Turning the Tables in Garden Decor

A SCENE IN MY ROOFTOP GARDEN

The ability to define my goals in salient points does not come easily to me. It never has. I tend to view most matters in layers and get caught up in possibilities. As a young junior high-school student, I agonized over the standardized PSAT when it came to multiple choice questions. The traditional choices for those test questions was usually something like this: Sometimes option "a" but never option "b" when "e" and "f" are present. On one occasion, when I questioned the teacher about various scenarios (which were delaying me from being able to go on to the next page), I was put out in the hallway, with masking tape bound over my mouth, and told "when you are ready to stop asking questions and make a quick choice you, can come back to the classroom."

This problem of taking too much time to weigh the answers in multiple-choice test questions occurred in test-taking again, when I was in high-school and took the SAT. There was a test question about how many clothes-pins it would take to hang laundry on a clothes-line. I found myself thinking, 'hmmmm, that depends . . . is the clothing heavy jeans and towels, or is it something light such as under garments?' I lost all my test taking time on those types of test questions, and since SAT scores are based on time as well as knowledge.

Fortunately, I passed the SATs with a score high enough to get into college, and I used my layered thinking to my advantage, graduating from the university with honors. My graduating from college, and my deliberating over option A and option B in relation to test questions, was a number of years ago, but the inclination to consider various scenarios of a given issue still prevails. 

In the spring, becomes the geranium....

When I am in my garden on a cold January day and notice few geraniums who are poking their heads through the mulch (as that flower type is doing in the photo directly above) that was put there to protect them during a cold winter days, I think of some lines from a The Rose, a song written by Amanda McBroome. 

Her song was made popular by Bette Midler and the lyrics I'm thinking of go like this, "...just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose."

In this instance, my geraniums weren't lying beneath the bitter snow (although they were doing that last month), they are lying beneath layers of mulch put in their container when iI did my annual garden winterizing ritual.

Sunday's Sequel (Re my 7-8-2020 Blog Post)

Squirrel Visiting My Rooftop Garden
(which is the setting for my book series)

Squirrel Visiting My Rooftop Garden
(which is the setting for my book series)

As I mentioned in a recent entry, A Day in the Life of my Pyracantha coccinea (7-8-2020), here on blogger, I've had a new visitor to my rooftop garden and he/she can be seen in the images atop this entry.

During all the many years that I've had my garden, I've never seen a squirrel here, nor have I seen one in the trees within my courtyard. Upon my seeing this quirky character, I did some research to see what poets as well as scholars have said about squirrels, and I was thrilled to come upon the following words of Saint Francis of Assisi:

Severe Weather Did Not Stop Session 19 (Tuesday's Truths WK 171)

MY ROOFTOP GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

A massive storm pounded New York City Monday (April 13 2020) morning and afternoon with heavy rain and speedy gales that caused flooding and power outages across the five boroughs.

Because my crabapple tree toppled over this past Friday and no one can come to help me tie it to the railing until our lockdown is over, I secured it by placing a couple of my garden chairs around it (as seen in the image atop this entry).

Throwback Thursday: "When this old world starts getting me down," I can rarely go "up on the roof" (and now Juan can't either)!

This past Thursday (October 5th, 2017), Juan V came to do his magic in my rooftop garden; and he took the photograph posted atop this entry. As you can see, it's beginning to look a lot like autumn in my garden. The foliage on my Continus Coggygria (Smoke Bush), indicated by the number one in the photo below, as well as the foliage on my Avellana corylus (Contorted Hazelnut), which is indicated by the number two; and the foliage on my Crabapple Tree (indicated by the number three) are beginning to wear their autumn colors.

The circle affixed to the aforementioned image is indicating Juan's shadow as he photographs my garden from the rooftop of the building where I live.

Juan has been taking aerial views of my garden on a bi-monthly basis (during the growing season) since the year 2010. In order to do this, he has to climb up a ladder that is my hallway and thrust open a latch which leads to the building's rooftop.

Monday's (Garden) Madness! GRRRRR and GREAT

According to Holiday Insights, today, August 20th, is National Radio Day, and besides the fact that I enjoy listening to the radio as opposed to watching television (I've not had a TV since the 1980's), I want to honor this "holiday" by once again thanking radio announcers who have interviewed me about how my eye conditions have affected my work as a photo-artist. (My only other involvement with media associated with radio was as a film extra in Woody Allen's Radio Days.)

A Pictorial Tale of Two Pigeons

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN WIOB

These two pigeons spent time together in my garden the other day. For your information, this bird one of many types featured in my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak.  The stories are set in my rooftop garden.

MY BOOK SERIES

My Malus 'Prairfire' (Prairfire Crabapple)

MY ROOFTOP GARDEN

Ever since I helped rescue Super, a migratory bird who is a Northern Flicker, all of my postings, except for one, have been about that injured bird. It is my intention to visit Super at least once a week until he is able to be released from the bird rehabilitation facility on NYC's Upper Westside to Central Park. I would gladly see him more often, but the facility where Super is recovering is very busy. I don't want to interfere with their efforts to help Super or the other injured birds they are treating.

Meanwhile, I am doing my best to maintain my urban rooftop garden and  keep it a haven for the urban birds who have visited it over the years. My garden can be seen in the photograph atop today's Blogger entry. I took the image from the vantage point of a nearby penthouse garden. The picture was taken in 2015 during the late summer or early fall; and Cam, a cardinal who visited me during that time, insisted we include it in the ePub (Kindle) version of our book Words In Our Beak Volume One.

"I've NEVER seen a billboard lovely as a tree. " Odgen Nash Words of Wisdom Inspire Terrace Garden Renovations!

If you have been following my blog for a while, or even if you just started reading it yesterday, you may realize that something is missing in the photograph posted above of my rooftop garden, and I’ll give you a clue. 

It is an object that is bigger than a bread box, and has always been located at the northern end since I began my garden, which is the vantage point of many photographs which have appeared in many of my blog entries. (The object is also a focal point in some of the aforementioned creations, including those titled Serene and Before Brunch in the Terrace Garden, which can be found in the store–front pages of my website).

Big clue: this object is known by two words, the first word begins with an “S” and ends with an “S” and the second word has four letters.

JULY 30th: That was the day that was! Tuesday's Truths WK 138

IMAGE CREDIT

Two weeks ago (July 30) in my 136th segment for my Tuesday's Truths series, I stated, "....As for my completing my projects, my work was truly disrupted by an unexpected major upheaval in my rooftop garden and at this time, I cannot even write about it, but I will do so in a few days, dear reader, after I've had time to deal with today's unfortunate situation..."

Now, before too much time passes, I'm using this week's Tuesday's Truths "episode" to catch up where I left off in that posting and tell you a little bit more about that unfortunate situation, which for now (and hopefully for the long term been resolved).

The situation I referred to in my July 30th entry is the fact workmen showed up on that day to replace the building's gutters (a repair that had been long overdue) under my rooftop garden (which is atop a roof extension). Their plan had been to attach a ladder to the railing around my garden, remove the old gutter and replace it.

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.

Wednesday's Wisdom: Listen to the Birds!

I live near to Central Park, which can be seen in the photograph (from a web-page) atop this entry. 

During the dozens upon dozens of years in my travels to work places or medical facilities, I have gone to and from my destinations by walking on several different paths within the park. Yet, it is only over the past couple of years, that I’ve heard any of the numerous birds who visit there, in the act of singing.

The First Day of Fall in 2012: It is the "BEST of TIMES" (AND) it is the "WORST of TIMES . . . "

September 2011

Second Tuesday in September 2012

Third Thursday in September 2012

Today, September 22nd 2012, is "offically" the first day of autumn; and I'm spending it in the throes of the upheaval in my rooftop garden (located in NYC) an upheaval that has interrupted my life, as well as the lives of the 80+ things which I grow here, and the lives of the occasional bee, loner cardinal (who I've now named Cam), and Cam's entourage of House finches, Mourning doves and House sparrows.

The disruption has thrown my Blogger posting schedule off a bit; and I apologize if you visited me here on days I've agreed to post only to find nothing new; but, as you read along, I'm sure you will realize why this occurred, for, as you know, under most circumstances I keep a schedule I've committed to!

Be that as it may, you my recall that in my last entry here on Blogger, which was Friday, September the Fourteenth, I posted an entry where I discussed a few of the things which I had lost in my garden due to their dying or their need to be relocated.

"Rosemary is for rememberance"

HERBS IN MY ROOFTOP GARDEN

This is the 363rd day of 2010, and there are only two more days of this decade (in the Gregorian calender) after today passes. The promise of the onset of a new year is an occasion for me to send a card to people who bring meaning to my life. 

While you may not have time to go on my on-line viewing sources to choose a card for you to do the same, I do have a beautiful selection of cards in the store-front pages of my web-site, and I hope you will make it a New Year's resolution to reach out to your colleagues, friends and family from time to time by sending them a card for the array of events that  are bound to occur during the course of  the new year for all persons.

"My September Baccalaureate": Journey Towards Elegant Lighting

Last week, at this very time, I was preparing for a hurricane who has ben named Hurricane Irene, which I discussed in this past Saturday's post, and in the conclusion of that entry, I reported that, in regards to Irene, I'd return to blogging with "hopefully little damage to report."

Thankfully, that was the case, as I've already indicated earlier this week. I am very grateful to God — though I don't express it nearly as much as I should. In fact, since I sleep on a foam pad — which is directly atop of my floor, I often don't kneel when I say prayers before going to sleep, although I did (as is the standard) kneel at mass yesterday, with thanksgiving that, in terms of Irene, I was unscathed; especially given the damage which Hurricane Irene did cause for many people, including those who live  on or near the Jersey Shore, a place, where I took the photograph (posted above) in late July, of a shore town's resident's garden fence with the affirmation, God Answers Knee-Mail. 

Since the place where I took this photograph is very near the ocean, I hope the folks who own the property as well as their surrounding neighbors did not sustain too much damage, but, whatever the case turned out to be, I am fairly certain they relied on their knee-mail to God to see them through the situation.

And speaking of God; are you, dear reader, familiar with the adage, If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans" ?

Well, what has happened, dear reader, is that I've recently discovered this very same  thing that happens with a muse. If you want to amuse your muse, tell him/her what you intend to write about. 

For as you may recall, dear reader, last Saturday I confessed that I had planed to write about my "journey towards elegant garden lighting", but my preparation for Irene took precedence. I did promise to return to my garden lighting epiphany today, but I admit that (because I have now been writing this entry in my head for over a week) my insights do not seem as poignant as they did last week, and I am tempted to renege on my promise; not out of an unwillingness to fulfill a task — but out of a bit of pride — that I may not sound as prolific in cyberspace as I do in my head, when it comes to the insights which I thought the new lighting system in my urban garden had taught me.

New Arrivals: The Coccinellidae novemnotatas aka THE LADYBUGS

Last week, at this very time, I was preparing for a hurricane who has ben named Hurricane Irene, which I discussed in this past Saturday's post, and in the conclusion of that entry, I reported that, in regards to Irene, I'd return to blogging with "hopefully little damage to report."

Thankfully, that was the case, as I've already indicated earlier this week. I am very grateful to God — though I don't express it nearly as much as I should. In fact, since I sleep on a foam pad — which is directly atop of my floor, I often don't kneel when I say prayers before going to sleep, although I did (as is the standard) kneel at mass yesterday, with thanksgiving that, in terms of Irene, I was unscathed; especially given the damage which Hurricane Irene did cause for many people, including those who live  on or near the Jersey Shore, a place, where I took the photograph (posted above) in late July, of a shore town's resident's garden fence with the affirmation, God Answers Knee-Mail. 

Since the place where I took this photograph is very near the ocean, I hope the folks who own the property as well as their surrounding neighbors did not sustain too much damage, but, whatever the case turned out to be, I am fairly certain they relied on their knee-mail to God to see them through the situation.

And speaking of God; are you, dear reader, familiar with the adage, If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans" ?

Well, what has happened, dear reader, is that I've recently discovered this very same  thing that happens with a muse. If you want to amuse your muse, tell him/her what you intend to write about. 

For as you may recall, dear reader, last Saturday I confessed that I had planed to write about my "journey towards elegant garden lighting", but my preparation for Irene took precedence. I did promise to return to my garden lighting epiphany today, but I admit that (because I have now been writing this entry in my head for over a week) my insights do not seem as poignant as they did last week, and I am tempted to renege on my promise; not out of an unwillingness to fulfill a task — but out of a bit of pride — that I may not sound as prolific in cyberspace as I do in my head, when it comes to the insights which I thought the new lighting system in my urban garden had taught me.

"another year over AND a new one just begun ." PART TWO-G-3 (Sept. 21st — Sept. 30th 2012)

Under "normal" circumstances, regarding this blog, Tuesday's posts are "reserved" for "directing" readers to my posts on tumblr, in other words, usually, if it's Tuesday, it must be tumblr! 

However, if you have been reading my entries on Blogger these past few days, you will recall that today has been "reserved" for part two-G-3 of my 2012-2013 year in review (re events that occurred in my garden) as I stated in describing my schedule in part one and in parts two-G1 as well as in part two-G2 of this series of "review" posts.

Today's series concludes the events in my garden for September 21st through September 30th of 2012, and I'll begin where I left off in yesterday's post, which was with the image posted above atop today's blog entry, minus the circles which have been superimposed on this photograph.

HEY! HEY! HEY! It's Garden Meditation Day!

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR "WORDS IN OUR BEAK"

Earlier today I posted my tandem tale for the week and since that time it has been brought to my attention that today is Garden Meditation Day.

According to Holiday Insights (HI), "Per C.L, Fornari, the creator of this special day: Garden meditation day honors the fact that when we're working in the landscape we have the opportunity, if we choose to take it, to let the rest of the world fall away." 

Therefore. in honor of Garden Meditation Day, I've posted an image atop this entry which features a partial view of how my rooftop garden looks on this "holiday."

Feed the Birds Day 2018

I've posted a You Tube video atop this entry in honor of one of today's (February 3rd) holidays, which  is known as Feed the Birds Day (according to Holiday Insights who states the following):

"Date When Celebrated: Always February 3: Help the wild birds in your backyard to survive the long, cold winter by feeding them. That's exactly why this special day was created. Mid and late winter are especially hard on all outdoor animals. By mid winter, food sources become scarcer and scarcer for the wild birds that over-winter in your backyard..."

I featured this quote from Holiday Insights along with the Mary Poppins film clip that's included here in my 2017 blog entry for Feed the Birds Day,

In terms of the many photographs of wild birds eating that I used in the aforementioned entry, most of them are different than the ones I am using today.

My Pumpkin Patch

PUMPKINS ON MY URBAN HEDGE VIEW ONE 

PUMPKINS ON MY URBAN HEDGE VIEW TWO

I now have a pumpkin patch in my rooftop garden! The photo atop this entry shows views of pumpkins atop one of my urban hedges.