Sorry it has taken me a while to get back and check in. I was out of town for work and just got home. Thanks so much everyone for the compliments. It makes me feel good, I must admit. I always seem to see what needs to be done, and sometimes forget to look at what it is! I will try to answer everyone's questions. Hope I don't miss any. In no particular order... The lilies in the "big" picture are almost all daylilies. The lilies in the close-up pictures I am not sure. Just some bulbs I picked up, probably at a big box store or the local garden center? Sorry I don't have their names. The rose pictured in the 4th picture is Morden Belle. There are actually 3 bushes planted in that bed. I hope that is the rose you meant? Yes, I do have the courtyard of roses and yes they are blooming. However, many of the roses on the fence were taken down this year due to RRD. I have planted bittersweet in their place. Won't be the beautiful flowers, but will provide privacy that won't get RRD. As you can see from the picture below, the fence is now pretty bare looking on the side. I have decided that I will try to keep the roses on the fence across the end and around the corner. The need for privacy there is not so great, as the Wine and Roses weigela in the island bed does screen most of the garden from that end. Again, thank you everyone! I am so glad you enjoyed the pictures. It does help to make the aches and pains feel better! :-) Marylu

I spent some time over at my MIL's home this afternoon and observed this hummer some more. After reading the site about Anna's and Red Throated, I am not sure it is either one of those. I looked for any signs of white on the wings or tail and found none. Her neck and chest is mostly white with a few specks of brown and one larger spot of brown in the middle of her chest. When she stretched up to groom her body, I noticed a very pale orange (rust) color on her body next to her wings. The top of her body is a shiny emerald green. Another hummer came near her and hovered around for several seconds, went away and came back a few more times. He or she had some pale orange/rust on his or her body...a little closer to the base of the tail rather than the actual body. I don't know if this visiting hummer was the same specie or not. This visitor had green on it's back, but did not have any color on it's throat other than white.

Amity, thanks for asking and yes that would be fine for you to email me. I don't always watch that addy and it's got quite the little spam sorter, so if I don't respond in a bit please post a reminder to me. Your little humming bird pic is adorable! They are fascinating little characters and I can see you really enjoy watching them too. Their hearts beat about 1,260 times a minute when they're awake, but my science teacher who used to go out and pluck them out of the bushes at night to examine them said they beat only about 40 times a minute when they're asleep. Shine a light on them and they're off like a streak. They've been clocked in flight at 25-50 mph and sometimes even faster for short spurts. There have been 338 species of hummingbirds discovered so far but I think there are only about 19 of them seen in North America. Birds see in the ultraviolet range. The pictures we see of that in books are not what birds see; we're only guessing as we are unable to see what they see. They also see in another dimension about which scientists know nothing. I got that info from a top scientist who studies them in the U.S. He said there is structure to their eyes under a microscope that indicates this. Birds' vision is MUCH better than ours. A pigeon can see 300 degrees without turning his head. We have about 10,000 cones (to see color) per per square millimeter in our retinas; birds have about 120,000 and theirs are more complex than ours. Birds also have much better hearing than we do. Birds are astoundingly smart. Scientists say they evolved from reptiles about 200 million years ago. In contrast, homosapiens (that's us) are said to have only been around for about 195,000 years. Primates have been around for about 85 million years. These exact number vary somewhat according to the source, but they're about what we know of it. Okay, this bird lover will shut up now since many of you may find this boring and it has nothing to do with decorating. ;-)

I wish I knew how to post a picture, but I can not seem to figure it out. Please help anyone!! Thank You, Kathi