hummingbird fountain
In the heat of summer
110 record-breaking degrees here today, whew!
Our backyard critters were unusually quiet, save for the Monarch butterflies that drifted through the milkweed, laying eggs, and the honeybees that swarmed the birdbath.
Hummingbirds performed aerial feats against a backdrop of shimmering palm fronds. But they eventually called it quits, and retreated to the leafy shade of our Brazilian Skyflower.
A lizard skittered across the blistering concrete, looking for a dark, cool place to nap.
It was unseasonably warm, and the afternoon breezes did little to cool things down. But the blazing sun is fading now, ever so slowly. A warm glow has fallen over the neighboring hillside, and temperatures are dropping.
Ahhhh, time for a long, cool drink of water!!
Contentment
When the sun angles low in the late-spring sky, and a hummingbird is resting on a tangerine tree branch, after bathing in the backyard fountain…
We’re nearing the end of National Poetry Month; and while this isn’t a poem in the strictest sense, it’s the joyful stuff of psalms.
Celebrating Earth Day, 2018
It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” —David Attenborough