Well, hello from my desk at the office. I sure glad someone is on vacation. With all that free time, I wish you were local - I need help. We had a microburst yesterday afternoon which rewrote the geography of the garden - what a mess. All those 8 foot uliginosas and rudbeckia Herbshonnes are hunkered down one top of the smaller plants. Oh, well, it was good while it lasted.
I was going to chide you for drinking coffee, not booze, on vacation, but then I noticed the time of the post. No bloody marys allowed in Alabama?

Mimidi is that on the gulph coast?

Ward was that near you? I was thinking about you when I heard the news about the small band of popup storms . All we had was thunder. At least you have eight foot ugliosa's. I hope there wasn't too much damage. (sort of like a mini hurricane) Sarah

Mimidi

Glad to know you are enjoying your vacation. BTW, my jewelweed is struggling this year too because it has been so hot and without adequate rain for so long. I can't seem to water everything enough.

Ward
We had sopme wind and about a 10 second shower. They predicted rain for this a.m. and sun this p.m. but so far all we have had is sun and lots of wind. I have been making little circular cages for a lot of my plants to keep them from falling over onto the smaller ones. I had a salvaged roll of wire fencing that I have been cutting up to put around the plants. I forgot a couple of glads and one purple coneflower and needless to say they fell over. The glads I just cut off and brought inside but the coneflower I will cage.The little cages will also help me next spring so I will know that I have plants planted in there and not pull them up.

Penny

Oh, Mimi, that sounds heavenly. Glad you are getting a vacation.

Hello mimidi.....I am a newbie here. Glad to hear your vacation is going well. I seen you are from Dothan. My mom spends the winters down there in Eufaula. I have been down there a couple times to visit, and it is beautiful there. Can I ask how late in the year you get hummingbirds down there? My dad passed away just over a year ago and he loved to watch the birds. My mom continues to put his feeders out down there for him :) He never mentioned the hummingbirds tho. I thought if you have them late enough, I may get mom a feeder to take with her down there. Thanks!
Susie

Sounds like you are in paradise Mimidi! Morning coffee with a friend and hummingbirds nearby. Have a great vacation and hope you see many hummers.

Sara, I'm in Medford, Burlington Co. and the really bad microburst was in Gloucester Co. The damage at my house was strictly cosmetic. A bad day all around. My neighbor comes over and starts lecturing me about weeds and poison ivy growing in a row of bayberry that's entirely in my yard. She's my favorite neighbor, but she's german. There was no explaining that we live in the country, and that there are areas which are given over to nature; that it is a kind of religious thing with me. I was rude, just turning and walking away, mid lecture. The second problem of the day was the worst of the two; I value my friendship with my neighbor, and didn't like getting my back up. I should of been drinking wine in Alabama and watching hummingbirds.

That's dreadful, I get lectures from my neighbor too. She's very sweet but twenty years younger than me and a little bossy she's American from Reading, Pennsylvania let's just say that side is the chemlawn side the other side isn't. Sarah

Reading these posts, I think you all need to come to S Cal, and Chill Out! for a while,we seem to have a handle on it.

mimidi - good to see you are enjoying yourself immensely! You and the hummers! :-D

ward - I think I drove through that micro-burst (or most likely whatever it was before it became one) on my way home from work as they usually come barrelling through downtown and intensify over in Jersey. One such storm dropped the temp at the airport about 15 degrees as it moved through!

And this afternoon, I drove through a very narrowly concentrated downpour that resulted in almost 0 visibility on the streets - but with the sun still blazing like I was in the tropics. None of that rain had touched where I live though, despite having occured barely a mile south of me.

hi, mimidi!
I hope you have a fun trip and return home safely to a lot of waiting hummingbirds.

Mimidi,
I hope your hummers and butterflies are behaving while your gone. Enjoy!

Had a great few days away with no one to take care of but myself.

Ward, we did manage a few margaritas in the afternoons. Had planned to have dinner at Lulu's(Jimmy Buffett's sister's resturant) last night but got caught up enjoying a sunset on the Gulf of Mexico from a friend's condo. Wish all of you could have joined us.

This area has come a long way from the destruction of Ivan last year but there is still much to do.

Fishyjags, Eufaula is just a hop, skip and a jump up the road from me. Love to visit the lake and tour those beautiful old homes up there.

I guess my hummers were busy while I was gone. My feeders were empty. Butterflies are sitll flitting around everywhere. I wasn't even missed.

Mimidi, I'm so glad you had a great vacation; hummers, coffee and beautiful sunsets sound super to me. I'm sure though, that your hummers enjoyed the fresh nectar you filled the feeders with on your return home!!
Verna