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.
It is the morning of Christmas Eve 2010, and in the spirit of giving and sharing, I am providing this 'extra' December post that contains one of my favorite Christmas essays by E.B. White, who gave me such joy as a child by bringing the fictional characters of Wilbur, Fern, Avery, Templeton and Charlotte into my life through his beautiful book, Charlotte's Web, which Santa left under the tree for me one dark Christmas morning. Today in honor of E. B. White, Charlotte and her web, I've posted an image of a spider's web at the top of this post — because the days when I first met Charlotte, I suppose I was looking for someone like her as I needed encouragement during those dark days, and, E.B. White provided it for me through her.
One of my favorite mini essays by E.B. White is, "Mysteries of Life." Recently I referred to it when commenting on an entry on The Writer's Almanac's Facebook Page. And I thought of White's "mysteries" essay again the other morning, prompting me to share it here:
MYSTERIES OF LIFE (9-22-28 E.B. White):
"About once a year the human soul gets into the papers, when British scientist convene. Once a year the mystery of life, the riddle of death, are either cleared up or left hanging. The reports of the learned man enthrall us, and there have been moments when we felt that we were really approaching an understanding of life’s secret. We experienced one of those moments the other morning, reading a long article on the chemistry of the cell. Unfortunately, when we finished we happened to glance into our goldfish tank and saw there was a new inhabitant. Frisky, our pet snail, had given birth to a tiny son while our back was turned. The baby mollusk was even then hunching along the glassy depths, wiggling his feelers, shaking his whelky head. Nothing about Frisky’s appearance or conduct had given us the slightest intimation of the blessed event; and gazing at the little newcomer, we grew very humble, and threw the morning paper away. Life was as mysterious as ever."
The essay came to my mind, not because I was reading through the newspaper to check on the reports of "the learned man," and missed the birth of a creature in the process; rather, I thought of the essay when I woke up this morning after a difficult night caused by my having spent too much time going over and over things I had or hadn't done that made me disappointed in myself.
I'm starting out today's blog post by featuring a mini essay by E.B. White, which is the same way I began yesterday's post, albeit with a different one of his essays. I chose to use it because of his poignant observation of Dark-eyed juncoes, a bird type who is on my heart and in my heart, as they often are — especially at this time of year.
The first day of spring was celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere last week; and I (as I often do) felt a twinge of sadness, for the coming of spring means the sweet Dark-eyed Juncoes who visit the area where I live and who spend some of their time in my garden will soon be leaving, after all, they are snowbirds.
They only "hang out" here from late fall through VERY early spring. Two of them stoped by this past Monday to nestle in my containers of flora and nibble on seeds. One of them can be seen in the picture atop this entry, but they were not here long enough, nor were they close enough for me to get a decent photograph of them.
Thankfully I haver a number of images of them from bygone years during winter ...
... which you may recognize from prior entries here on Blogger. And in terms of my not getting a decent picture of them the other day, I ought to heed the wisdom of E.B. White's aunt (which I've also mentioned here on Blogger) re a so-called missed opportunity; but I'll quote from the entry I've just referenced.
Welcome to Week 25 of my Tuesday's Truths series here on Blogger! I wasn't able to publish an entry for this series last week (1-17-17) because of a malfunction in equipment that impacted my ability to work on-line. GRRR. And if another Tuesday truth be told, I got caught up in the frenzy of the then upcoming USA presidential inauguration (which took place on 1-20-2017). But time marches on!
Today, January 24th, 2017, marks the forty- first anniversary of my grandfather's death. He can be seen in the image atop this blog entry. I've been told that this was his confirmation picture, although I have no idea of when or where he was confirmed. Religion and/or going to church was not a topic of conversation I had with him.
Anyone who follows my musings here on Blogger must know how much I appreciate the works written by E.B. White, who wrote numerous essays for The New Yorker.
I've included copies, and/or excerpts from many of them in my cyber venues. White's also known for the many books he's written, includingCharlotte's Web, which is one of my favorites. I have referred to this book a number of times within my blog entries. In fact, the picture atop this posting was included within one of my 2010 Blogger posts where I referenced an excerpt from a collection of White's essays, as well as an excerpt from Charlotte's Web.
If you know Charlotte's Web, you may recall that when one of the characters, John Arable (who is a farmer), discovers a new piglet is a runt, he decides to kill it. His eight year old daughter, Fern, persuades her father to let her keep the piglet as a pet and she names him Wilbur. Fern takes care of Wilbur for a while until he needs to be moved to a farm where he becomes very lonely. He soon is befriended by a spider named Charlotte, who not only keeps him company but also provides him with encouragement weaving the words "SOME PIG," "TERRIFIC," and "RADIANT" into her web.
Words are missing from the spider's web seen in the image atop this entry, and even though there is a bee within this spider's web in this picture, Cam and I could use some words of encouragement.
The same afternoon that I encountered a Savannah sparrow (seen in the first image atop this entry) in Central Park, I came upon an American robin playing with a piece of string (as seen in the second image above). My seeing the robin doing this prompted me to think of an essay by E.B. White which I've posted below.
As you can see the essay was published seventy-one years ago today on April 20th, 1946. And like the sparrow who was playing with a small length of confetti, in White's essay, the American robin that I came upon spent a bit of time with the piece of string (another photo can be seen below).
But also like White's sparrow, this American robin, became bored. Indeed as White surmised, "It is a wearisome thing to be overdressed in the early morning." Only in this case, the time frame was not early morning, but mid to late afternoon. The sun was hot which is another circumstance when being overdressed is "wearisome."
The text image atop this entry is a letter written by the writer E.B. White to Gene Deitch on 2/3/1971.
At that time, Deitch had been hired by a Sagittarius Pictures to produce a feature-length animated movie to be based on White's book, Charlotte’s Web.
It was very important to E.B. White (as you can see in this letter), that in any animated feature based on his book, Charolette's (a spider) voice should remain true to her very being. And so should the other voices in the story, including Wilbur (a pig) and Templeton (a rat).
Because of my love for Cam (the cardinal pictured below)...
... I can certainly relate to how vulnerable White must've felt when entrusting his beloved characters to others involved in any project related to his story. My heart goes out to him upon learning how much he endured while going through the this process.
I am very blessed that my book formatter, Chris Deatherage, (who also serves as an editor) truly understands voice and spirit, and he definitely removes his hat when he enters my rooftop garden where Cam spends much of her time and where her story is set.
Cam and I are awestruck upon having seen the fantastic work that Chris has done with formatting and editing volume two of our book series.
ADDENDUM FALL 2018:
The digital versions of Volume One within the Words In Our Beak book series that are mentioned in this entry may only remain available for a limited time, but hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can now be found wherever books are sold.
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.
ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021:
When the third volume of the hard-cover version of Words In Our Beak was released, I withdrew from promoting my former versions of Words In Our Beak.
The very first one is an iBook and went into Apple's book store in 2015.
... I've been advised to make mention of my early versions of volume one of Words In Our Beak, they do vary ever so slightly in content from the hard-cover version of volume one.
As of this addendum, I do not intend to create digital or soft-cover versions of Words In Our Beak Volume Two or Words In Our Beak Volume Three.
Prior to this both president's birthdays were celebrated on their days of birth, February 12th and February 22nd. In 1971 GW's celebration was moved from 2/15 to the third Monday in February (as was Lincoln's). E.B. White wrote a letter (as mentioned in the first paragraph) in response to this, an excerpt is posted below.
"I am not used to celebrating Washington’s birthday on the 15th of February (or in today's case Fenbruary 18th), so I walked up early this morning and deposited letters in our mailbox. Then had to return and retrieve them an hour later when it dawned on me the mails weren’t moving today, even though George is still locked up tight in his mother’s womb and won’t emerge for a full week. This country is nuts. The only date I would like to see shifted is December 25th, which I would like shifted to February 29th, so that occurs only once every four years. This would have a profoundly beneficial effect on the nation and would set me back even course again." (The letter is included in an anthology, "Letters of E.B. White," and a picture of that book accompanies this entry.)
Today, is the eighty-seventh anniversary for The New Yorker publishing UNWRITTEN, a mini essay by E.B. White. I've posted a copy of it atop this blog entry, and it is a piece of writing that you may recognize from prior entries here on Blogger, as I have referred to this in a few posts; but never on the anniversary of the publication.
If you follow any of my cyber-venues, then you probably have realized that E.B. White's writings are something I truly appreciate. This essay speaks to me in terms of my unwillingness to write about things "that stand out clear as pictures in (my) head."
For me, some of those pictures in my head are the actions of an American robin visiting my rooftop garden who looked as if he was doing the hokey-pokey (as evidenced in the photos below).
And I even researched the hokey-pokey where I discovered the following image (on Mental Floss);
But even though I saw another American robin in Central Park, who looked to be doing the hokey- pokey (as evidenced in the next picture),
I kept my robin-doing-the-hokey-pokey observation in my head and did not share it via writing. I'm not sure if this was because I thought doing so would "prove to be embarrassing," as White suggests (in the essay atop this entry) to be a reason for an idea to remain in one's head and go unwritten, or if it's because I felt who cares about my equating a bird's movements with the hokey-pokey.
The mini essay, WINTER BACK YARD, which is posted atop this entry was evidently published in The New Yorker sixty-seven years ago today.
It's by E.B. White and, as you may recall, I've already featured this particular essay in bygone years here on Blogger. Because today marks the anniversary of its publication, and because I admire the written works of E.B. White; and because I adore the bird type known as dark-eyed juncoes, I'm posting the essay again.
I so agree with White that these birds "are beautifully turned-out little character(s) who look as though (they) are on (their) way to an afternoon wedding" — or any occasion where one usually dresses up.
A few pictures of a lone junco spending time in my rooftop garden can be seen directly below:
Earlier today, I posted some facts regarding this date of January 5th, stating that it is the twelfth day of Christmas and mentioned that some folks will be participating in Twelfth Night celebrations. But this not the only event being honored! For according to Holiday Insights (H.I.), "National Bird Day is celebrated on January 5th." H.I; in an attempt to clarify one bird related holiday from another states the following:
"Bird Day is the oldest of the days set aside to recognize birds. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, Bird Day was first observed on May 4, 1894. It was started by Charles Almanzo Babcock, superintendent of schools in Oil City, Pennsylvania. By 1910, Bird Day was widely celebrated, often in conjunction with Arbor Day. Bird Day and Arbor Day events are focused upon conservation training and awareness. "National Bird Day was established by bird activists. It calls upon people to recognize the plight of captive birds. It also draws attention to exploitation of birds in the U.S. pet industry. On this day, organizers suggest we reflect upon the conditions of birds held in captivity. Note: Our research did not find any documentation that this is a "National" day, which requires an act of congress. "International Migratory Bird Day celebrates the incredible journey that migratory birds take each year. They travel thousands of miles between breeding grounds in North America, and their winter homes in Central and South America. Organizers say this is a day to both support, and to increase awareness of conservation efforts in support of migratory birds. They also suggest a field trip into a woods to look for and enjoy migrating birds."
Furthermore, H.I. suggests that on this National Bird Day (as well as all bird-related holidays) that folks be more observant of our feathered friends. This always a great thing to do, but, it's also great to give the gift of birds to a fauna lover on this day.
On another note, I have a confession to make re my own observation of my visiting birds! As I was typing this I heard a lot of commotion in my kitchen and thought it was a mouse! Turns out a little male house finch (a bird type that is featured in Cam's book) had gotten inside by going through a very small opening in my window! Before attempting to help him make an exit, I tried to get a photo!
BUT it turns out the memory card wasn't in my camera! I'll have to rely on my own memory re this encounter and turn to the wisdom of E.B. White's aunt which I've referenced here on Blogger in the past, stating:
"When a missed opportunity like this occurs, I try to console myself with the wisdom that E.B. White spoke of in his essay, 'Remembrance is Sufficient.' An excerpt from this can be found below: "'...A few weeks ago she (White's aunt) said something so close to the theme of Christmas that we shall quote it here... We were apologizing for have taken her for a motor ride that morning to see once again the bright colors of the woods. 'Why, my dear,' she said without hesitation, 'remembrance is sufficient of the beauty we have seen.'"
Therefore, instead of bemoaning that I wasn't on point to document my visitor's very short stay (he figured out how to get out of Dodge...), I'm very flattered to have been in his presence. And to think he visited me on National Bird Day!
Hello dear reader, and welcome to my third and final follow-up to my 10-19-2019 blog entry, Saturday in the PARKS. As some of you may recall, in the aforementioned entry,I discussed the fact that that I would be spending part of my morning in Brooklyn's Prospect Park and then part of the afternoon in Manhattan's Central Park; and I promised to follow-up on October 25th 2019, with the hope that a few of my observations are inspiring to you.
However, as I said in this past Wednesday's blog entry, I've decided to split that content into a few (three) entries, rather then make one lengthy posting. The aforementioned posting discusses an aspect (an encounter with a bird whose ID determination caused a "controversy") of my October 19th walk in Central Park.
Then in yesterday's entry, I discussed my walk in Prospect Park and included a promise that I would talk about other aspects of my 10-19-2019 Central Park walk on Friday, October 25th 2019... so here I am to do just that, beginning with my sighting of a fast moving red dragonfly (seen in the picture atop this entry).
Last Monday, February 15th, our nation celebrated Presidents' Day. It is a holiday that is celebrated here on the third Monday in February. The holiday of President's Day was originally established in 1885 in honor of President George Washington, and was traditionally celebrated on February twenty-second, the actual birthday date of George Washington, which is today. According to history.com, "the holiday became popularly known as President's Day after it was moved as part of 1971's Uniform Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three day weekends for the nation's workers." Be that as it may, George Washington's was born on February the twenty-second, and the switching of the day to observe this, was a topic E. B. White wrote about in his correspondence with Gluyas Williams in 1971. White's humorous attitude toward our government's switching the celebration is something I discussed in my post this past President's Day and I included E.B. White's musings on the matter. On another note, George Washington has been linked to the creation of our American flag, and that is the reason I'm including photo-ops of my patriotic friends within my entry for GeorgeWashington's birthday.
However, it seems there is some controversy over Washington's involvement with the creation of our flag, which you can read about in a Wiki Page by clicking here. For my focus in this blog post honoring George Washington's birthday is to provide information on an interest I share with him which is birds.
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.
