Happy Hummingbird

November first!  Wow. 

The Art Tours last weekend was a wonderful, busy few days.  A big, smoochy thank you to all who came out!  I cannot thank you enough for coming, for your comments, and of course, to those of you who found a piece to take home with you.  You ROCK! 

Came home from a run with Mr. Pono this morning to the sight of my Autumn sage literally covered with hummingbirds.  They were zooming all over the front courtyard.  Now how could I let that go without trying to capture a few moments for you?  I couldn't. 

Love.

I'm pretty sure this is a Black Chinned Hummingbird.

Happy November!

Creature companions

I have planted salvia greggii (which is a pink flowering shrub) in our front yard that the hummingbirds are attracted to.  All day long, I see them feeding on the pink flowers.  Once they have fed, they will often fly into the palo verde tree and perch in the green branches.  They aren't particularly afraid of me or Pono, and more than once, they have flown right up to my face, as though they are telling me something urgent.  Everything about the hummingbird seems urgent, with their quick movements and buzzing wings.

The desert has been so gentle and mild the past couple days.  In the evenings, Pono and I have been in the habit of sitting outside at sunset, watching the bats catching insects.  There is nothing quite like the quiet, devoted companionship of a dog.  With my husband away, Pono seems to stick close by my side, and when I lay on the floor, he lays next to me and rests his head on my belly.  It is a comforting feeling.  Mr. Pono, I am grateful for you, even if you did roll in some stinky dead thing today!  I hope you all have a great weekend, my dear blog friends.  That is what I intend to do.

Flora and Fauna

As my long-time faithful readers probably know by now, one of my favorite things to do is to take pictures of tracks and footprints. It has been a while since I have shared any with you, but that is not because I have stopped doing it! Since my collection has grown, I thought it was about time I posted some more here. I love walking in the desert sand here in the Coachella Valley. The textures and stories revealed to me are so intriguing. I found a really interesting group of tracks that looked to me like a scuffle between a snake and a mouse, but Pono laid down on it before I got a chance to snap a photo. (darn dog!) I am mesmerized by the side winder tracks, especially.

Yesterday, Pono and I had a wonderful walk. It has been a little cooler these past two mornings, and what a welcome respite! The huge cactus in front of the house produced some more of those white blooms I am in love with. I have enjoyed watching the blooms fade, followed by the eventual emergence of the red fruit. The birds love the cactus fruit, and there were two birds feasting on them yesterday, one being a hummingbird. There are tons of hummingbirds here! LOVE THEM!

Pono has befriended a man who sits at a guard shack nearby. The gates he opens and closes for people seal off a development with the most incredible homes. He told me the least expensive home within the gates cost $2.6 million! He let Pono and I do a bit of exploring inside the gates, since most of the homes are not occupied. (This being the off season here.) The first thing I noticed was that almost every single home in there had at least one large sculpture out front. Cool. I found this gorgeous cactus, which obviously impressed me more than the art. I took at least 3 photographs of it. The best part was that when I zoomed in for a closeup of those beautiful cactus fruit, a hummingbird willingly popped into my view, for this fun shot of her feeding! Yay! The color of this cactus fruit blows my mind.

On a different note, there is a pomegranate tree in the backyard of our rental house. I have been waiting impatiently for the pomegranates to ripen, because I really want to try one! Since we leave in two days, it doesn't seem very promising. The birds have even less patience than I do, because a number of the partially ripened fruit have been pecked upon, leaving gaping holes in the middle. And you thought I was impatient! Ha.

Spring rain and other adventures

It was a pretty good weekend, despite the fact that most of it involved packing more boxes. We managed to take a break, thanks to our friends, Sally and Greg. They invited us for dinner at their house on Saturday night. It was a much needed break. They live out of town on county road 251, in a beautiful house that they built themselves. Our good friend Padgett was also there. We spent some time before eating out on the patio, watching hummingbirds. I was trying to take a photograph of hummingbirds close up, but Sally was the person who got the shot. She also got a shot of me, trying to get a photo. So I got a picture of her, taking a photo of me, and you can see Greg, gallently holding the hummingbird feeder so we could get our closeups.

It has been typical spring weather in Colorado. It is warm in the morning, and then it clouds up for some thunderstorms in the afternoon. I like the weather - you just have to remember to be outside before the rain begins. Pono the dog, on the other hand, hates this weather, since he is terrified of thunder. He basically hides in the bathroom, shivering. I have tried to comfort him, but he is not to be consoled, apparently. I took a photo, looking out our front door this afternoon, so you could see the rain. It was coming down really hard, but I am not sure you can see that in my picture. Maybe you can. You can definitely see how cute our neighbors house is.

Here is a parting shot of Pono, chewing the feet off of his new hedgehog stuffed toy.