Tuesday's Truths Week 192: What a difference a week makes!

IMAGE CREDIT

As many of you may know, a number of people were impacted by Hurricane Isaias, which took place in NYC, one week ago (on August 4th 2020) and I was no exception, in fact I had a Wizard of Oz moment.

Rainy Days are FOR THE BIRDS!

IMAGE CREDIT

As far as I know, birds (other than the ones in the Peanuts comic strip atop this entry) never have to use an umbrella when the rain is falling.

In the first volume of the Words In Our Beak series, which is pictured below...

SEE PRESS RELEASE

... Cam, the protagonist (who is the cardinal featured on the book's cover and in the following pictures taken in my rooftop garden, where her story is set) explains that the reason birds tolerate rain is because they have "something" on their feathers that makes rain drops just slide right off.

CAM, THE NARRATOR OF "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

CAM, THE NARRATOR OF "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

CAM, THE NARRATOR OF "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

Cam goes on to say that this "something" on the feathers "is an oil that coats feathers and provides waterproofing, which is important since the only thing worse than being cold, is being cold and wet."

Happy New Year — Chinese New Year that is.

The figurine, who is featured in the image directly above, joins me today in wishing you, dear reader, a very  Happy New Year — Chinese New Year that is. This date of 2-16-2018 marks the beginning of the Lunar Year, which happens to be The Year of the Dog.

This occasion has nothing to do with the calendar year being named The Year of the Bird in honor of the one hundred year anniversary of  The Migratory Bird Act.

"Saturday (January the 27th) in the Park"

Yesterday, Saturday, January 27, 2017, I took a walk in Central Park with the intention of observing Mallard ducks on the eighth anniversary of J.D. Salinger's death, and, indeed, I did see a number of these birds.

However, I also came upon a lone White-throated sparrow who is featured in the photograph atop this entry. This bird type is included in a video produced by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which is included in one of my recent posts here on Blogger.

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.

A Jack-O-Lantern does some bird watching.

My Jack-O-Lantern's stint in my rooftop garden ended early this season as he had to be brought inside due to my preparing my place  for a hurricane who became known as Super Storm Sandy. 

Moreover, there was no room for him at the inn (my indoor succulent garden), so he was forced into an early hiatus; but he promised to return next year, if I shared a few more photo-ops of the pleasure he derived from watching my visiting mourning doves and house finches. I told him that I was not sure who'd see this entry as I normally do not post on Wednesday, but he insisted!

Moreover, this sweet Jack-O-Lantern is aware of the sorrow brought on by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, and he said if he had to leave early, he wanted to make sure, dear reader, to leave you something to make you smile! He assumes you will derive pleasure from seeing the mourning doves's and house finches's experiences with a feeder. In the finches case (the little red guy), settled for the scraps that fell to the table whilst the mourning doves worked their beaks off!

September's 30 days have passed for 2017. NEWS FLASH UPDATE: October has arrived.

September's 30 days have passed for 2017, and supposedly a number of birds, in the area where I live (at least the avian creatures who have admins) should have made their way south by now.

Thursday's Thoughts

On this last day of August for 2017, I'm finding it difficult to write about anything because it seems my content is unworthy in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, which has devastated so many lives in Texas. As I compose this posting Harvey is on his way to Louisiana to wreak havoc and his demise is occurring during the anniversary week of Hurricane Katrina, which occurred during the time period of August 23, 2005 – August 31, 2005.

Jazz, the dog pictured above was rescued during Katrina, but ultimately abandoned at an animal shelter because he is blind. Someone I know (TT) here in NYC is from New Orleans and her family was there during that hurricane. The mother (Mrs. T) of TT (who lives near to me) was supposedly working at the aforementioned shelter and she adopted Jazz. 

Ultimately Mrs. T died of cancer, unrelated to Katrina, and TT bought Jazz to NYC. She was not always able to care for him and I introduced TT to someone who has been able to help her care for Jazz.

In any event, I certainly am keeping the folks impacted by these hurricanes in my mind, and I have yet to find out how Juan V's family is faring. They live in Texas, but I'm not sure what part, and, I don't usually communicate with Juan in between the days we work together in my urban garden.

The next time I see him, which will be a week from today, I will be able to ask him if his loved ones were affected by Harvey.

"another year over AND a new one just begun . . . " PART ONE (FOR January 2013)

On this tenth day of the new year, my champagne loving character (pictured above) and I offer you, dear reader, cheers and all good wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2014.

Usually by this time in a given January here on TLLG's Blogger pages, I have offered my salutations, spoken about resolutions, written reflections on The Feast of the Epiphany as well as reflections on Three Kings Day; and I have even been in the process of writing a year-end reflection of the comings and goings in my urban (NYC) terrace garden.

This year, 2014  salutations were posted on TLLG's FB Page, and mentions of Epiphany with salutations were discussed on hometalk. As for 2014's Three King's Day, I posted info about it on TLLG's FB Page as well as hometalk, where I offered new content re specifics of traditions to honor the day. 

Alas, I did not get the chance to post anything here on Blogger, but please don't feel slighted as I am even further behind in my "correspondence" with my tumblr community!

In any event, having just told you where I've been spending my blogging energies, I will tell you that in terms of my annual year-end reflections on comings and goings in my rooftop garden, I've "saved" the topic for the community I have here (but may refer others, especially those interested in gardening, to this content).

Last year's year-end review (for 2012) spanned a number of entries here on Blogger (fifteen) from January 5, 2013 through January 20, 2013. 

My year-end review for 2013 will be set up in a similar manner but will not span as many entries. For 2012's garden circumstances included coping with a few upheavals in my garden such a so-called building renovation, preparing for a hurricane that was ultimately named Super Storm Sandy which was followed by preparing for a nor' easter. 

Thankfully, the aforementioned events were not a part of my 2013 gardening endeavors!

The format for my 2013 garden year-end review will span twelve months as I'll use the first day of a given month to take a look back. 

And now without further ado, the 2013 year-end garden review!

Honoring & Remembering the Service of Others Heartfelt Thanks to Ms. Susan Grimstead of WBU-NJ (as well as Sarah, D. William, Robert and Chris)

This past Wednesday was the twelfth anniversary of the 9-11-11 attacks and in bygone years I have dedicated blog posts (including ones here on Blogger) to those who lost lives in the attacks as well as to those who mourn losses as a result of that tragedy.

This year I acknowledged the anniversary on TLLG's FB Page as well as in an entry on hometalk. Both of the aforementioned posts included the photograph atop today's blogger entry. The image is of One World Trade Center (formerly known as The Freedom Tower), and it was taken by yours truly from a vantage point on the greenway along Manhattan's westside, slightly north of the Christopher Street entrance.

It is hard for me to believe that so much time has passed since that horrific day, but indeed time has passed and the construction taking place at the WTC site (including the building of One World Trade Center) is a physical indication of this fact.

During this year's 9-11-01 coverage, I heard the tail-end of a radio interview where the guests on the program were two brothers, who had lost someone in the attacks, and who were focusing their energy on efforts to promote the idea of September Eleventh being dedicated as a day to SERVE OTHERS, in memory of those both living and deceased, who served (by giving of their time and talents) to others on that fateful day and in the aftermath.

The position of these brothers is that while we still mourn the dead, and while we still feel for those who now have illnesses related to 9-11, a road to true healing is to also focus on how folks came together to help others in their time of need. 

One of the examples they cited was that of a man who came to NYC from Michigan — on a bus — to honor this year's 9-11 by helping folks (who were strangers to him) rebuild their homes (in Staten Island) which had been damaged as a result of a hurricane named Super Storm Sandy.

During the interview it was also brought up how service to others should not be limited to a one day dedication, nor does "service" need to always be in the form of a large gesture. Small gestures of service are essential too; and it is important to offer them as well as to honor them.

In my lifetime, I have been blessed by my interactions with a number of folks, and in today's entry, I'd like to acknowledge how my recent encounters with others have helped me to resolve (hopefully) an issue I am having feeding birds in my urban (NYC) garden; hence, my title for today's post: Heartfelt Thanks to Ms. Susan Grimstead of WBU-NJ (as well as Sarah, D. William, Robert and Chris).

"another year over AND a new one just begun . . . " PART TWO-H-3 (Oct 24th — Oct 31st 2012)

Today's entry here on Blogger is part two-H-3 of a series of posts pertaining to a year-end review for special occurrences in my rooftop garden for the year 2012 (the schedule for this series is described in part one as well as part two-A of this topic) and, as I've said, because October 2012 was the month since a hurricane, now known as Super Storm Sandy hit the area near to where I live, my garden went through another upheaval, so I will be posting the review for October in three parts. The first part of October's review covered days which included the dates from October 1st through October 10th of 2012, and is what I discussed in a post on Wednesday, and yesterday, Thursday, January 18th, my review for October covered the dates from October 11th through October 24th; and today, Friday the nineteenth I will cover the remainder of October.

So without further ado, I "give" you today's entry, and I'll start with the five images atop this posting which feature some of my mourning doves doing a reenactment of a childern's song known as Five Little Pumpkins. 

On October the twenty-fifth, the day after Juan V and I had last worked together, and when these images were taken, I had been glad to see that some of my visiting mourning doves had finally become comfortable around my Jack-O-Lanterns; Jack-O-Lanterns which Juan V and I had placed in my garden when we had done our decorating for the 2012 Halloween season earlier in the month.

As you can surmise from these images, my mourning doves were quite animated around my Jack-O-Lanterns, but a lone house finch ultimately did appear on the scene to take part in the antics, as can be seen in the image below.

With only six days to go until Halloween, my feathered friends were in a feisty mood; but they also had pensive moments, as if predicting a storm (which would come to be known as the destructive Hurricane Sandy) was heading our way.

I'm told birds can feel it when severe weather conditions are about to occur; and perhaps that was on the minds, as well as in the hearts, of some of my birds as they pondered whilst sitting on the branches of my Actinida kolomikta and Actimida (AKA Kiwi Vines) as seen below.

Be that as it may, whether the birds were soul searching; or making plans to prepare for Hurricane Sandy whilst they "perched" on the branches of my kiwi vine, a few of them still found time to "make use" of my Halloween decor; and not just with my "feisty" Jack-O-Lanterns!

Some saw it fitting to "perch" on my Halloween pumpkin as evidenced by the "actions" of a lone mourning dove seen in the images below.

Mourning Dove Stares SHAMELESSLY Into my Neighbor's Window!

Mourning Dove Stares SHAMELESSLY Into My Window!

Mourning Dove Stares SHAMELESSLY Onto my Neighbor's Balcony!

At this time in October of 2012, it cerainly seemed that of all my visiting birds, the mourning dove was the most daring or shamelessly curious of all; in fact, at this time in October of 2012, it had been quite some time since Cam (my "lone" female cardinal) had visited my garden and I was quite concerned about her well being!

After a lot of googling and numerous phone calls I was consoled by the fact that she had gotten out of town re the news that Hurricane Sandy was about to hit our area. 

However, in the event Cam was still around, I tried another type of feeder, one that had a tray secured to it, as she often enjoyed eating "crumbs" that fell from a feeder rather than getting her food directly from the feeder itself. 

But the weather conditions  pre-Sandy began to produce heavy winds, and I did not want my "alternative" feeder to fall from the bracket from which I had hung it, and so I placed it on a table in my garden. Once again, the shameless mourning doves were the first ones to check it out, and some photo-ops of them doing this are posted below.

And, as you can see, my Jack-O-Lantern laughed heartily as he watched the mourning doves "interact" with the "alternative" feeder. The female house finch was a little more cautious about trying to eat from the feeder as she seemed to study it from her "perspective" atop the branches of my kiwi vine! This is evident in the photographs I've posted below.

But she has reason to be cautious given her compromised eyesight (as you can deduce from the images posted above which show her eye is crusted over, or totally missing).

The plight of this finch re her eye sight is something I "introduced" in yesterday's post, and, as I promised there, I will get back to this topic at another time once this series is complete.

And eventually she did try out the feeder as seen in the image posted below, which is one you may recognize from a previous post here on Blogger.

The female finches' counterpart, the red male house finch has similar struggles with his eyesight, and instead of braving the "alternative" feeder, he "settled" for the "crumbs" left over from the mourning doves' noshing. This can be seen in the images posted below.

The latter of the images, dear reader, is one you may recognize from a prior post (November 2012) here on Blogger.

As for my tufted titmouse, who was still fairly new to my garden, he/she had no problems adjusting to the feeder as evidenced in the images below which are ones that you may recognize from a previous post (October 2012) here on Blogger.

But adjusting to a different feeder in my garden was one of the least of the challenges which my visiting birds would have in the last few days of October in the final days of October 2012, when my garden underwent another upheaval as I prepared it for Hurricane Sandy!

At first, before I had any clue as to how heavy the rains would be, I simply placed trays of bird seed under tables in the hopes that their food would not get soggy and lo and behold a bluejay appeared and ran across my garden's "floor" to avail himself/herself of it as seen in the image posted below.

And as the winds picked up, I laid my bouncer chair (a chair which was described earlier in this series) on its side so that it would not blow over and so that I could put trays of seed under it in order to "protect" the bird seed from getting too soggy, as the rain was coming down in droves! My efforts and the reactions of a couple of of my birds may be seen in the photo-ops which are posted below.

Re the anticipated heavy winds, I not only laid my bouncer chair on its side; I also removed my "fireplace-fixture-planter" and the ornamental grasses known as Ophipogon planiscapus (AKA Black Mondo Grass) triplets they support, from the north end of my terrace; and I placed the "fireplace-fixture-planter" on its side as seen in the image below.

The red arrows superimposed over the image indicate the moving of my my "fireplace-fixture-planter;" I moved it as a safety precaution re the predicted high winds, but also I thought I could support the bird feeders with the "planter."

Moreover, I removed my marble table top from its pedestal and put it inside my apartment. I was used to lugging my garden "stuff" in and out of my apartment, which I had most recently done to prepare for my so-called renovation in September of 2012 as discussed in a previous post.

And I moved this pedestal near to my door (and did the same thing with most of my flowers, ornamental grasses, plants, shrubs and trees) as things are less vulnerable to the wrath of wind if they are near my door. I ultimately placed my dome-style feeder on the pedestal as my having the feeder near my door meant I could replenish it more easily in inclement weather.

It's not very surprising that the first bird to check out the dome feeder in this location was — you guessed it — my shamelessly curious mourning dove — and a couple of photo-ops of him/her assessing the situation are posted below.

As always, the house finches were more cautious about feeder arrangements, but a house finch did eventually make herself cozy as she noshed as evidenced in the image below.

I still feel sad for her when I think of the struggle she endues with her eyesight and this image shows her affliction.

But on a lighter note, the tufted titmouse made its way to my dome feeder atop a pedestal. He/she can be seen in the image below.

However, as careful as I had been to make my garden safe for myself and my neighbors with Hurricane Sandy increasing in storm category every minute; my friend Michael came to help me as I ultimately had to move things in my garden to safer parts of my "yard." 

And I also had to bring a number of objects — large and small — into my studio apartment; and although I didn't move my trees and shrubs inside as I had had to do with my renovation, it was still a big job, for which I'm not complaining; rather I'm including it as information on the highs and lows (as well some how-to tips) of urban container gardening.

The other thing we moved before the storm got more powerful was my "fireplace-fixture-planter," the planter I had moved earlier that day as I mentioned earlier in today's posting. We put it nearer to my door so that I could get to it easily to replenish it if need be, and we secured the feeders both on to and under my "fireplace-fixture-planter."

A partial view of what we did can be seen in the image posted below.

And the following are photo-ops on how visiting birds responded to our solution on October 29th 2012, which was two days before Hurricane Sandy dissipated. 

As you can see, dear reader, an array of birds visited me in the midst of the heavy rains and high winds brought on by Hurricane Sandy, a hurricane that would ultimately devastate many people on the Eastern Seaboard and a hurricane that displaced many birds!

I did not see Cam (my lone female cardinal) but her male companion who I've only seen here on one occasion did stop by on October 30th, the day the storm was in full force, and his photo-op may be seen below.

I was glad he availed himself of the "system" which Michael and I had devised and even joked that perhaps Cam, not wanting to ruin her hair in the rain, sent him for take-out! Cam is usually the only cardinal who comes for the food and i was grateful that she was being helped.

Also, the tufted titmouse visited during the storm, carefully studying our feeder system before diving in as seen in the two  images below which show a sequence of his/her reactions.

The first image shows her assessing the situation; the second shows her going for it (as indicated with a red arrow).

I am very grateful to say that I did not sustain any danage during Sandy's wrath, and by the last day of October, October the thirty-first, Halloween, I did have a few trick treaters which included newbies to my garden, house sparrows and white-throated sparrows and they can be seen in the photo-ops below.

And this brings me to the conclusion of my review for October 2012, and I'll see you tomorrow for my review of November 2012 re the events in my garden.