are many beaches near Manhattan and all of them are normally accessible by public transportation.

However, this summer getting to any beach via public transportation was impossible due to major construction on all railroad and subway stations. I wrote about the scenario in a previous post here on Blogger which you may refer to by clicking here.

I had also hoped to work around that transportation problem by tandem cycling to The Rockaways (a beach off the Atlantic Ocean) in the borough of Queens, but our plans were cancelled due to heavy rain.

And now September is here and I have not been to the beach. This fact brings the Dr. Seuss quote seen in the image atop this entry to my mind.

I do realize that one can still go to the beach in the fall. In fact, in bygone years, I cycled with my captain to the beach at Coney Island (in Brooklyn) during the month of October.

Tuesday's Truths WK 3: The Glands of Seagulls Allow Them to Drink Salt Water

AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 3

Welcome to Tuesday's Truths week three. If you follow this blog, you may recall on the second week of my series, Tuesday's Truths, I blogged about certain truisms re the bird type known an an American Oystercatcher, a bird type I was "introduced" to during my recent trip to Long Beach New York. A member of this bird variety can be seen in the lower lefthand corner within the image posted above, where he/she appears to be taking a drink from the salty waters of the Atlantic. 

Tuesday's Truths WK 2: The American Oystercatcher's Beak Functions Somewhat Like the Beak of a Bluejay!

Last Tuesday (July 19th), here on Blogger, was my first week of publishing a feature I hope to keep going within this blog. This feature is Tuesday's Truths, which I stated would be entries about interesting truths that I've discovered about the flora that grows in my urban (NYC) garden, and or the antics I've observed re the avian creatures which visit it. 

Today only marks my second week with this format, and I'm already expanded my spectrum, for one of the bird types I will be discussing in this post is not one who has visited my garden. It is a type that I met this past Sunday and is a shorebird known as the American Oystercatcher (pictured above taking refreshment from the Atlantic Ocean).