Blogger Patricia Youngquist is an author and a photographer. Her recent e-book, BIRD TALES, is interactive and includes the Blue jay featured above. Prior works include versions of WORDS IN OUR BEAK, where the stories are narrated by Cam, a female cardinal. Additionally, some of her photographs have been licensed by Fine Art America to reproduce as wall art and on to an array of surfaces for various products! Do view both side-bars for specific details on all of this.
The performer known as Tiny Tim was born eighty-five years ago on this day of April 12, and ultimately died on November 30th in 1996. This is a fact that I've referenced in prior posts here on Blogger (including one I published last year) where I've featured a copy of the mini video (from the collection in my Vimeo Library) which is featured a top this entry.
Now, in honor of his birth anniversary, I've posted it again and am accompanying the mini movie with an update on how the tulip bulbs Juan V (JV) and I planted this past December are doing. My last reference to them was nine days ago (April 2) and they have made a lot of progress since them, as evidenced by the aerial photo of my garden which I took the other day.
Many thanks to Martha B for opening the hatch leading to the rooftop of the building where I live. It is much too heavy for yours truly to manage and I wanted to take an aerial shot of how my garden is looking in these early days of spring 2019. As you can see, the tulip bulbs that were planted this past December, as well as in bygone years, are "waking up" from their winter's nap and nearly ready to show their flowers.
I have a wide variety of them and the ones in this PARTIAL VIEW of my place are members of these families: Spring Green, Day Dream, Red Riding Hood and Elegant Lady; these four types are late spring bloomers.
The four images atop this entry feature Elegant Lady Tulips that are just beginning to bloom in my urban garden, which is still in its winterized state, as evidenced in the photographs that are directly above. These images are very similar, I admit, but I chose to include all of them because I'm excited to see them come to life.
My father died twenty-one years on this day of November 30th in 1995, which was the Monday after Thanksgiving. In any event, from the moment I first knew him, as evidenced in the image above featuring one of our earliest encounters, I loved him dearly. And I'm told that he was very excited about my coming into the world, which is demonstrated, to a certain extent in the following picture.
The image features him with my mother and was taken a little under a month before I was born. In it he's comparing his belly to hers! My dad had a great sense of humor as well as a quick wit, and he often put a spin on the lyrics of songs, which is a fact, I've written about in prior entries here on Blogger, including one that I published six years ago on November 29th 2010.
In the aforementioned post, I wrote that, "Most people when recalling my father's antics will remember him for having his own takes on "Top-40" music hits. For example, with the song, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," the lyrics go,"I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden . . ." but my father's take on it was,"I beg your pardon, I never farted in your rose garden . . . "As for the once-upon-a-time hit song,"Bad Moon Rising," the lyric-line is,"There'a a bad moon on the rise". My father's version? "There's a bathroom on the right." And with Paul McCartney's, Band on the Run, where the lyric-line,"band on the run" repeats over and over again, my father's rendition was,"band with the runs." "My father's sense of humor, and apparent relationship with songs, remained with him throughout his life. Even at the very bitter end, when he had hoped to be out of a hospital where he had been for treatment due to severe consequences of emphysema, he recorded a tape giving Louis Armstrong "a run for his money". "In the tape, my father expresses what the doctors had hoped to do: have him out of the hospital the Monday after Thanksgiving. Sadly that was not to be, as he was still in the hospital the "Monday after Thanksgiving" and declining quickly: dying that week after Thanksgiving instead," which was on November 30, 1995.
This past Friday, one of the things that was trending on Twitter was #WhoisthetrueNewYorker. I think one answer to that question can be found in the following video clip by Bill Cunningham.
I suppose Cunningham's "wisdom" came to my mind because the night before the #WhoisthetrueNewYorker Twitter trend, I had gone for my first tandem bike ride of 2016. Readers of this blog, may recall that in addition to my being a writer, a photo-artist, an advocate for birds, as well as an urban gardener; I am a stoker. A stoker in the cycling community is one who cycles on the back seat of a tandem (bicycle built for two). I usually cycle with my tandem captain once a week, weather permitting. Because weather has not been too permitting for a few months, my first ride for 2016 did not occur until this past Thursday, April 14th, which was the night before #WhoisthetrueNewYorker was trending on Twitter. In any event, over the years, my captain and I have made a number of long distance rides. However, if we are cycling on a weeknight, we usually only cycle about eighteen miles, ending up at The Little Red Lighthouse, which can be seen in the picture (below) that I took of it this past Thursday.
Most of the times when we are on the grounds near the lighthouse, we are joined by robins and last Thursday was no exception. The following is a picture that a robin allowed me to take of him/her.
There are also a number of robins in Central Park, and as you may recall I featured them in an entry here on Blogger when I wrote about the recent terror attacks in Belgium. I've seen many more robins since that time, including ones that appear to enjoy congregating near the entrance to the IMAGINE Circle (as seen below).
But getting back to my mentioning the #WhoisthetrueNewYorker Twitter trend, I must confess that sometimes when I see what is trending on that platform, I get caught up and lose track of the content I want to share. Be that as it may, prior to my getting caught up in what was trending on Twitter this past week, I had intended to post something in honor of Tiny Tim, who would've been eighty four years old this past week! (He was born April 12th 1932.) However, it was not until I went to meet my cycling captain, and saw tulips blooming in a community garden (as seen below), that I remembered my intent to pay homage to Tiny Tim, by posting a link to a mini-movie that I created in his honor in 2012.
And my seeing the tulips in the community garden also reminded me that I had intended to post something about this flower type. I currently have an array of tulip varities growing in containers that are on my rooftop garden, including the Parrot Blumex variety which can be seen in the following pictures.
The Parrot Blumex tulip variety, is one of many tulip types Cam (the cardinal who visited me and let me become her co-author), discusses in her digital book, "Words In Our Beak Volume One."
But getting to my being in the West Village to meet my bike captain: not only did I see tulips in the community garden that is hear to her home, I saw some tulips in window boxes on the street where she lives.
Seeing these window-box-tulips was yet another reminder that I had intended to post something related to Tiny Tim as well as this flower type. But these flowers also caused me to recall that I had not lost track of my intent of what I hoped to write; rather, my problem may have more to do with my ambivalence in expressing an idea that is not trending.
E.B. White, an author I've referred to a number of times in my cyber-venues (especially here on Blogger), had the following to say about the type of ambivalence that I am prone to experience. (This insight of White's is something I included in a prior post here on Blogger when I wrote about the lighting scheme in my garden, in September of 2011.)
UNWRITTEN, by E.B. White
"Sometimes we regret our failure to write about things that really interest us. The reason we fail is probably because to write about them would prove embarrassing. The things that interested us during the past week, for example, and that we were unable or unwilling to write about (things that stand out clear as pictures in our head) were: the look in the eye of a man whose overcoat, with velvet collar was held together by a bit of string; the appearance of an officer after the building had shut down for the night; the obvious futility of the litter; . . . a man on a bicycle on Fifth Avenue; a short eulogy of John James Audubon, who spent his life loafing around, painting birds; an entry in Art Young's diary about a sick farmer who didn't know what was the matter with himself but thought it was biliousness; and the sudden impulse that we had (and very nearly gratified) to upend a large desk for the satisfaction of seeing everything on it slide off slowly on to the floor." I haven't upended my desk, as it's far too heavy. Besides any satisfaction in seeing everything on it slide to the floor would quickly be replaced by frustration at the task of putting it back together! Therefore to avoid giving into any temptation to upend my desk, I'll try to avoid the temptation of believing what's trending on Twitter is more important than what I have to say.... and give into my muse and write about what really interests my co-author the cardinal Cam and I.
FALL 2018 ADDENDUM:
I no longer actively produce event program covers, invitations and the types of greeting cards described here or on my website but arrangements might be able to be made under certain circumstances. My focus is on the Words In Our Beak book series, pictured below...
...whose stories are told from the point of view of Cam, a female cardinal, whose photo is on the cover of each book. Words In Our Beak’s goal is to open readers to a simple understanding of the winged world and their environment. Set in my rooftop urban garden in New York City. Words In Our Beak is directed to children and adults who are curious about birds, and want to learn about them from a unique perspective. The books include hundreds of images of flora and fauna, links to movies, as well as to informative narratives that have been created by the author.
Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.
Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available viaFine Art America(FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.
Hello, I am one of the Kaufmanniana tulips, a tulip family that was discussed here on this blog, The Last Leaf Gardener, nearly one month ago! I'm posting this entry on behalf of Patricia Youngquist, AKA, The Last Leaf Gardener, and I can attest to the fact that her absence from cyberspace is NOT because she has been tip-toeing through the tulips, but rather it is because she has had major "mother-board" issues with her "beloved" Mac Book Pro, and therefore unable to blog here or on NYBG's (New York Botanical Gardens) tumblr (where she has appeared on a regular basis), nor has she been able to contribute to Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest, which are venues that she is active in on a consistent basis! While my gardener, Patricia Youngquist has been dealing with Apple Care for her Mac Book Pro, other tulip famlies have been joining me in her urban (NYC) terrace garden. These tulip families include the ones from Curly Sue, Snow Parrot, Tulipa Parrot Blumex, and Tulipia Tarda.
Hello, it's me, the white tulip, writing to you on Wednesday, April the 27th, (sneaking in a posting, since The LastLeaf Gardener "normally" only posts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays). I have opened up a bit since yesterday as you can see in my photograph posted above, and now, what I want to know is in that poem, Tulips — did Ms. Plath really say, that when open we have a "mouth of an African Lion"? It's no wonder we are slow to open at times . . . even the buds next to me seem to be apprehensive, they are not opening very much at all, and I'd love some company.
Incidentally. if you do tip-toe through tulips that are like me and my friends, (I mean my friends, and me) as Tiny Tim and those Gold-Diggers seem to advocate, puh-lee-za be careful. We aren't as tough as we look. However, I do encourage you to tip-toe through the store-front of this blogger's web-site; there are some wonderful selections of greeting cards that are about more than communication.
FALL 2018 ADDENDUM:
I no longer actively produce event program covers, invitations and the types of greeting cards described here or on my website but arrangements might be able to be made under certain circumstances. My focus is on the Words In Our Beak book series, pictured below...
...whose stories are told from the point of view of Cam, a female cardinal, whose photo is on the cover of each book. Words In Our Beak’s goal is to open readers to a simple understanding of the winged world and their environment. Set in my rooftop garden in NYC, Words In Our Beak is directed to children and adults who are curious about birds, and want to learn about them from a unique perspective. The books include hundreds of images of flora and fauna, links to movies, as well as to informative narratives that have been created by the author.
Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.
"Never say never," the saying goes, and I suppose that applies to saying, "I no longer....," which I did in my 2018 addendum and now I'm here to announce at the advice of Chris Deatherage, my book series formatter, who is also my web-master (for patriciayoungquist.com) I now have some versions of the greeting cards that are referenced in this blog post available via FAA, please click here to view them.
Easter, which was celebrated this past Sunday, is not just a single day, but an entire season known as the Easter Tide, which lasts fifty-days from Easter to Pentecost. Easter Tide is a time of new life, and, on this second day, I was blessed with the appearance of new life — a single white tulip (as seen in the photograph above). Its delicate petals against my thick rustic brick wall was not a contrast lost on me. This is just one of the nuances that makes urban gardening such a joy. However, I have never grown tulips in my garden before, and at the end of last season, Juan V suggested that bulbs be planted. Just three weeks ago their leaves began to peek out from their winter-gear (as seen below)...
...the winter-gear (from on-line fabrics) that they had been "dressed" in this past December. From the looks of the buds in the photograph at the top of this blog entry, the lone tulip, will soon be joined by other tulips, whose colors remain a mystery to me, although the buds are providing subtle hints (tufts of magenta? pink? lilac?) as seen on the bud tips below...
...however, for me, the not knowing what color they will be is another pleasure of gardening — urban or otherwise. Perhaps, the mystery of the tulip's color is like being pregnant, and not knowing if the baby will be a boy or a girl, but knowing it will be loved no matter what it is. But, for today, the white color of my tulip is another detail that is significant to me, as the white color of tulips is a symbol of forgiveness, and one of the Easter season's celebrations is knowing the power of forgiveness.
