Hummingbird Charades

My mom, brother, and I have been watching the hummingbird feeder that is attached to the picture window, and it is a busy, busy spot!! They are so small that it is amazing to me how these birds can migrate such a distance. This morning, one of them hovered mid-air looking directly at me moving ever so slightly as it moved in front of each of the 9 [tic-tac-toe ] window panes for about 20 seconds. Awesome!

The very old joke that goes:
You know why they're called hummingbirds?

Because they forgot the words! [Groan..nn]

Picture me facing this 'lil bird saying, "What's the matter girl? Is Timmy in the well?"

So...thinking that maybe some new sweetened water was the message, I cleaned their feeder and changed the water. I will miss the hummers.
Too bad the squirrels don't migrate!!

On to the good news...

It has been a tremendoulsy sweet year for peaches. The bestest of the best! I even snuck a bag of 'country farmer's market peaches' into my visiting brother's car when he wasn't looking for a juicy surprise after that 5 hour drive.

And, I am pleased to announce that....

At last...there is a bud on the gardenia plant that we have been nurturing all season. Wahoo! I hope it blooms. It looks pretty healthy! It is Flo's favorite, and we've been impatiently giving that plant some 'not so subliminal messages' to 'FLOWER' ...COME ON...FLOWER!

And finally...

On this Labor Day weekend, I would like to thank all of the many, varied, and unusual laborers who help us in various ways. Farmers, nurses, medics, secretaries, scientists, plumbers, electricians, construction workers, trash collectors, comedians, song writers, dancers, [good news] reporters, politicians [who are working for the general good and not their own personal pension], fire wo/men, police officers, cooks, teachers, title searchers, caretakers, our military and their families,

veterinarians, volunteers.... The Geek Squad!!!

Any other 'laborers' that you would add to my general list whose work you would miss?

Things are a-popping!!

The Popcorn Factory sells a variety of treats, and a 25 day snack countdown to Christmas is both colorful and tasty. Each day has goodies wrapped in plastic and a puzzle is on the bottom side of each little box. I had one delivered to my mom as a daily activity...something interesting to look forward to...keep track of...sounds lovely, right? Well, getting each little box out of its space is next to impossible!! And then to get the top off of the box is difficult, too. Yesterday was Day 9, and after 8 days of aggravation, I just had to give it some added force to get that sucker out of its 'bonded nest'. I leaned it forward a tad, and the equivalent of 52 card pick-up flew everywhere into Flo's lap and onto the floor! Twenty-five little numbered boxes tumbled out, and putting them back into the box in order was cause for laughter and wild words simultaneously! Whew! The treats are fun, but you really have to have a whole bunch of patience.

Another focal point of patience [and also well worth the wait] are the amarylis and paperwhites that are planted and growing in the living room. Mother Nature's treats are awesome! There are also some container bulbs on the front porch which will alert us to the beginning of spring!! They are alongside the 'barren booberries' and 'stolen strawberry' plants that are wintering on the porch instead of the garage this year.

The birdfeeders outside the picture window are a 'feathered feeding frenzy' and at the moment we are winning the war with the squirrels. That could change at any moment, though!

And there you have it! A short summary of what we have our eyes on as we take 'one day at a time'. We are still looking for some deer to grace the landscape. Wahoo!

Whiskers' words of wisdom!

When I was a kid of 7 or 8, we had a green parakeet named 'Peter'. He was an okay bird famous only for squawking when the evening news came on. My father would then begin squawking about how he couldn't hear the news, the bird's fabric cage cover was then put on...thus beginning nighttime for Peter. I also remember that Peter laid an egg. ???? We thought Peter was a male, AND since this bird never came into contact with another bird, we were kind of surprised! I don't remember the circumstances of his passing, but he did indeed do that at some point.

My family moved when I was 13, and another green parakeet became the family pet. This was 'Whiskers' and he proved to be quite the star. He was both friendly and pretty darned smart! I had read that you could teach a parakeet to talk by repeating a phrase often, and by kicking your voice up to a higher pitch..otherwise when repeated by the parakeet, it would just sound like mumbling and the phrase would be unrecognizable. And so I began with 'Good Morning!' every day and repeated it four or five times during the day for a month or so. And one morning when we were eating breakfast ...you guessed it... from the corner of the kitchen and as clear as a bell...came the parrakeeted "Good Morning" with the exact same inflection of my repetitive prompt. Wahoo!

Since my father's opinion of Whiskers was that he was just an ordinary 'dirty bird' , I thought we could possibly win him over if Whiskers greeted him personally. I began to go over to the cage and say,

"Good morning! And added on...Hel-lo Joe!"

Tacked on to the familiar phrase was the NEW phrase. And I repeated it several times during the day as I had for Whisker's first spoken words.

Yep! Yep! Whiskers was a genius!! Again, he perfected it!

Again I added a new phrase to the two that Whiskers already had mastered, and then he said,

Good morning!

Hello Joe!

Hello Tom! [my brother]

Hello Mare!

You're such a pretty bird!

Parlez-vous Francais? [I took French in high school.]

Buddha make... a miracle! [from The King and I ... our HS musical.]

I could call my friends, put Whiskers on the phone's receiver, and start off the entire litany of 15-20 phrases by prompting the first words of, "Good Morning" and he would say everything he had learned all into the phone.

Whiskers was a 'one of a kind'. A star!!

And a pretty good role model to those kids in school who said that they just couldn't recall those times tables!!

Flying Solo!

It's Sunday morning and I am sitting in silence in Flo's chair listening and thinking and observing the view from her chair to her window to the world!

Listening: to the monitor for the word to get Mom out of bed and start her day...listening to the rain...listening to the creek...

Thinking : that here we are at August 2nd, and it's finally back to the old routine where St Nic has Sundays off. It has taken me from February 17th[ the fateful day of my flight through the air, nose to the ground, and a broken femur in several places, to now to get enough strength and confidence to manage [me and Mom] all by myself from wake-up to bedtime. Whew! I remember that in the emergency room, my doctor had said that I was looking at several months of recovery[ since I had really done several break[s] . Really? Yes.

I'm happy to have most of it behind me. A couple of days after the surgery, I asked him what was going to be the hardest part....he said: Depression. I was not expecting that answer, but now I totally understand it. The surgery, the hospital stay, rehab, not walking for months, needing help with so many things that we take for granted on a regular basis, the list could go on and on..

Observing: the birds feeding at their feeder of choice. Chickadees, nuthatches, mourning doves, yellow finches, woodpeckers and titmice [!!], ...I haven't seen a hummer lately...

Noticing the colors of the bloomin' flowers: rose of sharon, geraniums, impatiens, petunias, hibiscus, begonias,...and the trees' leaves soaking up the rain. There is flowing[ bustling] water in the creek next to the house.

Flo's view is pretty good!

And yesterday, she told me she felt like this was home. [Two years on Aug 28th].

I'm sure the dog and the daily rice pudding with whipped cream are a big part of it...oh, and yeah, my entertaining and singing, too!!

I'm sensing that you are not...

Words of wisdom from my mom's friend Gladys: Sometimes you have to get outside just to 'blow the stink off you.' After being indoors for most of the week, the four of us [Flo, Nic, Gracie, and yours truly] rolled into the car today for a ride in pursuit of Gladys' de-stink-tion!

We saw much...a Finger Lake's beautiful water, cows, horses, birds, amazing spring trees in total blooms of many colors, flowers, waterfalls, Gracie's ears straight back,

We heard sounds...the waterfalls' rushing waters, people talking, the drone of lawnmowers, the wind blowing in the window and rattling a plastic bag in the car [the open window because Grace would not forego sticking her face out of the window and into the wind!].

Ahh-h the aromas and fragrances of...lilacs, a chicken barbeque in progress, air rushing at your face, newly overturned earth recently plowed by farmers.

Taste? We didn't stop for anything while on the ride, but at home, we enjoyed a bowl of fresh strawberries, blueberries, bananas, topped off with a bit of whipped cream. Hours later, Flo and I munched on popcorn and drank some cold iced tea...mmm...while watching Michael J Fox's Special on Optimism.

The sense of touch... wicker [ holding onto the the dog's bed on my lap and the curls around her collar so that she wouldn't fall out].

I'm thinking that most of the time, we could be more aware of our surroundings.

Here's a great example:

For about 5 summers, I was the director of The Summer Fun Club at the YMCA for kids 5-7 years old. It was a combo of swimming lessons, arts and crafts, and field trips from 10-3 Mon.-Fri. And we did have fun.

I was working on the next field trip on the schedule. The phone conversation went something like this:

"Hi! I'm calling to schedule a field trip for 5-7 year old kids. The nature trails and museum that you have will be both exercise and education. I know that I have always enjoyed communing with nature on your 5 trails and I want the kids to get outdoors and have that experience, too."

"Great! Let me look at the schedule. Do you want the blind guide?"

"What? ...What did you say?"

"One of our guides is blind. She has a separate schedule."

"I apologize... I thought you must have been kidding! How does she do that?"

"Assissting her is her working guide dog. This tour is different from the others in that the tour is experienced from the perspectives of sound, smell, and touch."

"Wow! Sign us up for that tour. It will be something very different and unforgettable for the kids. And me, too. I love to learn with them."

It was pretty cool. She would listen and identify the birds by their sound. The trees were identified by the feel of the bark, and other features were pointed out by their smell.

We learned to use more than our sense of sight.

A very eclectic experience, and one that I'll never forget.

So, how about you?

Have you placed your nose up close and personal to a ''hyacinth'' and then breathed in through your nose? mmm...a rose? lilacs? sheets dried on a clothesline, chocolate, coffee, sauce cooking,

Do you take a moment to enjoy the tastes of your meals or snacks? rice krispy treats, a cold orange, a fresh strawberry

Do you know how soft a dog's ears are? flower petals, your pillow, shampoo lather, a baby's face,

Listen to silence? bird calls, train whistles, the wind, hummingbird wings in flight, cackling laughter, geese in a V formation honking to each other,

And lastly... O say can you see? What do you see?

Have you ever watched a cat's ears move independently? lightening?

What are some of your favorite sights, smells, sounds, etc.?

Hmm...ingbird!!!!

H IS FOR HUMMINGBIRD....

And he's ba-a-ck!

Wahoo!

The cartoon says, "Dad! Dad! There's a feeder! Can we stop?"

I was reading Jo's blog about trying to find her camera and having no luck. I passed along that regardless of religious beliefs, that she should get St Anthony on the job. Nic had just come over, and I said outloud, " Hey, St Anthony...a hummingbird please? The feeder has been out there for a week, and friends of mine have had them return to their feeder. "

We were eating supper, and Nic yells out, "Hummingbird!"And there it was feeding right in front of us on the other side of the picture window.

Wahoo! Nic couldn't believe that within 20 minutes of summoning St Anthony for help, there it was ! I rest my case!

Tony has helped me many, many times. [That's St. Anthony...but I'm on a first name basis with him!]

Chickadee-dee-dee!

Well, plowable snow!!! And the birds are checking out all of the feeders. One of my favorite birds is the tuxedo-suited chickadee. Small and spirited, they are delightful to watch. I came across a poem about chickadees, and thought I'd share:

He or She?

When you see a chickadee,

You can't tell if it's a he or she.

Maybe God designed that mystery

To baffle humans like you and me.

Even though they look the same

And both whistle 'phee-bee'.

There's no doubt in a chickadee's mind

Which is she and which is he.

Julie Hanna

The Best Little Birdhouse in Texas-I mean NY!!

I have many, many birdhouses presently on my property as well as some that have fallen apart and are gone. Probably about 4 years ago, I bought a bluebird house and nailed it to a telephone pole. It's painted brown and has yellow flowers stencilled on each side. Someone warned me that the birds aren't going to use this house because it was painted and wouldn't 'smell' right to them. I planted clematis at its base and put a wooden trellis with a couple of hearts carved out leading up to the house for the climbing plant to latch onto.
Well...let me tell you that it has had the highest occupancy of all nesting sites -both past and present houses. It is a proverbial bird factory- not bluebirds but that doesn't matter. There are non stop residents and they don't seem to care that it hasn't even been cleaned out. New twigs and straw are angled into the opening, and the next thing you hear are the peeps from within. Next you see their little beaks at the opening and the parents are providing breakfast! And very soon, little birds appear at the regular birdfeeders, and new birds are moving into The Bird Motel. What is the major attraction of this house?
I wonder if they have cable and phone service from the lines that bring these services to my house!!
Whatever! It is very entertaining to watch their activities and so far no birds have dive-bombed at my head when I am right there in their faces. They must sense that I won't ruffle their feathers, or they know that I am too big to move in and take over.
In any case, I'll bet it's the move-in condition of the house...and the fact that they don't even have to do any painting!!