Tuesday's Truths WK 68: More Tree-Lined Streets in the UWS of NYC

Welcome to week sixty-fifth of my Tuesday's Truths series, dear reader! I wanted to let you know that this past Thursday, The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade had barely finished before NYC began to see more tree-lined streets, as evidenced in the images atop this blog post.

With the exception of the first image, the pictures feature Christmas trees that are brought down from by French-Canadians who dominate New York's Christmas tree market.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is some one going to be buying me a diamond ring?

During the month of January in the year 2015, a bird type that I'd never seen before, visited my rooftop garden, here NYC. 

He/she can be seen within the picture atop this entry (in an image taken at that time). And as you can see, he/she has a morsel of food in his/her beak. This happens to be suet which he/she availed him/herself from one of a dozen suet-basket feeders that I had hung on a Christmas tree in my garden. The bird type that I am speaking of is a Northern mockingbird; and, as I just stated, he/she began to visit my garden in January of 2015 (or at least that is when I first noticed him/her). I immediately named him/her Harper, in honor of the dearly departed author, Harper Lee, who was alive at the time, but has since died (one year ago today).

In any event, from January the 15th of 2015 through the present, Harper has been visiting my garden on a fairly regular basis. I've written about him/her in posts within my cyber venues of Blogger, Facebook, hometalk, as well as tumblr. Additionally, I have a vast number of photographs of him/her on Pinterest (and there are a few images of him/her on Instagram). 

Moreover, I "covered" his/her antics when I participated in The GBBC (Great Backyard Bird Count) in 2015, I "documented" my findings by putting together a mini video which can be viewed within my Vimeo Library.

I never tire of seeing this lovely bird in my midst! And I was particularly grateful that he/she was able to survive the recent snowstorm here in NYC, as evidenced by my entries re the subject here on Blogger (that you may refer to by clicking here and here). The following are additional images (not included in the aforementioned snowstorm posts) of "my" Northern mockingbird spending time in my garden's winter wonderland during that time.

 And he/she continues to dine here, as evidenced in the following image!

But, during all of my encounters with this awesome bird type, I've yet to hear him/her sing! So, I ask you, dear reader, does this mean, that since I have not heard him/her sing, is some one going to be buying me a diamond ring? (As the song in the You Tube video posted below suggests.....)

Tuesday's Truths: WK 23: Ten Lords A Leaping

Welcome to the twenty-third week of my Tuesday's Truths series! Today also happens to be the Tenth day of the twelve days of Christmas! [This post is in the process of being updated.]

Christmas's Ninth Day

It's the ninth day of Christmas!  [This post is in the process of being updated.]

Tonight is The First Night of Chanukah Moreover, it's also Christmas Eve!

Tonight is The First Night of Chanukah. There will be a menorah lighting ceremony on 59th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, at the southern most point of Central Park. According to a NYC-related web-page, the menorah to be lit is 32 feet tall and weighs 4.000 pounds! The menorahs pictured in the image atop this entry are just a little smaller than that (-;

Be that as it may, in spite of having Jewish ancestors, I know very little about Chanukah or the lighting of the menorah, but I have read that "Chanukah means 'dedication,' and commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by foreign forces and the Jews' victory over the Hellenist Syrians in the year 165 B. C. For the rededication celebration, the Maccabees desired to light the menorah and looked everywhere for oil, finally finding a small flask that contained only enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days. The message of Chanukah may be found in the name of the holiday itself: dedication —not only of the temple building but of individual lives to the pursuit of high religious and human ideals." This quote is something I discussed in bygone years in an entry here on Blogger where I wrote about a parallel between Advent and Chanukah.

Tuesday's Truths WK 21: Canadian Palm Trees (They Are Exotic!)

Welcome to the twenty-first week of my Tuesday's Truth series! In yesterday's post, I promised that in this entry, I would share images of my Canadian Palm Tree that has been placed in my urban garden which is on a rooftop in NYC. A view of this unusual Christmas tree can be seen atop this blog post. And a detail from it can be seen below.

"another year over AND a new one just begun . . . " PART TWO (For February 2013)

Hello and welcome to part two of my 2013 year-end garden review which I introduced in a prior post here on Blogger when I discussed certain "events" that occurred in my urban (NYC) terrace garden in January of 2013. 

Today's post will focus on a specific event that seemed to be the main focus re my garden in February 2013. That event was the unexpected and brutal "attack" of Nemo, a nor'easter causing a couple of my trees to topple over from the wind and weight of heavy snowfall; and not from the cocktails they may or may not have been drinking.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

The last time I posted here on Blogger was 12-5-13, twenty days before Christmas, and, now it is already the sixth day of Christmas, a day when someone's true love gave to them among other things) six geese a laying . . ."

While I do have a true love, he did not give me six geese a laying, but my visiting crocodile (pictured above with six Christmas trees atop his back) reminded me that on this sixth day of Christmas, I do not need six geese a laying because in the main room of my studio apartment, I have six Christmas trees a standing . . .  

My crocodile is correct, for in the main room of my apartment, I do have six trees a standing. Three of them are in my armoire as seen in the image below.

And you may recall, dear reader, (from previous posts here on Blogger), members of casts of characters "hung" out for the Halloween and Thanksgiving seasons in my armoire for it has become a place where whimsical characters have designated as a place to meet 'n greet, to network with one another, and to save me from taking myself too seriously.

A Lesson from Reindeer!

The three reindeer seen in the image atop today's blog entry are enjoying a good laugh about the antics of yours truly (as well as the antics of my visiting candy corn fraternal twins). For as you may recall, dear reader, in my last post here on Blogger (which was this past Wednesday, November the twenty-seventh), I was in full agreement with the candy corn twins' "not-so-fast-advice" when it came to the preparation for the Christmas holidays; and rightly so, for at that time, it was the eve of Thanksgiving and the corn twins had every right to tell the Peppermint People to hide their faces until at least December (which they ultimately did as seen in the image below which was featured in an entry on hometalk).

But now it has been a week since Thanksgiving and the Christmas season is in full swing in New York City. The famous annual ritual of the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree took place last night, less than one week after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; another annual event, one which I covered here on Blogger in 2012 (in posts that you may refer to by clicking here as well as here)  because it was the first time I had ever seen the entire parade.