The Last Leaf Gardener

Tomorrow is February the First — within thirteen days of that time it will be Valentine’s Day — and in honor of the occasion, a number of figurines (pictured here) have come to visit a succulent garden, an indoor garden, which I have atop an armoire in my kitchenette.

Giving my succulents a festive environment is very important to me; after all they bring such joy to my life, as do the 80++ “things” which I grow in my urban (NYC) garden, a garden “housed” on a roof extension.

However, as of this posting, where the zone in which I live is in the sesaon of winter, I’m not spending too much time out there; except to replenish my feeders for Cam (a female cardinal); her male companion; and her “entourage” which consists of blue jays, common grackles, house finches (red as well as brown), mourning doves, tufted titmouses; and a bird who is either a tree swallow or a snowbird.

Therefore, to exercise my green thumb and help fulfill my need to nurture things which grow, providing an ambience for my indoor garden is essential to me and it is something I do for all the holiday seasons as well as for ordinary time.

In fact I wrote a guest blog about setting up an indoor garden and giving it flair, and if you’d like to refer to it please click here for a tab (on TLLG’s Facebook Page) that takes you to my guest blog posts. The one re indoor succulent gardens is the second one in the list so you may need to do a bit of scrolling!

Meanwhile, in terms of the valentine’s figurines pictured here, the first image features most of my guests.

The prisoner of love is off camera in that image, but he can be seen on his own in the last image in this series; however, bear in mind, he is normally quite busy wooing his gal, the lady in the polka dot dress in the lower righthand corner of the first image in this sequence.

Also missing from that first image are Lucifer and his long lost crown princess; they had hopped out of sight during the part of the photo-shoot, you know how frogs can be, and especially Lucifer, who has been featured within my Blogger entries on a number of occasions, including one which you may refer to by clicking here.

Another camera shy visitor, the one delivering a pizza (standing atop my pencil cactus in the upper right hand corner of the first image), finally agreed to a closer shot — if he could stand behind the clown as he is doing in the fifth image of this series.

The rest of the folks, Cupid, the skinny legged kids, the Queen of Hearts, the-was-my-face-red diva, and the clown all join me in wishing you a Happy February; and I encourage you to start thinking about sending a card to those near and even not so dear to you you in honor of the occasion!

I wil be creating a few cards for this “event,” and, as always, they will be cards that go beyond communcation; and you will be abe to find them within my ETSY shop, so please stay tuned!

Before I sign off, I want to thank Nancy and Steve for their unending inspiration in my decorating endeavors!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, which is today, someone’s true love, somewhere, gave to them eight maids a milking; or at least this is what the figurine in the first image within the series of photographs posted with this entry told me this morning when I watered my succulent garden!

This particular figurine is one who visits my succulent garden for the Christmas season, and as anyone who follows me here on tumblr, knows, my indoor succulent garden is something I discussed on a number of occasions when I was a newbie to NYBG’s (New York Botanical Garden) tumblr pages. It is a garden which I’ve also written about on TLLG’s Blogger Pages as well as TLLG’s Facebook Page, and it is one that I wrote about in a guest blog post.

However, in my cyber-space writings, I tend to put more content “out there” that deals with my urban (NYC) garden and especially the birds which visit it, including blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, finches, mourning doves and tufted titmouses! Images of all the aforementioned topics (indoor succulent gardens, my urban garden and various birds) can be found on my Pinterest Boards and within my Flickr Galleries.

But now that I have digressed by informing you of all of this, my cow figurine is ringing the bell around her neck as a reminder for me to post pictures of the other figurines who have been visiting my indoor garden for the 2012-2013 Christmas season, which in the United States, will end this Sunday, January 6th 2013 — The Twelfth Day of Christmas and the Feast of the Epiphany!

AND SO, without further ado, the images following my cow figurine feature a few of the other figurines who have been visiting my indoor garden this Christmas season!

 ”God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest,” Josiah Gilbert Holland reportedly once  said.

So …  ”feed the birds!” To read more re how these lovely birds who visit my urban (NYC) garden do their noshing, please visit TLLG’s relate Blogger entries by clicking here and here respectively.

“It’s a plane! It’s superman! NOOOOO, it’s a ‘new-comer’ bird!”  This is what I overheard the finches, mourning doves and blue jays (who visit my urban — NYC — garden) “chirp-chant” upon seeing a new arrival to my urban garden; where I grow a variety of herbs, flowers, plants, shrubs, trees, and vines.

Today is Halloween, an “important day” to what I grow here, and when I first noticed my new guest, it was from a distance. I had hoped it was Cam (my visiting cardinal who seems to have disappeared) wearing a costume in honor of trick or treating, which will take place tonight at a venue in my hood, but alas, it is not Cam.

In addition to this day being Halloween, it is also the second day after NYC (and surrounding areas) was slammed by Hurricane Sandy, which makes this new bird’s arrival more poignant. As of this posting, I’m not sure what type of bird this newcomer is, but he/she is quite striking, as you can see from the images here. (Please be sure to click on each one to see its caption.)

I have not posted much about my indoor succulent garden in quite some time as I’ve been preoccupied with a number of “events,” including my recent garden upheaval which disrupted life in my urban (NYC) garden; my efforts with my first indiegogo project; my on-going concern for the problem one of my visiting finches is having with her eye; and my new endeavor of creating comic strips based on the antics of Cam (my visiting cardinal), as well as the “sagas” of my visiting blue jays, house finches and mourning doves.

I’ve been trying to resolve format issues re these comic strips, ever since I created ones for my Beech Tree as well as for my Japanese Larch. However, I’ve yet to post the one which I created for the larch as I was quite saddened by his unexpected death.

Be that as it may, the birds which have been visiting my garden arrived soon after the death of my sweet larch, and they have been entertaining me with their antics, as evident in the number of “venues” that I’ve dedicated to each of them.

All of my visiting birds can be “seen” in many of TLLG’s cyber-space places including, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest and Vimeo. Now, re my visiting birds, I hope to concentrate on my comic strips; so please stay tuned here on tumblr for details re these projects, for which I’ve “dedicated” a board on Pinterest, where I have posted finished strips and works in progress.

However, all of this does not mean that I’ve neglected what grows within my indoor succulent garden or the figurines which visit it. On the contrary! For it is thriving, and full of visitors in honor of Halloween, as evidenced by the photo-ops included with today’s posting!

BTW, Halloween is less than a week from today; if you still need greeting cards, some are currently available (@ http://www.patriciayoungquist.com/Pages/store/notes_hc.html#halloBoxSet).

And a downloadable brochure re my cards, invitations, and event program covers can be found @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/p/brochure.html

Yesterday afternoon whilst watering my urban (NYC) terrace garden, I discovered that my H.F. Clematis had some new growth (seen in the first image with this entry), which was a wonderful surprise, given the trauma this vine recently endured when she was put in a body bag to accommodate the repairs which were recently made to my garden!

Seeing my H.F. Clematis’s new growth prompted me to recall a quote by Albert Camus, which is “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower,” especially because the way the vine looked in relation to his new leaves, gave the appearance that he was handing me a bouquet of leaves!

Of course, since I call myself The Last Leaf Gardener, you might surmise that I appreciate leaves, and it seems that the birds (including blue jays, cardinals, house finches and mourning doves) who visit my garden, are awestruck by leaves too — as evidenced by the other images included with today’s entry —  which feature a few photo-ops of my birds staring at various leaves on what I grow in my garden! The birds as you can see are mesmerized by the leaves as they anticipate the color change  which will eventually occur.

In the images I’ve included here the blue jay, baby cardinal, mama cardinal (named Cam), and baby finch, all await my ‘Tamukeyama’s’ (Japanese Red Maple) fall “fashion” show. And he will not disappoint them, as evidenced by his past color change performances that were featured in my first garden themed Virtual Story (mini movie) called The Kiwi Speaks! Fifteen Minutes of Fame … almost, which may be viewed in my Vimeo Library.

Moreover, a red house finch, a baby finch and a mourning dove that are featured in the other images here are awaiting the Kiwi Vine’s anticipated leaf color change: a color change of “awesome yellow with lovely red markings,” as he said himself, when he narrated the aforementioned Virtual Story.

The Kiwi’s narration of this particular story has led him to be chosen (cast) as a “spokes-plant” for subsequent narrations in the forthcoming sequels  which I plan to produce as per my indiegogo project, a project which “gives voice to things that live in and visit my garden.”

Yesterday (September 30th 2012) was the anniversary of the premiere of the nationally televised cartoon series, The Flintstones, and the birds which visit my urban (NYC) garden had their own thoughts on how birds (and especially their beaks) were used in that animated series, and each of them prefer to use their respective beaks for noshing as you might surmise from these photo-ops!

The presence of birds in my garden is fairly new but they have certainly been entertaining me with their antics! This is evidenced in the many “stories” I’ve posted about them here on tumblr, as well as TLLG’s Blogger and Facebook “venues.” It is also evidenced in the many photo-ops I have of then on TLLG’s Board for Birds and in Virtual Stories (garden themed movies and flip books) that are in my Vimeo Library.

Moreover, they will be included in Virtual Stories and hard copy books as per my indiegogo Campaign for a project which gives voie to things that live in (and visit) my urban garden.

Cam (a cardinal that visits my urban — NYC — garden) must be spreading the word about life in my garden because a new feathered “friend” visited my garden today!

The “feathered friend” that I’m referring to is a blue jay, seen here in three poses, as he/she (I’ve yet to determine the bird’s gender) indulges in munchies that are on a small saucer which I’ve placed in the container that houses my ‘Tamukeyama’ (Japanese Maple).

Then again, perhaps the blue jay’s discovery of my garden had nothing whatsoever to do with Cam; rather this “new arrival’ may have heard about my place from my ’Tamukeyama,’ a wonderful tree who co-starred in my first garden themed virtual story (mini movie).

This virtual story is titled “The Kiwi Speaks! Fifteen Minutes of Fame … almost” and it my be viewed in my Vimeo Library. 

My Kiwi Vine is the prolific (and very opinionated) narrator of the aforementioned virtual story, and at the present time he is preparing for sequels that I will be producing for my project which can be referred to on indiegogo.