It's March!

Well, here we are already in the third month for the year 2019, proving time does fly rather one is having fun or not! I hope someone remembers to wake Mooch (who can be seen in the Mutts comic strip posted atop this entry). But, maybe Mooch needs to sleep a bit more... after all, his pillow looks pretty comfortable and plus the weather might not be so great just yet.

As you undoubtedly know the beginning of March is associated with an idiom: "If March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb and if it comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb."

Evidently this is because "March straddles winter and spring in the northern hemisphere, it tends to have very harsh, unpleasant weather in the beginning but typically has milder, more palatable weather by the end." 

Here in NYC, March is beginning with moderate snowfall as seen in the picture below of my rooftop garden taken in the morning.

THE STORIES IN MY BOOKS TAKE PLACE IN MY GARDEN

In any event, according to a number of sources (including Holiday Insights AKA HI), the month of March in the United States is known as Irish American Month, Music in Our Schools Month, National Celery Month, National Craft Month National Frozen Food Month, National Irish American Heritage Month (designated by Congress in 1995), National Nutrition Month, National Peanut Month, National Women's History Month, Red Cross Month and Social Workers Month.

Tuesday's Truths WK 32: The National Month of Peanuts (and other things)

Welcome to Week Thirty-One of my Tuesday's Truths series. Today, March the Seventh, is the first Tuesday of this month for 2017. Because we are already at the seventh day mark for this month of March, I'd like to point out that one of the observances associated with it, causes March to be known as National Peanut Month. And, I dare say one could proclaim peanuts are for the birds!

The Month of March is N'tl Peanut Month (Tuesday's Truths WK 77)

 CARDINALS ARE FEATURED IN "WIOB"

Hello, and welcome to the seventy-seventh week of my Tuesday's Truths series. Today happens to be the last Tuesday in the month of March, and I've been reminded by Cam and Mac's daughter, Peanut (seen in the image atop this entry), that the month of March will end soon. March coming to a close is of great concern to Peanut!

This is because in the United States, March is known as National Peanut Month, and Peanut fears that with the month ending, peanuts may not be available. But I assured her that she need not worry about peanuts being unavailable in my rooftop garden!

National Peanut Month 2021

The month of March arrived the other day and whether this month comes in like a lion or a lamb, it will always be known here in The United States as National Peanut Month.

Peanuts are a legume appreciated by members of the wildlife community including squirrels who over the course of many years, have stopped by my garden on countless occasions to eat them. This is evienced in the picture directly below.

Peanuts are also enjoyed by members of the wild bird community. In fact they are so popular with Northern cardinals, that my visiting cardinal Cam and her husband Mac, named one of their daughters,“Peanut,” in honor of this taste treat. These three cardinals can be seen (respectively) in the next sequence of photographs.

The stories of this cardinal couple along with the stories of an array of bird types are featured in my three volume hardcover book series, Words In Our Beak.

MY BOOK SERIES

The books make a perfect gift for someone who may be in quarantine or lockdown due to consequences of the coronavirus because the stories in them can bring the outdoors into the homes of those who cannot go out and about.

Wednesday's Wisdom: Inern'tl Women's Day (Cam, my cardinal can relate.)

Today, March 8th, is one of my sister's birthdays. She can be seen in photo atop this entry, where she is on the lefthand side of the image, busily eating a drumstick, during a Thanksgiving dinner held in our home during bygone years. Because we grew up in the midwest, and because her birthday is in March, there were occasions that heavy snowfall prevailed on her birthday. We all recall that one year, when we were very young children, a major snowstorm occurred on her day, and she turned to my mother, and asked, "Doesn't God know it's my birthday?" My sister's day of March the 8th, coincides with an observance known as International Women’s Day. 

Regarding the aforementioned event, there is a web-page which states, "For a lot of people in the U.S., International Women's Day just isn't that big of a deal. Before this year (1977) one could argue that few Americans knew this "holiday" existed. Others who did know about it likely shrugged it off as yet another hashtag holiday (see: National Peanut Butter Day) social media marketers created to get consumers' attention. While the organizers of the Women's March on Washington have helped bring greater attention to IWD, the first time it was observed was back in Feb. 28, 1908." 

In 1908, my maternal grandmother would've been eight years old, the age that I believe she is in the following photograph (which has been featured in at least one of my prior posts here on Blogger.)

My grandmother is in the back row on the right. She died many years ago (1987); and, her parting words to me were ones that urged me to get back to my writing.

Thankfully I have done this by helping Cam, (the cardinal pictured directly below, in a picture I took of her in my rooftop garden)...

... write and publish her book, Words In Our Beak Volume One.

In fact, Cam is named for both of my maternal grandparents! Her name, Cam, is short for  Clara Albert Melahn (Clara is my dearly departed maternal grandmother; Albert is my dearly departed maternal grandfather).

In any event, Cam is quite a forthright spokes-bird; and in her narrative, she aspires to raise awareness of all members of the avian community, but especially those who  are cardinals. Cam's need to raise awareness stems from the fact that she understands what it is to be marginalized.

Saturday's Sequel

STORIES IN MY BOOKS ARE SET IN MY GARDEN

It snowed again last night but the accumulation did not amount to much in my garden as you can see in the photo directly above and compare it to the one I included in yesterday's blog post, hence I'm considering this to be Saturday's sequel.

In the aforementioned  post, I also mentioned that March is National Peanut Month and I featured a quite a number of birds, including Northern cardinals, Blue Jays and Common Grackles, enjoying peanuts from various bird feeders in my garden.

It's N'tl Gardening Week!

MY ROOFTOP GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR WIOB

According to many sources, the first full week of June is National Gardening Week.

Their consensus is, "National Gardening Week is a wonderful, week long event. It is both a celebration, and an educational opportunity. National Gardening Week celebrates one of America's most popular hobbies. Tens of millions of Americans, young and old alike, grow a garden of some size. This week is a great opportunity to get out into your garden and tend to it, along with enjoying your garden's peacefulness and beauty. Regardless of whether your garden is big or small, show it off to family and gardening friends...

...National Gardening Week is also a great time to promote this hobby, and offer educational programs to the general public Garden clubs, 4H groups, schools, and even business can get ito the act, providing some form of educational programs, demonstrations, or seminars. As individuals, gardeners can encourage others to start gardening."

As my Blogger community knows, I have a garden here in a hood on the UWS. It can be seen in the picture atop this posting. The photo was taken four years ago and my garden has changed dramatically (in a positive way) since then; so I'd love to take a photo from that vantage point again but the woman who let me do it from her terrace is not likely to find the time to let me do that anytime soon.

Yesterday's "bomb cyclone."

MALE CARDINALS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

At one point it was so windy during yesterday's "bomb cyclone" (a winter storm that hit NYC with a vengeance), that the "mohawk" of a male cardinal who was visiting my rooftop garden was blowing back and forth. Not even the stiffest hairspray could've helped his situation, as evidenced by the image atop this entry, where he is alighting upon the branches of my kiwi vines, while a lone male house sparrow tries to hold his own in the background.

The Sensational Helichrysum bracteatum (Tuesday's Truths WK 129)

Welcome to my one hundred and twenty-ninth segment of Tuesday's Truths which is occurring on the Tuesday of National Gardening Week.

Hence, in honor of that fact, I'll give a shout out to a flora variety known as Helichrysum bracteatum (AKA strawflower). I've grown this in my rooftop garden over the years and quite some time ago, I created the mini movie which documents a week in the life of this flora variety. It is posted atop this entry and can also be seen within my Vimeo Channel as well as You Tube Channel. Additionally I have written about these flowers in prior posts here on Blogger.

A web-page for The Spruce admits that "The name strawflower doesn’t do much to excite the flower gardener" and goes on to say that "it might elicit images of a plant that's withered and tan—but the real strawflower blossom will bring vivid colors to your landscape and craft projects alike. Strawflowers resemble daisies in form, but unlike daisies, the petals are stiff and papery. In fact, they aren’t true petals at all, but modified leaves called bracts."