hmm.. Great question Nell! For mine there are the three waterfalls, the fish, tons of birds -eating tons of food-crocosmia, blue fescue grass, blue flax, bees and butterflies. Hummingbirds are a thing unto their own and they move lots of stuff as they buzz around. Red ribbon grass, oat grass and pony tail grass. Sumac trees and water lilies that open and close with the sun. The white curtains on my outdoor studio billowing in the breeze. And me, I am in motion in the garden. LOL

Hmmmm...I like cats...but my dogs don't :o) Which is okay with me...since I prefer to cater to the local hummies anyway. A neighbor has a bunch of cats and on occasion I find one or two camped out on my front lawn. I don't put out any hummie feeders there but I do have lots of bird houses hanging from the trees in that area which are filled with nesting sparrows (birds I can do without...but oh well, I consider them nature's cat food). I've seen lots of hummies fly way down to about six inches off the ground - mainly when they are doing that fan dance or that battle of the beaks...but thanks to the trees and front flower beds they prefer to do that in my back yard - lots of open lush lawn there...and no cats because of the back yard doggy door!!! ~ Cat

Hi Vardenman, This is one purchase with NO "buyer's regret." I'm 100% satisfied. Certainly,it could be better,just as all digital cameras are getting better;but,for the price,features and ease of use,it is great! I think this camera qualifies as: "So easy,even a Caveman can do it." :) Here is a link that might be useful: Novabird picture slideshow using RockYou

Hi Cindi, " If I should choose to use the florets as a paintbrush, do you pick them at the base of the floret? " Yes. My intent is to get most of the floret, including the internal anther bundle. I use tweezers or small forceps. However, since you are using the artist's brush method, you won't be picking florets, you will just be brushing the center of them with the tip of the brush to pick up some pollen grains. You could think of that as "painting" stigmas with pollen. " For the flower with the stigma- you said to push pollen on it early in the morning. Is that on a new bud that is just opening? How do you know if another pollinator has already gotten to it or not? " For same day pollination, you don't know. If somebody, including yourself, "beat you to it" the previous day, the stigma will be showing signs of wilting and dying. Stigmas stay "open" and receptive for several days, until they get pollinated, at which time they "wilt" and become un-receptive to further pollen. " Do you have to push pollen on all of the flower's stigma? And do you just brush against it at the top or do you need to push it down in the middle of the stigma? " In the early stages of development of a petal, the two arms of the stigma are stuck together. As the petal lengthens, the arms of the stigma at its base become "unstuck" and you see the familiar Y-shaped yellow organ. The receptive sticky part of the stigma is on the two arms at the inside surfaces that were originally together. So you can just gently brush the stigma to get one or more pollen grains to stick to the inside arms of the "Y". One grain is all it takes, but in the probable event that more than one grain gets stuck, only one "wins" and fertilizes the embryo. " Do you use a different floret on each stigma? " No, I touch several stigmas with the floret. And there may be some overlap, in which I might touch many stigmas with many florets. It is a hit-or-miss operation, and if I miss, I may hit the stigma in the next day or two. " Do you leave the flower that you have pollinated on the plant to completely die or pick it when it is past it's prime? " My intention is to harvest plump green seeds before a seed-eating bird or something else gets at them. However, I have several dead blooms in my zinnia patch right now, so my intention is to harvest them soon, because I don't intend for the seed heads to die on the plant. I have reflective pinwheels spinning, and they seem to have kept the seed eating birds at bay. But I continue to be amazed that the pinwheels seem to work. The hummingbirds don't seem to mind them, but the seed-eating birds do? I dunno. " I think the hardest part will be waiting until next year to see what I get. Since it is so late in the season when I am starting. " Well, you will be able to harvest your seeds and package them some way, and get some idea how many seeds you have produced. Sometimes I go through my saved seeds and pick out the best looking ones to plant first. If you do a lot of pollinating, you will probably wind up with way more seeds than you have room for in your garden. So picking out your favorite looking seeds may be something you will want to do. Occasionally I find a really odd looking zinnia seed. That seed came from one of my "exotic" zinnia blooms. Good luck with your zinnia operations. Luck is a definite factor, and zinnias can be full of surprises. ZM