TALK ABOUT A HUM-DINGER, OR TWO!

This week saw Fiona Pappillon up to some nonsense having captured this 8” lizard, species unknown, but a homerun on the color spectrum. It wasn’t injured albeit feigning death when Joshua discovered the near-crime scene. Luckily, Fi gave in quickly and the not-so-little guy survived.  Check out his turquoise cravat and vest – pretty snazzy and uptown, right?

Regrettably, we don’t see nearly as many hummingbirds as in years past so when Joshua stumbled onto a little lady building her nest in the pear tree near the outdoor shower, we reacted like grandparents-to-be. We showed you the nest 2 weeks ago and now lo-and-behold, our little gal gave us 2 eggs and the hatching of 2 of the tiniest creatures you can imagine.

The interior diameter of her nest is barely 1 & 1/4” and now holds 2 babes that look like miniature dinosaurs. Their little heads are just a tad larger than a matchstick head but smaller than a Q-Tip, and they sport a modicum of feather spuds. We won’t be sneaking peeks for a while until they get stronger so as not to upset mom and dad but rest assured we will be vigilant from a distance. By the way, were y’all aware that from DAYBREAK THROUGH SUNDOWN, mom and dad share feeding duties of their brood every 15 minutes! It won’t be long before these babes will quadruple in size and be ready to fledge.

On an equally exquisite yet humbling note, our zinnias are beginning to make what we intend will be an eye-popping show this year and we aren’t the only ones taking notice.  Again, not unlike our ignorance of the lizard variety, we don’t know who this resplendent butterfly creature is, but there is no question about how they are in a mutual admiration pact with the zinnias.