Part of my morning routine is to read Mutts, the comic strip by Patrick McDonnell, a comic strip which I have referred to a number of times here on Blogger, and if you'd like to refer to entries regarding this, please click here.
Meanwhile, Mr. McDonell's "episode" from Monday, November 12th, is posted above today's blog entry. I adore all of McDonnell's characters as well as the "stories' of occurrences in their daily lives; but I was particularly touched by the one I'm featuring above today's blog entry due to my appreciation for all the birds which visit my rooftop garden.
As anyone who follows TLLG here on Blogger, tumblr, or Facebook, knows, I have been thrilled by the birds which visit my garden, and I have been saddened whenever Cam (one of my visiting cardinals) disappears for prolonged periods of time. I have posted her picture below for those of you who may be new to TLLG's venues.
Moreover, if you'd like to read "stories" about Cam's antics, you may do so by clicking here for entries that have been published here on Blogger; or here for posts that have been written about her on tumblr.
Additionally, you may click here to view a Virtual Story (mini movie) which features a number of photo-ops "showcasing" her.
In any event, whenever Cam disappears, my reaction is very much like Mooch's — the cat — in McDonnell's comic strip, I don't wonder if it was something I said; rather, I wonder did I frighten her somehow? Did I leave too much food or not enough? Did I not plant "things" that attract birds? Did I not clean her feeder throughly? And, also, in my saner moments when I realize her absences may have little to do with me, I always worry that she has been injured and that I could've of devised a way to insure her safety.
My reactions are clearly tied in with my abandonment issues re having a father who left our family when I was quite young and a mother who insisted if I talked to him in the "right way" he'd return, which he never did.
The anniversary of my father's death will be at the end of November, for he died on November 30, 1995; and indeed it is a fact you might recall, as I've referred to this event here on Blogger in prior posts, including one which you may refer to by clicking here. One of my father's favorite sayings was, "if the dog hadn't stopped to sneeze, he'd 've caught the rabbit!" The dog's itchy nose was the rabbit's fortune, as you probably can surmise; but, as you can also surmise, that has nothing to do with why my father reiterated this quote time and time again.
I confess I tend to be an "if only XX had happened, YY would be ok" type of person: playing scenarios that have come and gone, over and over in my mind, as if that would somehow change the outcome; but alas, there is no Edit/Undo or Ctrl/Z outside of life in cyber-space.
Most recently (this past Friday, November the 7th), I was caught up in what I had done wrong re plans I had made with my friend, Michael (pictured above).
Michael is a longtime friend of mine who lives across the street — a few doors west of me — and among other things, we share a love of gardening. Moreover, it was Michael who helped me prepare my urban (NYC) garden for a so-called renovation in September; and then again for Hurricane Sandy this past October. I've discussed both of these "scenarios" in previous entries here on Blogger, and you may refer to them by clicking here as well as here respectively.
The quote, "God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest," which is attributed to Josiah Gilbert Holland (an American novelist and poet), is layered with meaning; but since this is not a dissertation, but rather it is a blog post (albeit a belated one as it was scheduled for yesterday) I am only focusing on one aspect of the quotation, and that is the literal translation.
Since God does not throw food into the birds' nests and since I can't see their nests, I provide food for birds that visit my rooftop garden in a variety of ways; and this blog entry is a pictorial account of some of the ways I do this as well as some of the ways my visiting birds respond to my efforts, and one of my visiting mourning doves is sitting atop my one of my urban hedges and staring at me through my window as I write this because he wants to make sure his brood is included in the photo-ops within this entry. Due to the fact this posting is about birds that eat in my garden it would be hard not to include him, as the mourning doves nosh here more than any other visiting bird and often I'm concerned that their overwhelming presence will deter other feathered creatures from enjoying a bite to eat on my roof extension garden!
Yowzers! As if the on-going sound of jackhammers and constant "buzzing" of other construction equipment being used to reconstruct an entire building a few doors west of me was not enough to make me plug my ears, one of my visiting blue jays tapped his blue tootsies on the arm of my bouncer until I looked up to see what he wanted.
Thankfully his "noise" is not as bad a sound as finger nails on a chalk, board but the bird did want to get my attention and this time it was not for food! As it happens, he wanted to make sure that I did not indulge in a diversion this Tuesday here on Blogger (which has been my tendency these past few Tuesdays) but, instead, send you directly to tumblr, for, after all, he's been around long enough to know, if its Tuesday in TLLG land, it must be tumblr!
And just why is this blue jay so eager for you to get to tumblr? Well, he's no bird brain! He knows fully well he's been featured a number of times on TLLG's tumblr venue; so, without further ado, the link to take you to my tumblr pages can be found by clicking here.
A couple of the mourning doves as well as a couple of house finches who visit my rooftop garden here in NYC, got together — at one of my feeders — late this afternoon to nosh, and after nearly emptying it, they wanted to discuss how they survived the hurricane ultimately named Super Storm Sandy, when it slammed the city and surrounding areas a week ago today!
I'm told that these birds' initial plan was to meet to discuss the events of this past week (for the memo re their meeting stated, "that was the week that was" — borrowing a title from an old sit-com).
However, instead of chirping about Sandy, three of the birds seemed to focus their gaze to the northwest, while the other eyed yours truly (through the "window" of my bird-house-style feeder), as seen in the photo-op at the top of today's blog entry.
Eight days ago, on October 25th 2012, at 5:26:01, I took this image of one of my house finches enjoying my Kiwi Vine in my roof top garden (in NYC); and he was even using one of its branches for a "launching pad" to take off, and fly around in peace for the first time that day!
For as it happened, all day long, ruthless jackhammers had been being pounded below the surface of a building (a few doors away from me), which is being renovated.
This renovation has been going on for months, and the workmen are pounding the jackhammers from early in the morning until late afternoon, disrupting all the folks who live within earshot. I had been concerned about how the noise has impacted the birds who visit my garden, but folks told me "the birds are used to it."
