vancouver garden

Some Flowers For You

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 18 Comments

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting a lot here lately.

This is partly because, like everyone else, I’m struggling with the enormity of what’s going on in the world.

Also, I’m finally, finally making a little progress with my book about crows, and I need to keep my head involved in that as much as I possibly can.

These two things are still standing in my way— but I thought I could at least send you a few flowers.

I traditionally post images of some of the early blooming hellebores in my garden on social media around this time of year  — offering a little hope of spring around the corner. They are always displayed in a little green vintage bowl I picked up at a thrift shop many years ago.

Today, however, I suddenly felt that this bowl was no longer big enough for all the good wishes I needed to send, so I took myself off to my local thrift store especially to find a bigger vessel.

I found a big, beautiful, shallow glass bowl that was just perfect.

So here, just for you  …

As I was photographing the bowl from different angles, the flowers kind of reminded me of a party … remember those?

Everyone all dressed up …

All the different types of people you might meet in a big gathering of strangers …

How you might hesitate and try to decide who looks most approachable in the crowd …

Colour, joy, friends, love, festivity … wishing us all more of these.

And, above all, peace.

 

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

© junehunterimages, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

Hummingbird Tonic

/ The Urban Nature Enthusiast / 6 Comments

Well, I think what today needs is . . . hummingbirds!

Luckily (unlike toilet paper) they are in decent supply around here. After a bit of a scarcity over the past few weeks, I had two Anna’s Hummingbirds come by this week.

These days, a special bird visitor is the equivalent of a wild party.

It’s certainly a blessed “stop anxiously listening to the radio and obsessively bleaching surfaces” moment.

So, in case your hummingbirds haven’t arrived yet, here are my recent visitors for some vicarious hummingbird therapy.

First we had a male Anna’s stop by a few days ago to check out the intoxicatingly scented Daphne Odora.

I imagine the nectar of the daphne must be exquisite to the discerning hummingbird palate

Post lunch pause. He had to clean some pollen off his beak and stuck around to enjoy the view.

Bit of a nap/meditate …

A good wing stretch … and then off he flew.

Yesterday I put fresh hummingbird nectar out and it seemed as if this female had been just waiting for it to be served.

Photo by June Hunter

Next, she went to check out the fountain. I noticed last year that they seem to like the running water in the fountain better than the static bird bath.

(See Novice Hummingbird)

She would take some sips of water from the bird bath and then go for a quick fly-through shower under the stream of water.

Then time to dry off in the lilac tree …

… followed by a snack and a perch on the purple rhododendron.

Then she was off again, pursuing her hummingbird adventures. I’m hoping they have a nest nearby and that we’ll be seeing both of them again soon, perhaps with babies.

Stay tuned for some #raventherapy coming up later this weekend!

 

 

 

__________________________________________________________________________________________

© junehunterimages, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to junehunterimages with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.