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.

Laughing gulls spending time in Long Branch

The Laughing gull featured in photograph atop this entry appears to be doing ballet. I enclountered this creature on a recent trip to a beach in Long Branch New Jersey.

My "Six Degrees of Separation" led to sad news...

Once upon a time, I wrote little stories (unpaid) for hometalk (and also for this blog) about whimsical holiday-themed figurines. These were designed by an array of artisans including Patience Brewster, Lori Mitchell, Bethany Lowe and Byer's Choice. Although I no longer do this (except on rare occasion) I still get emails about new and old figurines as well as information re those who create them.

The other day I received a notification that the MacKenzie-Childs company is now producing Halloween themed figurines and home decor. Pictures of their works can be seen in the photo-ops atop this entry. I don't (nor can I afford) anything created by MacKenzie-Childs but their name is familiar with me for other reasons.

National Umbrella Day 2020

Today, February 10, is National Umbrella Day and in honor of the occasion, I'm posting a photo of a figurine holding an umbrella atop this entry.

According to a number of holiday themed sites, including National Today, "the origins of the utilitarian holiday remain a mystery, it’s been celebrated since at least 2004."

Not only does the umbrella help keep us dry from the rain, but it also protects us from the heat of the sun as evidenced in my next picture taken at a beach in Ocean Grove New Jersey nearly eight years ago.

National day goes on to proclaim, "Umbrellas can also be used as a fashion accessory. While the umbrella is primarily practical, they also decorate cocktails. These brightly colored paper umbrellas make for fun party favors especially when visiting sunny locations.

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.

Thursday's Testimony: Confronting Shadows

Maybe because Groundhog Day 2019 has only recently passed, I've been a little obsessed with the topic of seeing/not seeing one's own shadow and am learning to confront mine as Carl Jung suggests everyone should do.

The Tenth Day of Christmas and other Stuff

IMAGE CREDIT

Happy Tenth Day of Christmas, the day when someones's true love gave to them (according to a song) ten pipers piping, nine drummers drumming; as well as eight maids a milking, seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.

The web-page, 12 Birds Of Christmas, has this to say re The Tenth Day of Christmas: "We sing the song with the ten lords a-leaping, but originally it was ten pipers piping, at least in England. In earliest known variant found in North America, on the Tenth Day of Christmas, the true love sent ten Cocks A-Crowing. It's all the same, however. Cocks and sandpipers were both legendary for being noisy, excitable, vain and arrogant, feisty, and sexually aggressive  It was shortly after the broadside was published that the word 'rooster' replaced 'cock' in polite company in North America. That may help explain why we don't hear that version today..." 

In honor of the gift of pipers piping on this Tenth Day of Christmas, I've posted an illustration by  Roberta Baird, whose whose other bird illustration I included in yesterday's post here on Blogger.

The Fifth Day of Christmas 2018

It's The Fifth Day of Christmas, the day (according to a song) when someones's true love gave to them five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. In honor of Christmas's Fifth Day, I've posted my photo of an ornament based on today's occasion.

On The Fifth Day of Christmas in 2016, here on Blogger, I included a copy of this same picture along with an interesting backstory today's celebration. If you'd like to read that blog entry, please click here. As you will see that post discussed the relationship of pheasants to today's holiday.

Today I find myself associating five golden rings with a bird type.

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!

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.

Thursday's Testimony: Plastics are NOT for the birds (or for any other living creature)...

The comic strip atop this entry was in my inbox today and upon seeing it, I was instantly reminded of a couple of seagulls whom I've seen "collecting plastics" on Long Beach. A couple of my images featuring this disturbing scenario are posted directly below.

It never ceases to amaze me how people litter (for surely no other creature is leaving plastics behind).

Some Facts Regarding Laughing Gulls (Wednesday's Wisdom)

In a recent entry here on Blogger, I mentioned that I had been to Long Beach and learned something new about the Ring-billed seagull: "they pant, like dogs which releases heat through evaporation of moisture along the bird's mouth, throat and lungs" and "because birds lack sweat glands, they do not sweat to cool off like we do. A bird will open its mouth and breath faster, which increases the airflow."

On that same day I noticed a Laughing Gull doing the same thing as evidenced in the photo atop this entry. This avian creature is new to me and marks the twelfth new bird whom I've seen in this Year of the Bird.

My last time seeing a bird who was new to me (who happened to be a gray/grey catbird) occurred on 5/29/2018, an encounter which I wrote here on Blogger at that time.

Be that as it may, since today is Wednesday, the day I set aside for my Wednesday's Wisdom series, I'll be using this opportunity to share some information about the Laughing Gull. After all, part of the definition of wisdom, "or sapience is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight."

And the gull seen here is certainly using his/her wisdom to cool down on a hot summer day, however there are a number of other interesting facts re this bird type.

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 Sentiments for 10-29-2017

Yesterday, Saturday, October 28th, marked the one hundred and twenty-first anniversary of the dedication of The Statue of Liberty. According to a Wikipedia page, the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886. She can be standing in NYC's harbor (from the vantage point of Red Hook in Brooklyn), in the first image atop this entry. The second image features a driftwood sculpture of her.

That particular image (which was was included in an entry here on Blogger this past June), was taken by yours truly when I made a trip to Long Beach (on Long Island in NY) with my sister a number of years ago.

Splish Splash Seagulls Were Taking a Bath! (Saturday's Sequel Re 10/7/2017's Beach Day)

 

This past Tuesday, in my entry here on Blogger, I discussed a few things related to the visit I made to Long Beach (on Long Island) last Saturday.

However,I did not mention a unique (to me) sighting that I observed when I was there, which was my seeing seagulls bathing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Here's my Tuesday's Truths WK 61: I finally went to the beach!

Hello, and welcome to Tuesday's Truths for week fifty-nine: I finally went to the beach! If you follow my entries here on Blogger, dear reader, then you may recall that I have been trying to go to the beach for the year 2017 ever since May. Therefore, I'm so thankful that I finally had the opportunity to this, even though, because of traffic in getting there, we could only be on the beach four hours.

The beach I was able to visit was Long Beach which is on Long Island in New York. I've been to this beach on countless occasions since I moved to NYC in the 1980's, and several of my trips there have been with my sister, who unfortunately has not been able to visit me this year (as of this posting).

In any event, in spite of the fact thatI have been to Long Beach on so many occasions, I have never visited there in the month of October. It was such a wonderful experience to be there on a Saturday afternoon at this time of year.

And because it's "officially" the end of beach season (meaning there are no lifeguards), the beach was not peppered with as many umbrellas and beach chairs, as depicted in the image atop this entry, which is from a web-page.

However, a fair amount of people, as well as seagulls, were there enjoying an October day at the beach.

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).