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!

NYC's Pedi Cab Drivers Spread Fake News! Saturday's Saga

OTHER SPARROWS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

OTHER SPARROWS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

This past Thursday in my posting here on Blogger, I discussed the fact that a statue of Daniel Webster near the West Seventy Second entrance Central Park is a favorite spot for house sparrows to build their nests.

The Inaugural Event at THERE

This past Friday, May 25th, I attended "the inaugural event at THERE" which took place in NYC. At the event I saw the painting featured in the image atop this entry. The piece is titled Veils #4, and was created by Phyllis Floyd, one of the founders of an association named Zeuxis.

One of the reasons Floyd's art association fascinates me is its name. I've always been interested in the painter, Zeuxis, who flourished during the fifth century BC. Of the many "stories" associated with this artist, I think this is my favorite:

"According to the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, Zeuxis and his contemporary Parrhasius (of Ephesus and later Athens) staged a contest to determine the greater artist. When Zeuxis unveiled his painting of grapes, they appeared so real that birds flew down to peck at them. But when Parrhasius, whose painting was concealed behind a curtain, asked Zeuxis to pull aside that curtain, the curtain itself turned out to be a painted illusion. Parrhasius won, and Zeuxis said, 'I have deceived the birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis.' This story was commonly referred to in 18th- and 19th-century art theory to promote spatial illusion in painting. A similar anecdote says that Zeuxis once drew a boy holding grapes, and when birds, once again, tried to peck them, he was extremely displeased, stating that he must have painted the boy with less skill, since the birds would have feared to approach otherwise."

I've never asked Phyllis Floyd if the name of her art association had anything to do with the fifth century painter, nor did I ask her if her painting, Drawing the Curtain #10, that is included in the exhibition (and can be seen below) was influenced by Zeuxis's (the painter) curtain experience.

Be that as it may, in the exhibition, these two paintings of Floyd's are grouped with two of her other paintings, Drawing the Curtain #3 and Drawing the Curtain # 8, as seen in the next photograph.

Admittedly, my images do not reflect the colors of Floyd's work as I took them with a "pocket" camera, but am including them here to give you a sense of how they look in the exhibition. I highly encourage you to go to the exhibit so that you can see Floyd's works with your own eyes, not through the lenses of any of the images included here. In the meantime, I'd like to share a few of the other works of art that I saw at last Friday's inaugural event.

I still need help. (Tuesday's Truths WK 212)

This past Saturday was phase three of my extensive, complicated, much needed dental procedure which I initially mentioned here on Blogger back in February and since that time have posted updates, the last one was on 4-7-2021.

In any event, as I stated, my procedure this past Saturday was phase three of the ordeal and although my time in the chair was much shorter, the procedure was awkward because something is going on with my gums near the area of the affected teeth and my malfunctioning bridge which have been involved.

So I'm not done yet. I have to return to the chair which is disheartening on one level, but it's good on another. This turn of events gives me a bit (a very little bit) of time to scramble for paid assignments and spread the word about my fundraiser.

That being said, last Saturday's appointment left me with a feeling of discouragement as well as a huge headache, so I took a brief walk in nearby Central Park.

During my stroll, I came upon an egret who was carrying a live fish in his beak as he flew across the pond to eat the creature. The following sequence of photographs is a "play by play" of the transport I witnessed. 

Upon my seeing this, I thought as bad as my day was going it was better than the fish who was in the grip of the egret's beak.

Saturday's Snippet: "emilia" Is A New Place To Get Food On The UWS!

The other day I received an email saying, “a new delivery-only Italian restaurant called 'emila', has opened on the Upper West Side snd offered to send me some food, so I thought I'd pay it forward as a token of my appreciation for your work.”

I was delighted that someone appreciated my work and that they thought of me. I took him up on his offer and contacted the lovely Anastasiia Kozlovska, who with her husband, Sergio Serafin Spera, collabrated with Luca Di Pietro, owner of Taralluci e Vino, a restaurant that is located at the same location as emilia (475 Columbus Avenue, on the corner of 83rd Street located in the UWS of NYC).

Anastasiia referred me to the menu on restaurant's website, where I read, “At emilia, we're all about satisfying food. Everything we do pivots around the essence of Italian cuisine – simplicity and freshness. We believe every dish should be served with casual warmth and care. Just as Nonna would have done it.”

I chose their Fusilli Cacio De Pepe for an entrée and she suggested I order a scoop of Burrata to place on top. When I received an email of what would be delivered to me (which in addition to the main dish included Butternut Squash Soup and Tiramisu), Anastasiia wrote, “I can send you a bottle of white wine!?”

My “goodies” arrived in a bag that included a bouquet of roses (which cam be seen in the photo atop this entry) and a couple of heart-shaped shortbread cookies, causing me to think if this was far beyond “casual” warmth and care! Their Nonna would be most proud.

I have not been able to eat much of anything due to my tremendous pain and difficult in digesting food (as a result of needing to complete my dental procedure). This meal was a true blessing. It has been a long time since I’ve enjoyed eating any food.

My visiting figurines who posed (seen in a the photo-ops posted below) with some of what emilia sent me...

...concurred with me that if my NYC peeps are wondering what to do for this coming Valentine’s Day (which is a week from tomorrow), get thee to emilia’s web-site and order a meal for your true love. Fyi, they are open (delivery only) from Monday through Sunday between the hours of  9am to 9pm. Their phone number is 315.544.3788. and their email is hello@orderemilia.com

Sunday's (10-17-2021) Sentiment: Here's another chance to test your powers of observation!

As mentioned in a recent entry here on Blogger,  few weeks ago, Juan V was here and arranged pumpkins and squashes which I received from a program at the Greenmarket. 

However, this past Wednesday we discovered my autumn anemones are in bloom again. 

Some of them grow in a container that is on the ledge surrounding my garden and we altered the pumpkin/squash arrangement that is on my table (see photo at the bottom).

Can you tell what's new?

By the way, my rooftop garden is the setting for all versions of my books that have Words In Our Beak in their title.

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!

Galeux d’Eysines, Bumpy Gourds, & The Muscovy Duck, what's bumps got to do with it? (Tuesday's Truths WK 95)

In yesterday's blog post, I mentioned that while on my way to a greenmarket and the green-flea (on the UWS) this past Sunday, I noticed (as did many others, including the police) that a raccoon was looking down (from the tree tops near some scaffolding) on all who passed by. I also mentioned that I was at the market longer than I anticipated, so I never did find out what happened to the creature; for when I returned all evidence of the incident, including on-lookers and policemen were gone.

One of the reasons for my tarrying at the greenmarket was that I spotted a pair bumpy looking pumpkins (pictured above) at Gaia's Breath Farm's "vending" stand and took the time to ask about them. I learned from a kind woman working there that these are a variety known as a peanut pumpkins, a term which I immediately googled after putting the one I got atop the urban hedge in my rooftop garden.

According to a gardening-related web-page, "the peanut pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima ‘Galeux d’Eysine’) is an heirloom pumpkin varietal notable for its distinctive peanut-like growths peppering the exterior of its pink hued rind. Certainly unique looking, some might say unattractive, the 'peanuts' are actually a buildup of excess sugar in the flesh of the pumpkin."

I was not surprised to learn that some say the Galeux d’Eysine was "unattractive" because of having peanut-like growths. However, it is the peanut-like growths that drew my attention, because they reminded me of my own lumps and bumps (that I deplore so much that I rarely alllow my picture to be taken, but for purposes of this entry, one is included towards the end) which I have as a result of being born with the medical (neurological) condition, Neurofibromatosis Type-One.