…Monday
Lonely Hummingbird Feeders
Or not, as it might happen.
It is the Spring of Waiting. The first spring. The one when I don’t really know what’s going to happen, when.
Like…when do the hummingbirds find us?
We have three feeders now, ready and waiting. One very pretty but impractical, and two silly plastic red things that are SO EASY to use, keep the ants away, don’t drip…
Heeeere, leetle hummingbirds! Come have a pleasant little sip!
Well. As of today, I know they’re here. I saw a black-chinned over in the dead tree…heard a broad-tail slicing the air overhead…
FIND MY FEEDERS, DAMMIT!
Oops. Did I say that out loud?
Um.
And then there’s the front yard. I use the term “yard” loosely. It’ll be xeriscaped, but right now…well, actually, dirt counts as xeriscaping, right?
Almost two weeks ago, my visiting maternal unit and I planted wildflower seeds straight from the seed heads. And since then I’ve watered and waited and…
Well. Here we go. Uh huh.
Maybe a little more time? Maybe I over-watered them? Maybe I under-watered them?
At least the native grass and other wild little green things are happy…
Fortunately, out and about on the land, there’s plenty to see. Not that I’ve identified it all, mind you. Just vaguely. A recent beautifully calm morning gave me the ubiquitous house finch, a Bullock’s oriole, the two hummingbirds, and two scrub jays giving a crow a very hard time, coincidentally right outside my office where the arroyo drops away and the tree tops are barely taller than I am. Skulking around the bottom of the big arroyo gave me a new PURPLE FLOWER POWER! to identify, along with others, and more of the existing and currently flourishing evening primrose–a gift of our wicked winter. W00t!
Have camera! Have binoculars! Have feet! Have arroyo and flats! Go, me!
Poppies! Poppies! Poppies! (Well. Not. But who could resist that line?)
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- My Wildflowers
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- Large Petalled Allium (AKA a kind of wild onion)
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- Biscuitroot gone to seed (probably Nevada Biscuitroot, but…these things are fussy). AKA one of many parsley relatives.
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- Fringed Gromwell–a borage, and another one of those names you wouldn’t wish on a pretty flower
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- Santa Fe Phlox–cool, huh?
I saw several hummingbirds at the cottage over the weekend. Well, saw them zip by out the corner of my eye. They were visiting the lilacs, which are in full bloom. So before I left, I filled the big feeder. Frank said, “They don’t need it with the lilacs in bloom.” But … what if the lilacs are over by the time I get back there? I have to look out for them, right?
I get yucky black mold in my feeders and have to scrub, scrub, scrub and still can’t get it out (and my bottle brush is almost useless. Can’t get the whole thing inside the feeder (tall glass) because there’s kind of a knob halfway down the handle. I don’t want to bleach them. Any ideas on cleaning them?
Have faith! Your wildflowers will come up eventually. I bought wildflower mix from the store, and I got different flowers every year for five years running. Now I have a mix that are scattered naturally throughout the leach field, indistinguishable from native prairie, and different ones bloom different years, depending on the weather.
I saw some Fringed Gromwell yesterday, and wondered what it was!
Thanks for the piccies.
Lorraine–well, what I did was go to Hummzinger and get me a couple of easy-to-clean adorable little feeders! (Dishwasher safe, too!)
I think bleaching them is okay, though. If new feeders aren’t an option, then there are tons of sites on the web about this sort of thing. I didn’t bother to remember the info because I was starting from scratch and needed the feeders anyway, so I got the easy ones. ;>
Adrianne–well, I am making a lot of mud. And I have store seeds coming, so I’ll hope *something* comes up (and that it’s not altogether too late to plant them, but until very recently we were still getting hard frosts…)
Had to look up xeriscaping – I read it as xenoscaping at first 🙂
Alex–hee!
It’s simple. If you live in the desert, don’t think “lawn.” If you live in the high desert, find plants that like the altitude as well as the scant rainfall…
And consider the virtue of rocks as landscaping features. ;>
Ha ha! You have the “who threw toilet paper all over my yard” flower picture I want to take. Those primroses are pretty cool. I think there is another later blooming species, too….but my mind doesn’t have a full grasp of these flowers anymore (but rock on Rock Jasmine!). Several new penstemons will be blooming soon! And the lower growing mallow is doing ok. And some other small aster. Now we need more rain….
I’ve seen some mallow, too–little orange thing. And my lupens are starting to bloom!
I don’t think I’ll ever forget Rock Jasmine past its prime…just need to figure it out when it’s actually blooming!
nice flowers. but bad words arn’t good!