The hummingbirds' vine is really named Cardinal Climber (Ipomoea x multifida) and the hummingbirds love it.  The vine has its idiosyncrasies. It has taken all summer for the vine to produce flowers and they seem to bloom for one day.  Flowers seem to open when the sun is shining but not when it is heavily cloudy.  It could be a temperature related thing as the cloudy days have been cooler than the sunny ones. 


After a series of warm, sunny days, the hummingbirds became accustomed to eating from all of the open flowers.  When the flowers stopped opening on a cloudy, cool, rainy day, the hummingbirds flew all around the vines and then hovered in front of them.  It was as if they were trying to figure out where the flowers went. 

The melons are ripening.  We have now eaten two.  When I bring them into the house, their delicious aroma fills the kitchen.  We always plant at least one melon vine but this is the first time we have produced any fruit. 

Guess Who Paid a Visit Today

It is not so surprising that the bumblebees were in the garden today. 

Over night last night, the temperatures dropped and there was frost in the area.  We were fortunate; there was no frost in the gardens.  Just in case, we covered a lot of the tender plants for the night.  This morning before we removed  the covers, one of the hummingbirds was in the garden checking out the covers.  It went to every one and paused for a little; we assume it was looking at the covers and maybe saying, "This wasn't here yesterday."  

We are beginning to prepare the garden for winter but decided to leave the broccoli because the bumblebees are still in the flowers. 

Just before I went back into the house, I decided to check the nasturtiums and melon a little more closely for a potential picture.  I looked up to see a pair of shiny little eyes looking at me.  The weasel was back in the garden.  We had seen it this morning for the first time since the day we first saw it.  Now, here it was so very close to me and I had the camera out.  As luck would have it, the weasel is quite shy.  Every time I moved even a little bit it scurried away.  Every time I tried to set the camera to take a picture, the small click sent the weasel running for cover.  But, I did get a little picture of it.  Thanks to the miracle of PhotoShop, I was able to make the image a little larger.  Unfortunately, it is also a little grainy.  Yes, the weasel's head is on one side of the shed door and its little furry butt is on the other side.  :-D    And yes, it is under the door.   :-D

Can it already be ten years?  

It seems as if it were just yesterday.  

The events of 9-11-2001 are so deeply seared into our hearts that time has been suspended.  

When we are called to sing your praise with hearts so filled with pain that we would rather sit and weep or stand up to complain,

remind us, God, you understand the burdens that we bear; 

you, too, have walked the shadowed way and known our deep despair.  

When we are called to sing your praise and cannot find our voice,  

because our losses leave us now no reason to rejoice, 

remind us, God, that you accept our sad laments in prayer; 

you, too, have walked the shadowed way and known our deep despair. 

When we are called to sing your praise and life ahead looks grim,

still give us faith and hope enough to break forth in a hymn, 

a thankful hymn, great God of Love, that you are everywhere; 

you walk the shadowed way with us and keep us in your care.  

                                                                                  - Mary Nelson Keithahn 

On the first anniversary of 9-11 we were in Wells, England.  I had tied three ribbons into a bow of red, white, and blue.  I fastened them to a small safety pin so I could wear it on the lapel of my blazer.  A friend gave me a small crystal teardrop that I fastened onto the bow below the knot.

While we were in Wells, we went into the Cathedral where we saw the U.S. flag displayed as a memorial to D-Day.  On that day, it comforted us to know that the people of Wells so appreciated the U.S. efforts in 1944 that they memorialized it in their Cathedral. 

Hummingbirds

I honestly do not know if the weather will hold long enough for the hummingbird vine to have more than a couple flowers open at a time.  I really did not expect the hummingbirds to find it. 

Today there are three flowers open on the vine.  One of them is visible in the picture.  It is at the top and just slightly left of center.  This morning, a hummingbird found the vine and ate from each of the three flowers.  When it had finished, it flew around the terrace and then hovered in front of the window from which I was watching.  I wonder if it knew that I was watching.  I wonder if it could even see through the window or was it just a reflecting mirror? 

The hummingbirds fascinate me.  They are so small it does not seem possible that they do what they do and that they migrate such long distances.  By comparison, the goldfinches, nuthatches, and chickadees which all seem so small when I watch them during the winter, seem big.  The blue jays and crows seem like flying monsters. 

Earlier this week, I made fresh syrup for the feeder.  When I had the feeder in the house to clean it and refill it, a couple hummingbirds flew around the empty space where it hangs.  They would hover and appeared to look through the empty space.  It made me hurry out with the freshly cleaned and filled feeder. 

I'm a Floozy - - -

a Button Floozy, that is.  Yesterday I joined Button Floozies. 

Please check out the blog by clicking on the link at the right hand side.  We love buttons; we collect buttons; we craft with buttons; we cannot get enough buttons.  Most of us played with buttons when we were young children.  We played with our mother's buttons or our grandmother's buttons. 

I played with my grandmother's buttons.  She kept them in an old fruitcake tin.  When I went to her house, I would sit on the floor beside her as she sewed.  I sorted her buttons; I made pictures with her buttons; I counted her buttons. 

Hummingbirds may be quite common here in Minnesota but I still think of them as exotic.  The ruby throat is the only hummingbird that comes here.  This is well within its summer nesting range.  They go as far north as southern Canada to nest.  Their summer range is a little west of the Mississippi River. I have always wanted to attract hummingbirds to my home but until a couple years ago, I was not successful. 

This is a federal holiday, Labor Day.  It is always the first Monday of September and it signifies the end of the summer.  One of our sons has the day off and the other does not.  Sometimes I think that Roger is on a perpetual holiday since he retired.   I, on the other hand, am completely unable to retire from the housework.  It is just after noon.  I have
1.  one load of sheets drying in the backyard on the clothesline and a second load still in the washer.
2.  tidied, dusted, and vacuumed the bedroom.
3.  some beans baking in the oven and will make a peach pie shortly. 

Yesterday I took everything out of the cabinet under the kitchen sink, cleaned it, and reorganized it.  I do not understand how I can throw out so much stuff and still the cabinet looks as full as it did when I began.  I did it because one of my sons said that if I cleaned up a little he would clean up a little too.  He did; the counters are much less cluttered.  Today I am going to clean off the top of my work table, down to the Roman shade that is on the bottom.  I want to finish it and hang it.  I wonder what my son will clean up next.

This morning as I hung the pillows out to air, one of the hummingbirds came over.  It seemed like it was trying to chase me away so it could eat alone.  As I hung out the sheets, it came over and chattered at me.  As soon as I checked on it from the house, it was in the feeder.  I thought that hummingbirds were supposed to have an affinity for people.  The ones that come to our feeder do not seem to like each other either.  They are constantly scrapping at the feeder and chasing each other around.  I understand that they can be quite territorial.  I do have to admit that they are very entertaining. 

In the Garden

This past week we finished thinning and replanting the iris for this year.  As we were putting the iris back into the beds, I finally discovered what is on the front end of a little brown rear end and tail that I had seen several times as the front end buried itself in the plants.  As we were working, we discovered a pair of little shiny eyes watching us.  It turns out that that cute little brown butt belongs to a weasel.  It also seems that when the weasel is visiting us the chipmunks are not.  The chipmunks have been out for the past couple days and we have not see the weasel. 


This is going to be primarily a picture gallery.  I went outside to take a picture of the single flower on my hummingbird vine.  I planted the seeds because hummingbirds are supposed to like the flowers but my vines are not being very productive.    

   
                                             
The flower is very small, just a little more than an inch long and a little less that 3/4 inch in diameter.  It appears to last for only a day.  There are a lot of buds; I hope that they have enough time to mature. 


I decided to wait to see if the hummingbirds would come.  They did but the close-up lens is not exactly the best choice for them.  I changed out the lens and tried again. 

While I waited, a bumblebee visited one of the tomato plants.  It also visited the marigolds that are growing under the tomato but that picture was not quite as good as this one. 

I sat in one of the chairs on the patio and waited patiently for the hummingbirds.  They did not seem to like sharing the backyard with me but they did eventually come to the feeder.  The pictures are not the best because of my position in relation to the sun.   But I could not get them in the picture from any other angle. 

The humming bird is eating at the feeder.

I was able to catch it in midair as it approached the feeder. 

One little pumpkin growing in the garden - - -
This variety does not grow very big; it is a pie pumpkin and that is what this one will become.  We will have three, possibly four more. 

One little melon that is beginning to mature - - -
If we are lucky, there are two, maybe three more. 

A general view of the garden - - -

I can see that I will have to learn how to take pictures with the gazing globe.