Clear and Cold

No enveloping mist shrouds the mountains this morning.  It is clear--and cold.
I  arose from bed and changed clothes; a pink fuzzy sweatshirt and warm soft
grey pants are keeping me warm.  The temperature on the back deck, which is
covered, is 40.  One hummer is making frequent trips to the feeder so as to
keep her body temperature up.  There are no bugs out and about this morning.

I am continuing to fight this cold or whatever it is.  The antibiotics seem to be
working.  I have a voice instead of a labored whisper today. Yesterday, too
weak to do anything constructive, I perused my gardening books.  I was a
bit overwhelmed.  There is enough plants here, but not the kind of want.  I
want the entire property to be ablaze with flowers all summer and into the fall.
Trying to pick the right flowers and shrubs to achieve that is more difficult than
one might think.  I am starting with the area that is nearly in complete shade,
the area closest to the highway.  I plan to plant lilies of the valley and yellow
primroses there.  That will provide flowers, and an attractive ground cover.
I'll add circles of trilliums  and other flowering plants and some young white
dogwood to the understory.  That will not be much, but it will be a spring
start.  As for bulbs, I will probably wait until next fall to plant the fall bulbs.
Or plant them on one o the porches, so it is easy for me to control the weather
conditions for them, and mulch and cover them easily.  Any farther, except for
small trees that need to come down, that is it for fall endeavors.  One step at
a time.

I'm almost scared to check my lettuce though it can withstand cold temperatures
and is more hardy than most edible crops, I still should have covered it.  I was
just too sick to care.

Here are some more interesting hummingbird facts, again from The Hummingbird
Book by Donald and Lillian Stokes.

"A hummingbird's flight (or pectoral) muscles account for one quarter of its total
weight."  If you've been lucky enough to have one land on your finger to eat at a
feeder, then you know that it feels like the weight of a single feather. They feel
nearly weightless.

Hummingbirds bathe and groom daily.  They will fly through "sprinklers or spray
from a waterfall."  They will intentionally take advantage of a soft rain to bathe
and groom; they have no problem flying when wet that I have noted.  They will
also pick certain leaves and use those for a bathtub.  It takes only a quarter inch
of water for a hummer to bathe in.

Ruby throated hummingbirds fly 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico
on their migration.  Before they get to the Gulf, they will stop, sometimes for
a week or so, and re-fuel, depending on how far away they have came. This is
how I came to have "skinny" hummers--they are resting and re-fueling for a bigger
journey.

"Hummingbirds are fiercely aggressive and will attack much larger birds, suchas
jays, or even hawks."  A bird after my heart.  Fierce and unafraid.  Doesn't
say much about how wise this course of action is, but I admire their fierceness.

"Hummingbirds have no sense of smell, that we know of," and rely on sight to
find nectar.  Yes, red is their favored color, but they will just as easily eat at
white flowers as I have witnessed with the butterfly bush this summer.

"Humminbirds do suck nectar.  They have a long bill, and when drinking nectar,
the open their bills and extend their tongues and lick up the nectar at a rate of
13 licks per second."  Per second!  That is amazing to me.

I just read the part about ruby-throated hummingbirds migration patterns.  It would
seem the books do not agree.  This book has the northward migration as Late Feb.
to Mid-May and the southward  migration as Late July to Late October.  So I guess
the females are not so late after all.  Thus far, I have seen none but the Ruby-Throated
species, it is documented that in November of last year, Rufous hummingbirds were
seen at feeders in Hendersonville.

The first time I ever saw hummingbirds was at my Uncle Gordons.  There were so many.
I wanted to go and live there--on his mountain.  But I was there rarely.  At my cousin's
house, I was flogged by a turkey.  Fortunately, it was traumatic enough to be erased
from my memory and did not interfere with my love of birds at all.

The second time that hummingbirds were part of my life was in the high country of
Colorado.  The tiny apartment I lived in had a very long sprawling porch with hooks
for hummers about 4 feet apart.  The birds would light easily on your fingers as long
as you stood still.

All for today.