In Honor of National Pumpkin Day . . .

In honor of National Pumpkin Day, which is today in the United States, I wanted to post some photo-ops of my visiting birds interacting with various types of pumpkins which I have in my garden.

Honoring the (5) Great "new brand" Pumpkins (National Pumpkin Day 2019)

IMAGE CREDIT

Today is not part of my blog posting schedule for this week, but this entry is being published in honor of National Pumpkin Day!

One can hardly think of pumpkins without thinking of The Great Pumpkin made famous by Charles Schultz's Peanuts character, Linus, who can be seen with Sally (directly above) taking delight in a pumpkin patch, where they are awaiting the arrival of him/her.

This year I have five great "new brand variety" pumpkins and a few "standard" pumpkins, all of which I got from various farmers in the tri-state area who come to the Greenmarkets on the UWS.

Frankenstein Must Share His 2018 Holiday! (National Pumpkin is also today.)

Today is the last Friday in the month of October, which means it's Frankenstein Friday, and if you'd like to see what I said about this holiday in last year's post here on Blogger, please click this link.

This year, as a way of honoring of this occasion, I'm posting a picture of a figurine rendered in the likeness of Frankenstein.

This picture was taken in bygone years when he spent time in my indoor succulent garden.

In subsequent years after that Frankenstein and his bride (seen in solo photo-ops below) went to a vow renewal ceremony that took place in my armoire!

Because this year's Frankenstein Friday falls on October 26th, it coincides with another holiday, which is National Pumpkin Day, a favorite of the characters from the PEANUTS comic strip, as evidenced below in an image from a webpage known for BIOLOGICAL.

IMAGE CREDIT

According to the aforementioned webpage, "The pumpkin is a cultivar of a squash plant native to North America. As one of the most popular crops in the United States, 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins are produced each year...  Illinois is one of the top pumpkin producing states with 95% of the U.S. crop intended for processing is grown in Illinois. Nestlé, operating under the brand name Libby’s, produces 85% of the processed pumpkin in the United States, at their plant in Morton, Illinois."

This year in my research re National Pumpkin Day, I studied the relationship of Jack-O-Lanterns and pumpkins and I learned some interesting facts!

National Pumpkin Day 2016

Today, October the 26th is National Pumpkin Day! I had thought it was pretty unique to find a pink pumpkin at a Pumpkin Patch that was near to The Raptor Trust, as I had never seen this variety of pumpkin before. I was thrilled to place it in my home alongside a basket of squash; and as you can see from the image posted above, a crow seemed impressed with my unique pumpkin discovery.

However, this afternoon when I was walking to a follow-up appointment with my retinal specialist, I made another unique pumpkin discovery when I passed an array of pumpkins alongside a posh NYC brownstone. These pumpkins were most unique in that they were dressed in Halloween costumes!

It's Halloween: Eat, Drink & Be Scary!

Halloween is here, the day to EAT, DRINK, &  BE SCARY! If you've been following my cyber venues over the past fifteen days, you undoubtedly have noticed that in addition to giving voice to the flora which grows in my urban garden, as well as the array of birds that visit it, I've been reporting on the antics of characters who've come to spend time with me for Halloween.

Some of these guys and gals have been visiting me for a number of years, and their scenarios have been documented in entries here on Blogger as well as tumblr, and on hometalk, under the following titles: Boo! Halloween in Both my Urban Terrace & Indoor Gardens,  Halloween Decor Indoors (mostly), Group B Wins The Coin Toss, Group A Wins The Second Coin Toss, Group C  Wins 3rd Coin Toss, Conclusion of Follow-Up Halloween Decor, Honoring National Pumpkin Day With a Contest in My Garden, and At Halloween and Always, Make New Friends, Keep the Old 

And this year, a few newcomers have graced my home with their presence. They include a fellow who insists he's no mummy's boy, a few witches (one named Ms. Grim one who wears a yellow cape, one who calls herself Queen of The Night, one who has bat wings, and one named Annie McFanny). Additionally some newcomers have come dressed as OZ characters, one wearing a Winged-Monkey costume, the others dressed up as Glinda and Dorothy. Moreover, this past Saturday, a character dressed as a black cat stopped by with information on this type of feline's plight on Halloween.

Other newcomers here who have yet to be featured in any of my cyber-venue postings are as follows: Mr. Pinstripes, a young girl in a pumpkin cape, and some one dressed as a prisoner.  

The latter of these individuals is usually here for Valentine's Day when he claims to be a Prisoner of Love.

Mourning doves concur with Thoreau's sentiment! (Tuesday's Truth WK 226)

It's National Pumpkin Day and my visiting Mourning doves concur with Thoreau's sentiment (being quoted in the image atop this entry). 

As you may know, dear reader, National Pumpkin Day, Mourning doves and Thoreau are all topics I've covered on this blog.

Central Park, TLLG, and Her Feathered "Friends" Honor Pumpkins!

Lunch Break

Yesterday, October 26th, was National Pumpkin Day, as I discussed in an entry here on TLLG's Blogger; but in terms of New York City (where I live and have my garden), today, October 27th, is the day to enjoy pumpkins. And the "powers that be" in Central Park are honoring the day with a special event, which I've tried COUNTLESS times to "announce" in an entry on tumblr as today, is Saturday, which is not part of my schedule here on Blogger! However, tumblr seems to be having technical difficulty; hence this non-scheduled post which I hope you enjoy! 

Central Park is close to where I live, and whenever there is an event taking place there, the flowers, grasses, herbs, plants, succulents, shrubs, trees and vines as well as the bees, butterflies and birds that visit us, get very excited and want to do something special here to show our appreciation for living so close to the park.

So in light of this, a few of my visiting birds (the mourning doves and finches) agreed to "pose" for photo-ops with one of  Jack-O-Lanterns who is in town for Halloween. (The other Jack-O-Lanterns which visit here can be seen in images rendered into Halloween cards.

It's MY Party and I'll LAUGH if I want to! 

Mourning Doves AGREE:
Jack-O-Lantern "COULDA" Flossed With Their Beaks!

PRIVATE JOKE 

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...

WORDS IN OUR BEAK BOOK SERIES

...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.

Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine 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.

SUMMER 2020 ADDENDUM: 

                             

"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 soon will have some versions of the greeting cards that are referenced in this blog post available via FAA.

Another Halloween in my Succulent Garden

The photo atop this blog entry shows a number of characters who are meeting in my indoor succulent garden before Halloween. It's the fifth year that characters have come to visit my succulent garden for this particular holiday. As many of you know, I have a garden on my terrace where I grow cacti, herbs, ornamental grasses, plants, shrubs as well as trees. The succulent garden that I maintain inside my home, is not only for unusual cacti, it is a place that an array of characters come to visit for various occasions.

With the exception of Humpty Dumpty, Ms. Skeptic is the one who has been visiting me the longest in honor of Halloween. I've indicated her identity (number twelve within the group image below, Humpty is number 13). I've also included Ms. Skeptic's and Humpty Dumpty's solo photo-ops.

In 2011, her first year here, Ms. Skeptic was the hostess to a small group of characters, but the group of visitors has gotten much larger over the years. In fact the numbers of whimsical visitors has gotten so big, that some of them (not seen in either of these group images) have moved beyond my garden and into my main living area; taking up residence in my armoire and making themselves at home on my shelves! 

A number of the characters featured in these group photos were discussed in posts I wrote for hometalk in 2012 and 2013 under the following titles: Boo! Halloween in Both my Urban Terrace & Indoor Gardens,  Halloween Decor Indoors (mostly), Group B Wins The Coin Toss, Group A Wins The Second Coin Toss, Group C  Wins 3rd Coin Toss, Conclusion of Follow-Up Halloween Decor, Honoring National Pumpkin Day With a Contest in My Garden, and At Halloween and Always, Make New Friends, Keep the Old

In any event, this year, those visiting my succulent garden — with the exception of the four judges (seen at the far right portion of the image atop this entry and identified by white arrows in the second image above) as well as Humpty Dumpty (who is actually a permanent resident) — are here rehearsing in hopes of being the witch that is chosen to appear on America's Got Talent! 

All of the judges here are trying emulate Howie Mandel in order to prepare the hopefuls for a best American witch win.

Tuesday's Truths WK 15: Info on the WINGED MONKEYS (seen in OZ)

With Halloween being less than a week away, there is a lot of activity going on in my home. Most of the action taking place is occurring among the cast of characters (dressed in unique Halloween costumes) who visit me on an annual basis during this time period. When they first started coming to my place, they confined their antics within the constraints of the succulent garden that I have atop a pantry-style cabinet that I have in my kitchen. 

The image atop this entry was taken a few years ago. It features a set of triplets who visited my succulent garden dressed as The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, and The Cowardly Lion, who as you may know, are the characters featured in The Wizard of Oz.

It's begining to look a lot like Halloween...

Today, October 26th, is National Pumpkin Day, and in spite of the fact that the morale of many people is at a low due to consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, many are making an effort to carry on and do things to lift their spirits. 

One of the ways this is evidenced is by the fact that people are painting faces on certain pumpkins (presumably in honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday) which can be seen in the photo atop this entry.

Others (at least in the area where I live) are decorating the outside of their homes.

Wednesday's Wisdom: There's NO Place Like Home for the Halloween Holiday

Halloween is six days away (including today), and the characters who are visiting me for the upcoming holiday, continue to impress me with their costumes and the personal stories associated with them. Those who read entries within this blog know that I have an annual ritual of writing about the characters who visit my home for the Halloween holidays. This began about five years ago when a few stragglers came to visit my succulent garden which is indoors, atop a pantry-style cabinet in my kitchen. Over the years, more and more characters have heard about my place and have come to spend time here in honor of Halloween.

A similar scenario happened in my terrace garden which is on a roof extension in NYC. It is a place where I have grown an array of cacti, flowers, herbs, ornamental grasses, plants, shrubs, trees and vines. 

In the case of my rooftop garden, Cam, a female cardinal began visiting it during the year of 2012.

When word got out about the flora I grow in my garden as well as the bird feeders I have here, more and more birds came to visit. To date, nearly twenty different types of birds have visited my place. 

Cam did not appreciate this fact for it meant she had some competition at my bird feeders, which is something she confesses in her book, Words In Our Beak, Volume One. 

Cam's story is set in my rooftop garden. But I've digressed! My intended topic for today is not covering the antics of birds who visit my urban garden, rather, my intention is to cover the antics of a few of the characters who are visiting me for Halloween.