September evening still can make me feel this way! (Sixth Cycling Trip for 2017)

It is very rare that I let anyone take my picture, let alone pose for one. But this past Thursday, when I was at my foot doctor's (Dr Q) office, I asked his admin person to take a photo (which can be seen atop this entry) of me wearing my boot cast, as it's my fifth week of having to do this. 

In Honor of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

CAM, THE NARRATOR OF WIOB

Today, February 27th, 2017, would be Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 210th birthday; and although I have been very familiar with many of Longfellow's works, the wild birds who visit my rooftop garden, as well as the flora I grow have reinforced his quotation, "The best thing one can do when it's raining is let it rain," Cam, the cardinal pictured above.

Cam and I have referenced this quotation in the book, Words In Our Beak, Volume One...

... when we explain how birds withstand rain, as she is doing in the first photograph above; and, as a pair of blue jays and a lone mourning dove are doing in the images below.

BLUE JAYS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

MOURNING DOVES HAVE A STORY IN VOL 1

The book also references Longfellow's wisdom re rain in terms of flora, especially when it comes to the flowers of a Paeonia suffruiticosa (Tree Peony), as seen in the photos directly below.

Throwback Thursday: John Lennon's Murder: 12-8-1980

Today is the  feast of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as indicated in the photo atop this entry in an image from Prints of Grace.

It is also the thirty-sixth anniversary of John Lennon's murder. And just as it is said that people of a certain age remember what they were doing when they received the news that John F. Kennedy was assassinated (as I blogged about in a post here on Blogger), it is said that most people of a certain age will remember what they were doing when they received word that Lennon was shot and killed in New York City, just outside his home, a half a block away from where I now reside.

Throwback Thursday: The Week After T'giving

I generally don't use the term, "Throwback Thursday," but there is always a first time, and after all, today marks a week since the holiday known as Thanksgiving was celebrated. The video posted atop this blog post is one I found on You tube and it features one of the bands that marched down the streets of NYC in the 2016 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The view that can be seen here is from a vantage point that is much further south than from where I viewed the parade.

"September morning still can make me feel this way . . . "

Well, here it is September . . .  a month in which thirty days shall pass, a month whose very name and implications (due to its timing in the calendar) has inspired song lyrics such as, "Try to remember, the kind of September . . . ", "Oh, let us make a pledge to meet in September . . .",  "September morning  still can make me feel this way . . . " and "By order, summer lingers through September, In Camelot . . . ".

As a gardener, I am in cahoots with the things which I grow in my urban terrace garden (including herbs, vines, flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees) in that I am not a fan of the heat of summer; however, we (the things I grow in my garden and myself) do like the longer hours of sunlight that summer brings, and we are always a bit sad with the shorter amount of daylight hours which is brought on by the fall season.

"When I find myself in times of trouble . . . Mother Mary comes to meet me . . ." Consolation of Strawberry Fields

Yesterday, December the 8th, was the  Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was also the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, and just as it is said that people of a certain age remember what they were doing when they received the news that John F. Kennedy was assassinated (as I blogged about in a previous post), it is said that most people of a certain age will remember what they were doing when they received word that Lennon was shot and killed in New York City, just outside his home, a half a block away from where I now reside.