Sentimental Hummingbirds



FEMALE RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRD



Today was the annual hanging of the hummingbird feeder.  I look forward to seeing the flying jewels.  The first few to arrive each year end up with pet names.  Last year, it was Willow, Fern, Dove and Smarty.  When I hang the feeder each year, it brings back memories of the first hummingbird feeder in my life, and memories of all that went with it.  This feeder was at my grandparents’ home in Illinois … a magical place as a child (still magical in my memories today).  Their house was a white gingerbread style house with a yard full of flowers and fruit trees.  My grandparents’ feeder hung at the back of their home overlooking an expansive back yard with a grape arbor, huge weeping willow trees, persimmon trees, and best of all:  my grandfather’s vegetable garden.  My brother, John, and I called our grandfather Gramps.  There was a white stable in the back yard, which was once home to my mother’s first horse.  The stable had become Gramps’ shop/tool shed (a very nice tool shed, indeed).  Each year, he would plant the most amazing vegetable garden!  John and I were sometimes Gramps’ garden helpers when we were in the proper “frame of mind.”  The garden always included sunflowers, which towered above the heads of “us kids.”  It had immaculate paths between the different sections.  Gramps’ yearly vegetable gardens rivaled any I’ve ever seen.  Peter Rabbit's Mr. McGregor had nothing on him!  Many, many years later, my mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s, and was the youngest patient in a nursing home.  Mom didn’t remember anything of the past thirty years or so.  Those memories had vanished.  However, during my last visit with her before she passed away, the subject of hummingbirds came up.  Mom's face lit up and she vividly described this hummingbird feeder, where it hung, and talked about the hummingbirds that were at her childhood home.  Her memories that day were a gift for us both.  My garden would never be complete without my sentimental hummingbirds ...

Take a look:   hummingbirds being hand fed