Smoke Bush’s Burgundy Foliage Consoles a “lone” rain-drenched peony flower in my urban (NYC) garden! Story @ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2013/05/where-have-all-peonies-gone.html
Whilst folks are bird watching, birds (including this lone white-breasted sparrow and lone red house finch), are “watching” the foliage of the thriving kiwi vines growing my urban (NYC) garden!
After a delayed start, has spring FINALLY, FINALLY sprung in New York City where I live? The Black Mondo Grass growing in my urban garden weighs in with answers in a “story” on TLLG’s (me) Blogger Pages!
An informative post about this newest visitor (a rose-breasted grosbeak) to my urban (NYC) garden is on TLLG’s Blogger Pages!
I featured these images yesterday on TLLG’s FB Page but they were in a collage format, hence, I’m posting the images here where they can be viewed individually.
As I said on FB: “One of my mourning doves is (rightly so) feeling slighted! He/she has been preening his/her feathers ALL DAY (whilst sitting in a tree near my urban garden in the upper westside of New York City) and I didn’t give it much press even though I have come to learn that mourning doves preen their feathers with their beaks to attract a mate!
Let’s give this guy/gal a round of applause for a job of preening well done! Wish I could say I fix my hair as well as this bird arranges his/her feathers! But, I hide my hair under a cap, something this well-groomed mourning dove does not do!
WHAT AN EXCELLENT USE OF HIS/HER BEAK! Remember how birds used their beaks in The Flintstones? The birds in that cartoon were creative with their beaks (@ http://www.thelastleafgardener.com/2012/09/ya-buh-da-buh-due.html) BUT I don’t recall the “stone-age” birds styling their feathers with a beak!
Help me name Cam’s beau! Cam is the female cardinal who visits my urban (NYC) garden and her love interest needs a name! Story on TLLG’s Blogger Pages!
The month of March is traditionally associated with flying a kite, and the lyrics “Let’s go fly a kite … ” were sung in the “Mary Poppins” movie; but the birds which visit my urban (NYC) terrace (roof-extension) garden have a belief which is this: why go fly a kite when you can BE a kite “soaring up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear …
AND none of the birds ever wait for the month of March to be a kite as evidenced by these images of my birds soaring up where the air is (hopefully) clear … “
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!
It is has been written: “Consider the birds … they do not toil … .,” and, I TRULY need to take a lesson from my feathered friends!
I say this because I JUST completed a series of posts (SIXTEEN TOTAL) on my blog (The Last Leaf Gardner on Blogger).
The sixteen entry series spans posts from 1-5-13 to 1-20-13; and is a pictorial with narrative, year-end review (2012) of “events” in my urban (NYC) garden, many of which involved the antics of my visiting birds.
The cast of characters can be seen in the image above today’s tumblr entry; their identities are as follows:
Left to Right:
Row One: Snowbird, Chickadee, Common Grackle, Female House Finch
Row Two: Blue Jay, Cam (female Cardinal, Cam), Tufted Titmouse
Row Three: Mourning Dove, (Cam), Male Cardinal
Row Four: Tree Swallow, Male House Finch, Hairy Woodpecker, White Throat Sparrow
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!
Yet another feathered beauty visited my urban (NYC) garden yesterday and I did not want to startle it so I took a picture through the window of my closed door, hence the poor image quality! And until I can get my hands on a good bird reference book, I’m hoping someone out there in cyber-land is able to decipher enough details to tell me what type of bird this awesome creature is!
Two days ago, the convo amongst the birds who visit my garden focused on what to especially give thanks for on Thanksgiving (which is today); and one of my birds was especially grateful for the foliage on my Ajuga plant, a plant that has been featured here on tumblr as well as within TLLG’s Blogger entries.
The Ajuga grows in the same container as my prolific Kiwi Vine, prolific because he “proved” himself when starring as a narrator in my first garden themed Virtual Story (mini movie) titled “The Kiwi Speaks! Fifteen Minutes of fame … almost,” which can be viewed in my Vimeo Library.
But my chickadee is also grateful to be featured in a number of photo-ops within TLLG’s Pinterest Boards, Flickr Galleries, Blogger entries and posts here on tumblr, where we are most grateful to our followers and re-bloggers. We wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving, a Thanksgiving which brings with it blessings to you and yours which last throughout the years to come!
A very reverent tufted titmouse says grace before noshing in my urban (NYC) garden! More on birds and their feeding habits have been posted on TLLG’s BLogger Pages! Please click here for the link.
A mourning dove visiting my urban (NYC) garden, contemplates the beauty of my Rubus calycinoides (Creeping Raspberry) as he/she reflects on Thanksgiving blessings.
