My wife (Wilma) with "Bird in hand..."
She's in seventh heaven!
(My wife I mean!)
Photos: by Cliff Derksen
This past Saturday I was on my way to the studio. My wife Wilma was coming with me in her car as we were going to stop at the English Gardens at the Assiniboine Park on the way. I needed to take new photos of flowers for her daily blog and we were just going to spend time together walking, enjoying the ambiance, talking and just enjoying another beautiful fall day.
Just a few feet into the garden she observed a gentleman who had birds eating out of his hand. I didn't pay to much attention as I was concentrating of flowers when she came to me with a hand full of seeds declaring she was going to have birds eating out of her hand!
I set my camera to multiple shoots and somewhat sceptically waited with her as she stood holding out her hand waiting. After some light hearted bantering on my part such as, "you are looking like a bird feeder..." etc. suddenly a bird magically appeared on her hand, picked up a seed and fled.
We were both in shock. But Wilma was transported. I only learned later the whole story of her feelings about birds, bird feeders, having wild birds eat our of your had etc.
It is a long history in her family. Her father loved birds and actually build a bird feeder out of automotive parts and such. We have that very one standing in our garden in our backyard. It is made out of a vehicle axel part, a disker disk to catch husks and seeds, above that a smaller dish for the seeds with a hole in it for rainwater to run out, and next above that is an upside down metal dish to act as an umbrella to keep the rain out of the smaller seed dish just below it. An amazing item in our garden.
Her father had it outside a window by his favorite chair. A bird book on the side table. It was not only a science, but a spiritual experience with her father.
I kept moving along photographing with Wilma following with her hand stretched out. Everywhere we went, birds kept partaking of the seeds in her hand. It was a spiritual experience. She wished he was wearing a white robe, reminding her of Frances of Assisi and his experiences with his feathered friends.
Above are some of the photos I was able to snap during her amazing experience.
Every bird in her hand was so special to her. Way more important than any in the bush during those moments.
"So God created ... every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good." Gen. 1:21
FYI - Something interesting I found....
"A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush."
It's Meaning (From: Phrase Dictionary)
It's better to have a small real advantage than the possibility of a greater one.
Origin
This proverb refers back to mediaeval falconry where a bird in the hand (the falcon) was a valuable asset and certainly worth more than two in the bush (the prey).The first citation of the expression in print in its currently used form is found in John Ray's A Hand-book of Proverbs, 1670, which he lists it as:
A [also 'one'] bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
By how much the phrase predates Ray's publishing isn't clear, as variants of it were known for centuries before 1670. The earliest English version of the proverb is from the Bible and was translated into English in Wycliffe's version in 1382, although Latin texts have it from the 13th century:
Ecclesiastes IX - A living dog is better than a dead lion.
Alternatives that explicitly mention birds in hand come later. The earliest of those is in Hugh Rhodes' The Boke of Nurture or Schoole of Good Maners, circa 1530:
"A byrd in hand - is worth ten flye at large."
John Heywood, the 16th century collector of proverbs, recorded another version in his ambitiously titled A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, 1546:"Better one byrde in hande than ten in the wood."
The Bird in Hand was adopted as a pub name in England in the Middle Ages and many of these still survive.
The term bird in hand must have been known in the USA by 1734, as that is the date when a small town in Pennsylvania was founded with that name.
No comments:
Post a Comment