Is he/she or isn't he/she an American Crow? ("Controversy" over this one's ID!)

The photos posted atop this entry were taken in The Hallett Center. It is an area (within Central Park) that I visited this past Saturday afternoon when I was walking in the company of a couple who lives on the Eastside of NYC.

It's Valentine's Day 2019!

HOUSE FINCHES ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

Today is Valentine's Day 2019 and in some ways the holiday is for the birds because they take time to show their affection by giving total attention to one another; as evidenced by this pair of house finches who are atop the string lights which hang over my rooftop garden.

How does your indoor garden grow?

On this last Friday in the month of September, I would be remiss to not mention that last week (the third week in September) was National Indoor Plant Week.

According to Holiday Insights (HI),"this particular "celebration" was created to promote and increase awareness of the importance of live plants in internal spaces. Those spaces can be your home, an office where you work, a hospital, or even an indoor shopping mall." 

Furthermore, HI proclaims, "Indoor plants are widely popular in American homes. Yet, with their passive nature blending into the decorum of the home, they are seldom thought of, and sometimes ignored."

I confess that recently I've been guilty of not giving my indoor garden (which can seen in the image atop this entry featuring fall-themed figurines who have stopped by to visit it) the same attention and care that I give to my rooftop garden.

Wednesday's Wisdom Facts Re "4 calling birds"

Yesterday, was the third day of  Christmas; and here on Blogger, I weighed in with my musings re that particular holiday and included some thoughts on the second as well as the first day of Christmas.

Today is known as the fourth day of Christmas, the day when someone's true love gave to them four calling birds or four colly birds; depending on one's interpretation of the story told within the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Growing up, I was always led to believe that on the fourth day of Christmas someone's true love gave to them, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. Now, after all these years of singing the twelve days, I've discovered one's true love was never given calling birds; rather he/she was most likely given colly or coaly birds!

According to "research and speculative detective work" done by John R. Henderson, "the version of the Twelve Days of Christmas that we know today dates back only as far as 1909, when arranger Frederic Austin's transcription of the words and his own tune were published in London. The three earliest printed versions (with no music) date back to about 1780, and it is noteworthy that the order of the gifts was different than the Twentieth Century version. The song was old when it was first published. One scholar has found what she thinks are elements of the song in a damaged manuscript from the seventh century, the time of Beowulf, the great heroic pagan poem.

"Most of what we know about the Anglo-Celtic pagan religion comes from Christian writers condemning it. What the Anglo-Celts actually believed will never be known for sure, but there are clues. We know numbers had special signifigance to them, and we know that birds were honored as holy symbols of fertility. That in itself might actually provide even more evidence of the song's true non-Christian origins."

Henderson states that on the fourth day of Christmas, one was given four colly birds and he claims "the birds are really Colly Birds, not Calling Birds. Colly birds may be any of several coal-black birds – crows, jackdaws, rooks, or ravens. These birds of the night carry the power and mystery of the dark season of the year. The raven was the bird of battle. Four is an important number to link with the darkness, since Four is the number of the Earth, which, though now asleep and filled in darkness, remains fertile and a potent elemental source of power. "

I have no pictures of crows, jackdaws, rooks or ravens in the collection of bird images that I've taken over the years. Therefore, I'm representing these coal-colored birds by featuring images (atop this entry) of figurines based on crow varieties.

National Pumpkin Day 2016

Today, October the 26th is National Pumpkin Day! I had thought it was pretty unique to find a pink pumpkin at a Pumpkin Patch that was near to The Raptor Trust, as I had never seen this variety of pumpkin before. I was thrilled to place it in my home alongside a basket of squash; and as you can see from the image posted above, a crow seemed impressed with my unique pumpkin discovery.

However, this afternoon when I was walking to a follow-up appointment with my retinal specialist, I made another unique pumpkin discovery when I passed an array of pumpkins alongside a posh NYC brownstone. These pumpkins were most unique in that they were dressed in Halloween costumes!

Light thickens, and the crow . . .

. . . Makes wings to th' rocky wood.

Good things of day begin to drop and drowze;

Whiles night's black agents to their prey do rouse.

Thou marvel'st at my words; but hold thee still.

Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.

So, prithee, go with me."

Claudia, the crow, pictured at the top of today's blog entry has recently joined my indoor succulent garden, and I overheard her reciting a speech from William Shakespeare's, Macbeth. The speech she was delivering comes from Act Three, Scene Two and is posted here (above) in orange text.