Monday, January 31, 2011

research/notes for 12 birds of Christmas...

The twelve days of Christmas
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/xmas/12/twelve.htm

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/john_denver/twelve_days_of_christmas.html

http://www.melodiesplus.com/Christmas/days.html
http://www.brownielocks.com/twelvedaysofchristmas.html

http://www.fotosearch.com/illustration/twelve-days-christmas.html

Photos are not lining up like they should. I am working on fixing this.

On the (first) day of Christmas my true love sent to me
A partridge in a pear tree
(also called gray pheasant)
Repeat adding one of these lines each time



Two turtle doves






Three french hens = turkey






Four colly birds (sometimes called calling birds or collie birds)






Five gold rings Red golden ring neck pheasant






Six geese a-laying






Seven swans a-swimming






Eight maids a-milking Cuckoo’s maid






Nine ladies dancing Lady Ross Tyraco bird






Ten lords a-leaping (Lord God bird, also called ivory billed woodpecker)






Eleven pipers piping Sand piper





Twelve drummers drumming Drummer (north).





(the ruffled grouse State bird of PA is also called a partridge or drummer)



ending with
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids a-milking (

Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five gold rings
Four colly birds
Three french hens
Two turtle doves
and A partridge in a pear tree



as the wryneck get its names of cuckoo's mate marrow maiden etc not from any fondness for the cuckoo's society but because it arrives and departs about the same time as that bird Its Swedish name is Goktita Mr Broderip in his Zoological Recreations p 75 says that in Herefordshire the red backed shrike Lanius collurio is called cuckoo's maid probably because it has been seen feeding a young cuckoo


All pigeons and doves feed their young crop milk.


………………….
I was thinking about doing a research on the 12 days of Christmas from a floral point of view. I know that there is a dwarf tree called the partridge in a pear tree… and a flower called maids a milking The California native flower commonly called Milkmaids is named for its resemblance to the hat often worn by milkmaids).

(kind of like a lily of the valley or something)…


< Cuckoo Flower - Cardamine pratensis Family - Brassicaceae. Also known as - Lady's Smock, Milking Maids, Pig's Eyes, Cuckoo Bread, Lucy Locket>
but the rest I am not certain about. I did enjoy doing the bird research and found a couple of videos even that had Lords a leaping (birds and ducks) and ladies dancing (birds).


and


B784 ‘Turtle Dove’ D. Savory 2006 Introduction -
Mini - a unique mini with green leaves and showy,
balloon-shaped lavender flowers..........................45.00




I also love the Geico commercial about a bird in hand being worth two in a bush.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

I am hosting a swap on swap-bot ... plans are to swap an item that features one bird per month. Check it out. I will post pictures of items that I make and items I receive.

http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/80749

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The 12 days of Christmas is for the Birds:::

I choose a theme for our family Christmas every year... well this year 2011, I have chosen "the twelve days of Christmas" and I want our family to spend all or at least some of it in Branson MO, to celebrate my husband (Rev. T. Mark Peter)'s 50th b-day on December 20. I thought I would start researching the poem/song of the 12 days of Christmas and thought it interesting that so many of the days included birds. And so I got to thinking, well maybe ALL the gifts were birds originally. I did discover that indeed the 5 golden rings were birds, Golden ringneck Pheasants. So this sent me on a further search and though I couldn't find any more research that proved my theory - I did find that there ARE birds that could fit all of the other gifts as well. Instead of giving all my information here on this first blog, I will spread it out throughout the year.
I will take one bird per month, making the 12 days of Christmas, really the 12 months of Christmas... Making it a year long blog. I hope that you will enjoy it.
~Lisa Peter

I saw this picture of a bird posted on facebook last night. Not one of the birds of Christmas, but I might include other birds too throughout the blogging.