Two Hummingbirds: One Real and One Made From Lego

…..one at the cottage and the other at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton

Last week when I went to the RBG with my daughter, Gaelan and my granddaughter, Winnie we were lucky enough to see some of the sculptures made with Lego. One of the creations was a very large hummingbird taking nectar from a very large lego flower.P1030971P1030970

This next hummingbird came by my feeder last weekend.

fullsizeoutput_6bfc

Mystery of the Fallen Bird Feeder

….the hummingbird feeders are often empty after I’ve been away for a few days but I’ve never seen them on the ground

When we arrived at the cottage last weekend I found one of the hummingbird feeders lying on the forest floor and of course it was empty. In fact all the feeders were empty but the rest of them were still hanging where I left them.

I quickly filled all the feeders and rehung the fallen feeder. It wasn’t long before I discovered what caused the feeder to fall. I think the following photos are pretty self explanatory. Enjoy!

IMG_1906IMG_1909 IMG_1910 IMG_1936 IMG_1937

Back from the Cottage

….3 glorious days with my girls and my husband

Friday of last week I spent four hours waiting to see my doctor. After the last trip to the cottage I came home with a slightly scratchy throat. Over the next three days it got much worse and very sore. I had to keep a bottle of water with me at all times to keep from choking,…..it was that bad.

When I finally saw my doctor he was very apologetic for the long wait and checked out my throat. Apparently it didn’t look that bad but he said that my glands were definitely swollen so he prescribed me with an antibiotic and a special throat rinse that actually numbs the tissue.

When I got home I packed the car for the cottage and picked up my oldest daughter and  her partner and headed north. I was worried about leaving so late on a Friday but the traffic wasn’t too bad and we made pretty good time getting to the ferry dock. My husband, our younger daughter and the two dogs had left much earlier in the day and were already well into cottage mode when we arrived.

We had perfect weather all weekend. I avoided the water, except for one day, because of my throat but we all got much needed rest and by Sunday I started to feel a lot better. On Saturday evening, after dark, the four girls headed toward the beach with our blankets and cameras to watch the Perseid meteor showers. The best night is actually tonight but we managed to see some spectacular shooting stars in the first few minutes at the beach. As far a photos go we weren’t very successful capturing the night sky.

We all shared in the preparation of meals and on Sunday night we invited our cottage neighbours over for a pizza fest. A and J really wanted to bake pizza in the BBQ so they bought most of the toppings and I bought the pizza dough from our local Italian bakery.

Doing pizza in the BBQ is a bit tricky but after experimenting with the heat settings and raising the pans off the grill we managed to make 5 delicious pies. One was even made with gluten free dough for two of our neighbours who are gluten intolerant. We also made two huge salads to round out the meal.  Of course what would pizza be without a glass or two of good red wine?

All of us were able to spread the weekend over to Monday. My husand, my daughter G and the dogs left on one of the earlier boats and A, J and I stayed a little bit longer. After cleaning up the cottage and packing the car, A and J went for one last walk along the beach. We relaxed for a bit on the deck and tried to get some photos of the hummingbirds.

P1020891P1020883 P1020894Like I said we ‘tried’ to get photos of the hummingbirds. This camera is much better than the one I used last year so I think I’ll try it again when I go back up later this week.

The trip back on the ferry treated us to some beautiful cloud formations over the lake. I’m inspired to try painting these beauties.

P1020895 P1020897

A Charm of Hummingbirds

One of life’s little pleasures is watching hummingbirds visiting the feeders strategically hung around the cottage. Actually hummingbirds are very aggressive and they routinely dive bomb and swoop down on each other and they seem to have no fear of humans. Many a time I’ve had to duck to avoid being charged by a hummingbird. I’ve had visions of a hummingbird being lodged in my forehead.

Today I was experimenting with my simple digital camera and got some amazing shots of my speedy little friends.