I LOVE the festival! This will be the fourth year I'm attending. For anyone who can travel down to Rockport and find somewhere to stay, you can pick up a map of the "hummer homes" and the banding locations, and can drive around to these and sit and watch the hummingbirds in the different yards all day long for FREE. The banders are so knowledgeable, and talk to the crowd about different hummingbird facts and answer questions while they work. When they're done with each bird, anyone who wants to can come to the table and hold their hand out, palm up, and the bander puts the hummingbird in your hand, where it usually sits for several seconds before flying away - such a neat experience! The migration is truly a wonder of nature - if you can possibly manage to experience it you really should. One of our favorite spots is the white house on Fulton Beach Road - think it's Herring Home. They have a row of hanging feeders down the side of the house, and at peak feeding times each feeder can have 20, maybe more hummers buzzing around it. You won't understand how completely amazing it is until you see it! I'll see if I can post some photos from last year...

So, without naming names, is your sister's candidate the one who was the current governor's campaign manager or the one who is the former governor's brother? I'm interested in hearing from both of them. But on another note, if you're interested in community activism related to gardening, I've been thinking a lot about something I read in the Des News last September. This is what I wrote in my blog about it: The Deseret Morning News published an editorial on Sept. 15 calling on Salt Lakers to participate in planting one million trees by 2017. The county and a number of cities have endorsed the effort. I hope there is some plan in place. They need something like the Sacramento Tree Foundation, which did great work when I lived out there. It had partnerships with the local electric utility to provide free trees to homeowners as a way of conserving energy. They would make the homeowners attend a class on tree planting and care, or they would send an arborist to a neighborhood to do a demonstration for a bunch of people. They would even mark the spots on your lawn where a tree would do the most good in terms of energy savings by shading windows. Maybe I should start such a foundation.

No Barbra! It's supposed to be a hidden garden, unlike mine. BUT after I get the vines growing on my front fence and the side fences are privacy fences since my neighbors don't like my dogs, I will have a hidden garden. I don't like them (the neighbors) either, but then that is another story. And I've planted 3 vetivers right behind my front fence, and I have another one to plant, so within a year or two I will have a hidden garden. In the meantime, I'm just one of the Hummer Homes. And Barbra, you might want to consider some vetiver to put on your fence side so you don't have to see your neighbor. But I do thank him for my baby Mocha. Call next time you are in town. I'll be traveling some, and then in February I'm flying to Hawaii to spend a week with Stacy. Shawn gets back from Iraq around March 5 to 10, so I'll go out and visit with her and the baby. Shawn will be gone for 15 months by the first of March. See you soon, and hope to meet Pam. ALSO, our MG Plant Sale is March 14 so mark your calendar. Later. Great Gardening, Linda

Just a reminder that the Herb Fest will be this Saturday. SEVENTH ROCKPORT HERB FESTIVAL Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Paws & Taws Fulton Convention Center, 402 N. Fulton Beach Road, Rockport-Fulton, TX Presented by the Rockport Herb & Rose Study Group SPEAKERS On-going Anita Reeves, A-ReMark-able Experience, Distillation Demonstration. 9:00 a.m. Judy Barrett, author of What Can I Do With My Herbs? and What Makes Heirloom Plants So Great? 10:30 a.m. Susan Wittig Albert, author of China Bayles series and Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter series Noon Chef Kevin Argetsinger, graduate of Del Mar Culinary Art School, presenting a cooking demonstration. 1:30 p.m Jeff Transeau, Charta Olives on growing olives in Texas. VENDORS A-ReMark-able Experience Annette's Plumerias Aransas/San Patricio Master Gardeners Charta Olives Mary Ware Glassware Garden Charms Earthworks Nursery Lolling Taylor Herbal Products Lucia's Garden Nile Valley Herbs The Herb Cottage Todd's Home Grown Veggies