I like to use flash to catch them when they are flying, even in daylight. Minimum shutter speed of 250. I get all kinds of pics on my feeders because my locals are so used to the big stupid human staring at them. They even ignore my cats that lay on the inside of the window, with a feeder 8 inches away! I'm not sure if she was trying to tell me something or not . . . I really like trying to catch them on flowers. Each hummer develops a pattern on the way they go around the yard, so I can sometimes get ahead of them and wait.

There is something about these figures that keeps nagging at me....but I can't put my finger on it...exactly. One...they are very finely made not to be marked. Two, they are obviously a pair...but in all the "pairs" I see and cound find on the web, one of the figures faces left and the other faces right, in one the right foot is out in the other the reverse. Secondly the boy wears the dress of a Jester and carries a jester's "bells" which the jesster of harlequin in the Commedia did not. Thirdly she has a short skirt?? Why? Even peasant women or girls didn't wear short skirts before say 1910 or so....and certainly she's not dressed in that style! Fourth, she wears a mask?? Why? Traditionally the men in the Commedia wore the masks not the women. But if the figures don't represent characters from the Commedia, they what DO they represent? And what factory made such finely cast and decorated stuff and didn't mark it?? I am channeling your great great great geandmother hoping she has some answers!! Linda c

I have one of an angel holding a bowl that you can put water in for the birds... We've had such a windy spring. She has blown over more than once.. Now her wings are broke off. I plan to use Gorilla glue. It expands as it is drying if you use it right out of the bottle. My nephew told me to mix a little water with it before I put it on. He said it makes it bond faster and it doesn't expand like it would full strength. So that is what I'm going to try. Also mine has faded to such an ugly color that I'm going to try to paint it when the glue is dry. It used to be kind of a green color and now is purplish blue. I think it is supposed to look like it was copper that has aged. That's what I'm going to try for. patti

alisande asked in regard to my Phoebe McCoy: "Jemdandy, how did you learn so much about your g-g-grandmother? Interesting! She looks so at peace in that photo." After I inherited her photo, I did some serious research on her. My break-through came when I traveled to the city library of Winchester, TN in the county where her mother eventually arrived with the Franklin(s). I found a well reserched article by another genealogist that gave me the lead on the origin of her parents in NJ. The best information of all was how and when Jemima (mother of Phoebe) met her husband-to-be and his correct name, Hugh McCoy. The story continues below: It was during the Revolutionary War. Hugh McCoy, a Scotsman, was not a military man and had gone to a seaport town to attend to some business when the Brits grabbed him and said, "You are in the Army now". (He was conscripted for war with the American colonies.) Hugh McCoy was shipped across the ocean and placed in Lord Howe's army at New York. Hugh was wounded and his commander took him to the house of Franklin(s) in NJ to recuperate. While there, his term of enlistment expired and he refused to re-enlist. The daughter of John Franklin, Jemima, had caught his eye and captured his heart. He asked for her hand in marriage. [To date, this is the only source I have found for my Scotish lineage. These Franklin(s) had immigrated from Acton, England.] Using land warrants from the War, these Franklin(s) and their married daughter, Jemima (Franklin) and Hugh McCoy, removed to Burke Co., NC where they aquired land. After Hugh and Jemima (Franklin) McCoy had about 6 children, Hugh supposed that he may have had some property comming to him in Scotland. He embarked on a voyage back home. He and the ship disappeared. It was presumed he had been lost at sea. Several years later, these Franklin(s) (and Jemima and Phoebe) voyaged by wagon train through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and eventually arrived on the Elk River in Franklin Co,, TN about 1808. Jemima had married for the second time and outlied her 2nd husband. She married for the 3rd time and outlived that husband by a couple of years. Jemima and her second husband is buried on the family farm. I was privileged to view their headstones and dates on these stones were very readable. John Brown and Phoebe McCoy married in TN, but I have not been able to find any documentation. I do have the birthdates of their children who were born there by calculation from data in Illinois. Also, strangely enough, I know where and the date of Phoebe's demise but can not find anything about her burial.