Watch the birdies!

Please indulge me with some more hummingbird photos. They'll only be here a short time, and it's a magical experience watching them grow. They are getting so big that they now lie across the top of the tiny nest, next to each other, sometimes head to head. Other times head to tail. Sometimes they lie on their stomaches, and sometimes they lie on their backs! Their eyes have opened and their beaks are getting longer. Dave swears that they're getting bigger than their mother! That may be a slight exaggeration ;-).

Just in the past day or so they seem darker to me and less downy. More like their mom: she is a dark brownish gray with irridescent green on her belly. I looked at photos of several kinds of hummingbirds, but I couldn't find any that look like her. Can anyone tell me what kind of hummingbirds they are???

Another thing they've been doing is fluttering their wings. I look for signs of the camera-shy mother teaching them to fly. Am I imagining that she is standing further back from the nest to feed them, making them reach outside the nest?

This is my favorite photo. Aren't they cute?

One more observation is that the window in front of the nest is getting so dirty! Enough said? I snuck out once to clean part of the window, so I could still take photos. The babies seemed as if they were in a trance and didn't notice me. They do not fear me like their nervous mother.

The hummingbird babies are still thriving in my atrium. The first photo was taken on Tuesday morning: they look hungry! The mom is kept busy, thrusting food down their mouths.

The second photo was taken on Wednesday. You can see two beaks on the right and a tail sticking out on the left. The third photo was taken this morning. I've seen them wriggling halfway out of the nest, but by the time I grab my camera they're nestled back inside. So sweet.....

When I came downstairs this morning, the hummingbirds' nest had disappeared! I assumed a large bird had swooped down and carried it off. But my husband went out into the atrium and found the nest, just out of sight of the window. One baby was still in the nest and the other was nearby - both were still alive.

So I called Irvine Animal Services, and someone was at my door in 20 minutes. He simply put the bird back in the nest, and put the nest back into the Heavenly Bamboo. Matilda my cat watched the whole process with interest. She's an indoor cat and is innocent in this crime. But she may know more than she's saying! ;-)

Thirty seconds after he left, the mother appeared and tended to her babies. Amazing! I was worried she would reject them after he touched them, but she didn't. So she has been feeding them and they're okay.

I sure hope there are no more mishaps until they're ready to leave the nest! They're getting downy and cute. I worry about the crows in the area....

clothing bug and hummingbirds

I've been bit by the home-sewn clothing bug, at least a little. I was pretty excited about it all until I wore my homemade blouse today, and the sushi chef asked me if I was trying to save money by sewing my own clothing. (sigh) Some people just don't get it, I guess, that some people sew because it's FUN, not because we're cheap. I made the blouse from a super-simple pattern, but I cut it out from a quilt top I'd bought a while back (simple squares of fabric), so it looks more complicated than it really is. I attached a bead with tied silk ribbon at each square's corner - hard to see in the photos. Anyway, it was fun, and now I have something else to wear to meetings with artsy craftsy people.

The other exciting news is that we've discovered a hummingbird's nest in our atrium, right by the window! It's perched delicately on a branch of Heavenly Bamboo, and is smaller than my fist. And I have a small fist. I think the cats knew about it way before we did. So we've been watching the parent birds coming and going, but today we definitely saw babies for the first time! I believe there are two. One of them is in the bottom photo - notice that his beak is still short. It will gradually grow out.

The colors of the bird and nest look different from one photo from the next, I think because I used a flash in one but not the others.

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day and I'm remembering my mom with gratitude. She taught me to read and to sew, two things I still love to do. Here are some other things she taught me:

Art matters.

Smile.

Stand up straight.

It's okay to think for yourself.

Eat chocolate.

Mom never wanted us to make a fuss on Mother's Day, because Dad's birthday fell on or around the same date. So of course I think with fondness about Dad today, too. The most important thing he taught me was to try to find humor in things. Another one was to always have dessert. He had an eye for things that were unusual or whimsical (Dutch doors, ventilated sunglasses), and he was a terrific role model.

I try to take their teachings to heart (although I could be better at standing up straight ;-)) and I am grateful to my parents.

The Alzheimer's Project, and Auction

I understand there will be an important series about Alzheimer's coming up on HBO. It's called "The Alzheimer's Project," and it begins this Sunday. I'll be watching. They interviewed Maria Shriver on Good Morning America this morning. She has something to do with the series, and her father has Alzheimer's. She calls herself "a child of Alzheimer's," and so guess that makes me one, too.

In the meantime, there is an auction to raise money for a cure for Alzheimer's. There's still time to make a bid on 26 small quilts. The auction ends on Mother's Day at 10pm EST. It's all for a great cause.

Here's the link: http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html

Life's Little Detours

I just learned that my "Foot Square" auction piece is up on the SAQA website. It's called "Life's Little Detours." The auction isn't until September, so I'm one of the early birds.

http://www.saqa.com/newsebulletins/Squares09_2.aspx