Michelle at Rambling Woods writes: “I am going to challenge myself and hopefully you to take a look at nature. What is going on in your area? Is it spring in your part of the world or are you heading into cold weather. Take a little walk….. look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?..Step outside and close your eyes. What do you hear? …take a deep breath…What do you smell?”
Each month I post a listing of birds sightings in Highland Park. I don’t do the bird sightings; I just set up the page way back in 2001 and post the data. This month I noticed a lot more X’s in the May column. Joanne Williams, who gathers the data from other local birdwatchers, explained to me:
Lots of birds come here to breed in the summer and some just fly through to points farther north. It is one of the reasons that the World Series of Birding (yes, there is such an event) is held in New Jersey in May.
I have been seeing a lot of gray birds in our backyard. It turns out these are called gray catbirds. Michelle sent me this link about catbirds. And if you look at Joanne’s list, you will see that catbirds don’t show up in Highland Park until late April. Here are some photos I took of the gray catbirds:
Do you see the little brown patch near the tail? The bird is not all gray.
I photographed this house on 5th Avenue in New York City with Mary’s Window Views meme in mind. Hardly looks like a house, does it?
Here is more of the house. I believe this is the Harry F. Sinclair House, which was built in 1898 for stockbroker and banker Isaac Fletcher. The architect is Charles Pierrepont Henry (C.P.H.) Gilbert; the name does not ring a bell for me among the greats of American architecture. I wonder what it looks like inside?
For more window views, visit:
Oh, and here it is in sepia, with a bit of blue sky:
Love when this flower blooms. Commonly called cranesbill, this perennial is of the genus “geranium,” but geranium is also the name of that annual that is often red or white. According to Wikipedia, geranium has symmetrical flowers, while pelargonium has irregular or maculate petals.
I have two cranesbill plants in front of my home.
Sage, the tasty herb that goes nicely in potato salad or in a chicken dish, is showing its dainty purple flowers now.
In my Ruby Tuesday post this week I asked if anyone could guess which business sponsored this float from the Israel Day Parade in New York City. It turns out it was sponsored by IDB Bank, Bank HaPoalim, and Bank Leumi. Robin, who lives in Tel Aviv, correctly stated Bank Leumi as the sponsor.
Whenever I hear Bank HaPoalim, I think of the ditty: “Bo-ee, bo-ee-tan-u, Bank HaPoalim, bo-ee, bo-ee-tan-u, Bank HaPoalim …” (which translates as ‘come with us, come with us, Bank of the Workers, come with us, come with us, Bank of the Workers). Do they still use that for advertising? I have no idea. The name ‘Bank HaPoalim,’ bank of the workers, reminds me of Israel’s socialist, Russian-inspired roots.
Lots of reds were visible at the Salute to Israel Parade down Fifth Avenue in New York City yesterday. This was one float with many red balloons that said “Ruby Tuesday” red to me.
These drummers at the Fifth Avenue Israel parade also seemed to be wearing red t-shirts so they can show up in a Ruby Tuesday post.
I photographed this red rhododendron a few minutes before we marched off to the local Highland Park Memorial Day Parade.
Extra: since some of you like quizzes, can anyone guess what the first float is representing? Which business? Hint: it is an Israeli-based business that has branches in New York.
Last week I took a trip down to the Native Plant Reserve (NPR) in Highland Park. Here is the willow amsonia in bloom. I recognize the flower from years ago when I put together a guessing game of native plants from NPR.
I think I should do these Nature Notes posts every other week; I need one week to come up with an idea and take photos, and the next week to put it together in a post. Or maybe I should just take it one week at a time and rely on inspiration.
It’s great when the plants have a sign, like this red switch grass.
This one is called spiderwort; good name for a plant with spidery-like leaves.
I had a hard time getting a good shot of the buttercups. If I had my other lens, the macro lens, it would have been easier, because these are tiny and close to the ground.
What’s going on in your area? Birds, flowers, animals, trees? Visit Michelle’s Nature Notes for more natural wonders.
What do blooming garden flowers and the shocker I used for a title have in common?
In S. Y. Agnon’s short story “The Sign” the main character learns that all the Jews in his hometown in Europe have been killed by the Nazis. He learns this at the same time his house in the Land of Israel has been decorated for Shavuot in the traditional way, with flowers and plants:
The sun shone down on the outside of the house; inside, on the walls, we had hung cypress, pine, and laurel branches, and flowers. Each beautiful flower and everything with a sweet smell and been brought in to decorate the house for the holiday of Shavuot. In all the days I had lived in the Land of Israel, our house had never been decorated so nicely as it was that day. All the flaws in the house had vanished, and not a crack was to be seen, either in the ceiling or in the walls. From the places where the cracks in the house used to gape with open mouths and laugh at the builders, there came instead the pleasant smell of branches and shrubs, and especially of the flowers we had brought from our garden. These humble creatures, which because of their great modesty don’t raise themselves high above the ground except to give off their good smell, made the eye rejoice because of the many colors with which the Holy One, blessed be He, has decorated them, to glorify His land, which, in His loving-kindness, He has given to us.
A little later in the story Agnon teaches us a little of the halachot (laws) of Shavuot:
Although on the Sabbath and festivals one says the evening prayers early, on Shavuot we wait to say Maariv until the stars are out.
For if we were to pray early and recieve the holiness of the festival, we would be shortening the days of the Omer, and the Torah said, “There shall be seven full weeks.”
Later, the main character is standing in the synagogue, facing the six memorial candles shining among the roses and the wildflowers and the garden flowers that have been used to decorate the sanctuary. “Is it possible that a city full of Torah and life is suddenly uprooted from the world, and all its people—old and young; men, women and children—are killed, that now the city is silent, with not a soul of Israel left in it?”
Who is S. Y. Agnon? Shmuel Yosef Agnon was born Shmuel Yosef Czaczkes in Buczacz, Galicia. In 1908 he immigrated to Israel and in 1913 he went to Germany, where he married his wife. He returned to Israel in 1924. If you have heard of Saul Bellow or Isaac Bashevis Singer, S. Y. Agnon won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, years before Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer won their Nobel Prizes. Agnon wrote his stories in Hebrew, one of the first modern writers to do so. I hope one day to read his stories in Hebrew, as one loses a lot in translation.
Many thanks to Lorri (Rayna Elianna) for recommending A Book That Was Lost: Thirty Five Stories (Hebrew Classics),a lovely book of short stories. The holiday of Shavuot, which is a major Jewish holiday (as opposed to say, Chanukah, which is only a minor holiday) begins on Thursday night, May 28th. It is traditional to decorate one’s home with flowers, to stay up all night learning Torah, and to eat dairy dishes (we’ll be having ice cream for dessert).
