I had read that hummingbirds generally departed our area around October 10, and I remember it being early to mid-October when our resident hummers have left in the past. This year, they skipped town early, at the tail end of September. They left our yard the day before we had all the rain. I think their instincts somehow told them that all that rain would bring on extra stress, and they needed … [Read more...]

For several years, Nancy planted impatiens as a border along our sidewalks and edges. The colorful flowers were genuine beauties, but required lots of watering, TLC and not too much sun. As our tree guy trimmed back the limbs on our senior citizen maple trees, the impatiens complained mightily about all that extra sunshine. Nancy decided to nix them and went with Vincas instead, and they are doing … [Read more...]

Sitting on the back patio last week, I saw four dragonflies buzzing across the lawn. Since then, I have noticed dragon flies seemingly everywhere. Maybe they’ve been there all along and I didn’t notice them, or maybe it’s just been a really good year for dragonflies. Whatever the reason, they are interesting creatures. I watched one dragonfly intently. He hovered like a tiny black drone, then … [Read more...]