Teddy Bears, Hummers & Me!

by Diana McCollum

I love our garden. I say 'our' garden, but really it's my husbands gardens. His dedication to turning over the soil in the spring, planting, watering, fertilizing and weeding which gives us the beautiful different garden areas to enjoy.

I enjoy the flowers and the critters they bring in, Butterflies, frogs, lady bugs, deer, birds and humming birds.

Sitting on the back patio in the early morning, with a cup of coffee, and watching the Humming birds come in to feed is one of the most relaxing moments of the day. I can sit and watch them work for a few minutes or half an hour. It is the meditative time of the day for me. Just me and the hummers!

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The Hummers have gotten so use to us sitting there next to the Black and Blue Stevia, they fly with in a foot or two of where I sit, and work the plants.

One day I was sitting in the garden, reading a book and a Hummer flew between my book and my face and hovered there. I saw his beak, very pointy, and his beady little eye up close and personal. The whirl of his wings sounded like a helicopter when he was that close to me. An amazing experience, I wouldn't have had but for our beautiful garden.

My favorite flower, I love them all, but my very favorite is the mighty Sunflower. My husband always plants a wide variety. This year my favorite is the Teddy Bear Sunflower.

August 2015 Teddy Bear

Sunflowers start out as a tiny seed. And from that comes a Gigantic stalk, sometimes as tall as 12 feet or more, with one or more buds. When those buds open the flowers are so big, and beautiful. We have ones from saucer size to dinner plate size.

We always have a mixture in our garden. There are the Teddy Bear, Regular giant Sunflowers, Brown, Red, single flower, multi-flower  and multi-colored.

The Sunflower brings in birds of all shapes and sizes, butterflies, and even the Hummers have been seen on the blossom.

The Sunflower heads are dried and saved for winter. My husband puts the heads back into the garden area to feed the birds during the winter.

Do you have a garden, and what is your favorite flower you grow?

Romantic Gestures

Wow, This month’s theme is romance…I write romance, but I have a fairly unromantic life. My husband is fun and I love him to death but romantic he’s not. So trying to come up with the most romantic thing that’s happened to me…is hard.

We never made it on our honeymoon to the Oregon coast because the car broke down and when we arrived home before he could work on the car, the phone rang. It was one of his customers calling with a job. We needed money for the car, so he went to work and we never honeymooned. But for many years he took me to the coast for our anniversary.

He gave me a hay baler for Christmas one year because the old one was a pain in the rear.

Another Christmas, he gave me gorgeous earring jackets but no diamond or pearl studs to put them on.

I guess I’d have to say the most romantic gesture he made was a couple of summers ago after I’d had a run-in with a rattlesnake.  The dogs and I had come across a rattlesnake while moving  a wheel line. I wanted to kill the snake but couldn’t get up my courage. I even walked back to the vehicle and grabbed a shovel to do the deed. But in the end, I talked myself out of getting close enough to kill the snake.

I told my husband about the snake. “Why didn’t you kill it?” he asked.

My come back: “What if I hadn’t killed him and just made him mad?” This garnered me the raised eyebrow look. At that moment I wondered how this marriage and this man had survived thirty years.

An hour later, my husband arrived at the cabin door with a small sunflower tucked in his shirt pocket. He pulled the bright yellow bloom out with a flourish and handed it to me with a smile that lit up his eyes. All was forgiven.

 

I guess it’s the little moments like that that I find romantic. How about you? What small gesture has your significant other done that pitter-patted your heart?

Paty

www.patyjager.net

www.patyjager.blogspot.com