Search Results for: hummingbird nest

New column, freshly hatched!



The latest issue of SisterDivas Magazine is now live, my newest All That Glitters column included.

"Nesting" is a sappy sentimental piece about small pleasures and big changes, with several links to hummingbird photos, no extra charge. Click here if  you want to read it.

Also! 

A musing: How is it that strangers new friends stumble across my little corner of the Internet? According to my stat counter, yesterday’s entry attracted someone from the U.S. House of Representatives. Well, hello there! Would you like to sit awhile and chat?

Laughing all the way

 Ho! Ho! Ho! I’ve been tagged to play the latest meme. Thanks, de_scribes and marypearson!

The Challenge: Quick! Name the last five things that made you smile.

1. Christmas-colored camellia blossoms, nestled among rainwater-glazed foliage

2. Shimmery green hummingbirds that sip at my feeder

3. Pages and pages of intelligent, poignant, hilarious, thought-provoking, action-oriented and faith-inspiring blogs; plus the to-be-read pile that’s toppling off my desk

4. Holiday lights. They illuminate our heirlooms and reflect hope for our tomorrows

5. This holiday song on YouTube (12 Days of Christmas, as performed by Straight No Chaser). In the beginning, a choir of beautiful voices rises and falls in a capella accord.  But their harmony and synchronicity dissolve into individual mischief and collective mayhem. ‘Tis the season—’tis my life and loved ones—wrapped in metaphoric ribbons. I love every part of it. And I love each of you.

Game Tags: I hope everyone joins our reindeer game. C’mon, show us your smiles!

(Untitled)

funny pictures

moar funny pictures 

Oh noez, Zoe! Resist the kitchen poltergeist, sweet kitteh! 

1) It’s been a long while since I’ve posted a progress report on our kitchen, but that’s because, well, momentum seems to occur in smaller increments than mistakes. But the margin for error narrows with each task completed, so I’m starting to believe we’re close to the finish line.  Maybe around April Fool’s Day. After eight months of screw-ups and countless screw-offs, that date seems just about perfect. On the bright side, my fiished kitchen’s going to be beautiful! We’ll invite you to its christening, for sure!

2) Thank you for the lovely sentiments you wrote about our baby hummingbird, Tama. Incredible, isn’t it, how that tiny creature nested in so many people’s hearts? 

3) The Easter bunny delivered a special treat for us writers, via the Los Angeles Times. Behold, a novel-writing contest, in chapter-by-chapter installments! Winners will be featured at the Festival of Books in April. I’m not entering the contest, but I’d love to see you there!

4) This week, I plan to finish my revisions and send them to the agents who’ve requested them. I’m also going to start a fresh round of queries. I’m excited about the possibilities! I can’t thank you enough for bolstering my spirits last week, and I appreciate so much the good vibes you’ve sent out for WITNESS.

Have a great week, everyone!

Flight Plans

I’m flying out tomorrow morning on a research expedition, so these are the last baby hummingbird pictures I’ll post until I get back from my trip.

 

I know it sounds trite to say, “My, haven’t they grown!” But the truth is, they seem to have filled out (and filled the nest) overnight. And look at those iridescent green feathers! 

Shh, don’t tell them I said this, but I’m thinking they’re a little behind the growth curve for baby hummers their age. Still, for the first time since they hatched sixteen days ago, you can almost picture what they’ll look like when they’re full-grown.

 
My husband promised he’ll take pictures while I’m away. I hope he gets some good shots; if so, I’ll share them when I get back.* Since they’ll most likely be full-fledged fledglings by the 22nd day, I imagine they’ll be taking flight lessons in a few days. As the expert from the Hummingbird Rescue Society suggested,** I’ve put a soft blanket at the base of the tree to cushion potential falls. It’s the least I can do, because, as [info]britlitfantwin says, “they’re a flight risk right now.”


See you on Thursday. If something exciting and/or important happens in the meantime, please leave me a note…You know I’m always hungry for good news!

 

*If you’re on my f-list and you want a digital copy of a hummingbird photo, just drop me an email with a description and the date I originally posted it. 

**By the way, the expert thinks they’re part of the Costa’s Hummingbird species. 

Site Meter 

Friday Five: truthiness edition

Five factiods for a Friday, plus a few embellishments, no extra charge.

1) A couple of memoirists got inducted into the liar’s club this week. Two Too many wrongs don’t make a right, of course, but it does seem that misery loves company.

2) While the recent memoir debacles aren’t the least bit funny, the Memoir-a-Tron makes me laugh. 

3) When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments, was he really coming down from a drug-induced high? Perhaps, says cognitive psychologist Benny Shannon. I can’t attest to the soundness of his theory, but it might help explain why Moses wandered so long in the wilderness.


4) Twinkie Deconstructed tells more truths about processed foods than some of us might want to swallow. The Twinkie, for instance, gets its buttery taste from butyric acid, which author Ettlinger describes as “a natural component of Parmesan cheese, rancid butter, and, unbelievably, vomit and perspiration.” [Full disclosure: I’ve always hated Twinkies, but this isn’t a hit piece, I promise.]

5) Last, but certainly not least, I’d like to share one of my favorite quotations (dedicated to my good buddy, Linda Partlow), plus two new photos.
Finally…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Philippians 4:8

 

The fifteen-day-old bird babies were slumbering when I approached their nest. But as soon as I snapped the first picture, their eyes popped open, and they stretched their necks toward the sky as if to say, “Mama, is that you?” and “Hey, where’s my food?”

Site Meter  

Clipped wings

No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
MaryJo Koch


Our hummingbird hatchlings, 13 days old

Oy. Two more memoirs have been exposed as elaborate fictions, both of them this week. Unbelievable.

I can’t begin to understand why these writers positioned their invented stories as fact. Why not present it as a child’s fantasy? Why not write it as a novel? And, for that matter, why introduce a memoir as “intensified reality,” when it’s more appropriately placed in a different genre altogether? Whatever their individual justifications, I’m sad about their decisions. I worry that they might negatively impact those of us who enjoy memoir, readers and writers alike. 

It’s true that each of us views the world through a unique lens, that our perspectives are therefore limited. But when memoirists purposefully blur the line between reality and imagination, they risk compromising the truth about who they are. I don’t want to come across all holier-than-thou, but I do think it’s essential to keep this in mind. Sure, I want to sell my memoir, CAN I GET A WITNESS? I’d like to think that my personal story will someday have big-tent appeal. But my integrity? It’s not for sale — not ever, and not at any price. 

Memoirist Rachel Manija Brown says, “Fiction which is not emotionally honest is artistically bankrupt. Memoir which is not factually honest is morally bankrupt. It is a writer’s moral and artistic obligation to tell the truth in the manner that is appropriate to the story they wish to tell.”  What else can I add but amen?



Site Meter

Mother Nature’s much wiser than I

Whew, these babies sure are a handful! Growing chicks need to eat every 15 to 20 minutes, so Mama Hummingbird’s chasing down food most of the day.

How do I know this? Well, hovercraft concerned "auntie" that I am, I called Wild Birds Unlimited when I didn’t see her for a couple of days. They put me in touch with someone from the hummingbird branch of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, who indulged my worry-wart tendencies urged me to sit still at the window and watch for her. Sure enough, Mama Hummingbird buzzed by within twenty minutes. Using a fighter-jet refueling maneuver, Mama Hummingbird buzzed alongside the nest, dropping food down her babies’ beaks. 

Incidentally, the rescue worker assured me that I wouldn’t scare away the hummingbirds by taking their picture now and again. “They’re hardy little things,” she said. She did suggest putting a blanket or something soft at the base of the tree, since it’s surrounded by gravel-covered soil. “They’re daredevils, so don’t be surprised if they take several spills while they’re learning how to fly. If you find them lying on the ground, just scoop ‘em up and put ’em back in the nest.” Whew, one less thing for me to worry about!
Site Meter  

A matter of perspective?

1. Again?! Yet another memoirist was caught throwing truth to the wolves. Unbelievable.

"Be sure your sins will find you out," my father used to preach. Touch of irony, that. 

But there’s a great deal of truth to what he said. It’s peeking out from the pages of this fabricated story.

Hmm…I feel a sermon blog entry coming on. 

2. Hello, hummingbirds, Day 11! This picture’s way bigger than they are. Truth is, this nest (birds and all) is only about an inch-and-a-half long. But in another ten days or so, the hatchlings will be full-fledged hummingbirds!

 

Friday Five, Leap Year edition

I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.
Sir James M. Barrie

1. Say good morning to our nine-day-old hummingbirds! Mama’s away, so they’re huddled beak-to-butt in the bottom of the nest, pretending they’re invisible. By tomorrow, their eyes will be open! (Objects in this picture are much smaller than they appear.)  

2. Mama Bird’s an amazing chick. Papa Bird, not so much. He puffs out his chest, all important-like, but he hardly measures up.  

3. My husband’s feathering the nest today, but I’m flying the coop — first class! He’s treating me to the Hand and Foot Fantasy at Burke Williams Spa. I know, how spoiled am I? Seriously, though, it’s a welcome reprieve from our epic Ineptitude of the Greatest Magnitude kitchen remodel.   

4. Two mockingbirds are doing a mating dance in the trees outside my office window. What beautiful songs might they be singing, I wonder, if they weren’t copying other birds. Hmm…I hear a writing metaphor, do you? 

5. One of my most embarrassing moments EVER happened at a Sadie Hawkins Day dance. Those who said, “Someday you’ll look back on this and laugh”? They were lying.

6. Earlier this week, my writing project jalopy was battered and mud-spattered; it careened and bounced all over the road. On Tuesday, it tipped it over into ditch. And lo, I was discouraged. But I dusted myself off, and I put a spit-shine on the salvageable parts. Oh Happy Day: My critique group liked the new material!