Remembering William Shakespeare

When I spoke by phone to my dear friend, VB,  I mentioned to him that we have had a lot of heavy rains this month which I found to disprove the adage,“April showers bring May flowers,” as our showers are taking nearly away chances of May flowers.

He responded by quoting a line from Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare (who died on this day in 1564): “Rough Winds do shake the darling buds of May.”

European starlings contine to enjoy my garden. (Saturday's Sentiment)

European starlings the bird type featured in the image atop this entry (visiting my roof extension garden) were brought to NYC from England 131 years and one month ago yesterday (3-16-1890).

Friday's Fact: Rainfall still doesn't deter birds from visiting my garden.

 

The first half of this month has certainly lived up to the adage re April having showers, however this year they could be taking away May flowers, as the rain has been more like torrents than showers. Flowers are falling off their stems as a result and flowering trees are dropping their blooms. Such heavy precipitation often begs the question, Where do birds go when it rains?

A number of interesting articles have been published about this, including one by Chipper Birds. As for me, I often know where they go because a number of songbirds spend their rainy days in my garden. This is something I mentioned in a recent post here on Blogger which includes a male cardinal visiting my place during a rainfall.

During yesterday’s heavy rain several species spent time in my place, including a Northern mockingbird and an American robin (the bird types featured in the photographs atop this entry).

April Showers don't only bring May flowers! (They are an opportunity to stay in and read.)

Today's the sixth day of April for 2018, and so far this month — in NYC — we've had a record number of heavy, steady showers of rain, as well as snow! Channel 7's weather forecast is predicting more of the same in the coming days (as evidenced in the first image atop this entry).

Many New Yorkers are staying dry by staying inside cafés and reading, as seen in the second image atop this entry, where a woman (who identified herself as Shirley) took the opportunity to read portions of Words In Our Beak Volume One.

Other New Yorkers, such as Mark and his colleague, Laura, from Anne et Valentin, took the opportunity to read volume one and volume two of the Words In Our Beak series. They can be seen in the image directly above where Mark is reading volume one and Laura is reading volume two.

Rather you live in an area that's been under wet weather conditions and have needed to stay inside to read; or rather you've been able to enjoy reading in the great outdoors, I highly recommend taking the opportunity to read both volumes of this series. After all, the year of 2018, is The Year of the Bird!

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.