I stood still for half an hour today with my camera, just waiting to try to capture some photos of the newly arrived hummingbirds, but they were just not cooperating!  Finally, as I turned to give up, one came to feed.  My digital camera is just not high enough quality to give you really great shots (when Jacqui returns from college at the end of the month I'll give her that assignment).  But I did capture a few shots of him feeding.  Later in the summer we'll feed 50+ a day!  We fill three of these containers, twice a day.  And if I don't keep them filled, my birds come after me… seriously!  They'll come tap on the window to let me know that the feeders are dry.

I want to design a hummingbird feeder one day that has the text "Can't we just all get along?!" wrapped around it!  They are the craziest little bullies.  If they spent half the energy they spend on fighting for position on just simply feeding and getting along they'd all be fat, dumb and happy.

As for the rest of the garden shots, I'm finally starting to see blooms everywhere.  My roses are putting out buds and I might even have some as early as later this week.

My miniature climbing rose on the porch swing arbor will be spectacular in about a month.

The yellow flowers in the window box are a new variety of snapdragon that I planted this year, I think they were called "Fairy Snapdragons" but I'm not sure.  They are absolutely marvelous.  They are covered in blooms and have grown very quickly.  They are a miniature variety, perhaps 10-12" tall at their peak.  Perfect for pots and window boxes.

I don't know what the purple ground cover is called, but I planted it last summer and these blossoms are 6-8" tall and the deepest, blue purple color.  They just vibrate with color in the shade of my California Redwood trees.

There is something so marvelously cheerful about pansies.  I love their little "faces" smiling at me in my windows.  These are the ones I planted before the last big snowstorm… they're no worse for the wear.

I hope that some of you northerners are getting to go outside in your gardens and soak up some sun.  If not, I trust you will be soon.

I'd love nothing more than to be out playing in my garden today, but I'm going to be a good girl and keep resting up so I don't relapse and end up back in bed.

Have a marvelous day!

Audrey Jeanne Roberts