My Cleopatra doesn't have that much red, but mostly yellow. The leaves have the same red coloring though. I guess it depends on where it's grown. :o) I am jealous of yours. It's lovely as are the rest of the photos.

Yes, I too have a few "extra" birds this year. I have 2 pair of gray gnatchatchers - I've never seen these before and had to look them up - they are quite charming little birds - kinda like wrens but even smaller, and we have several red winged blackbirds that are hanging around our feeders and birdbaths - we usually only see them around the ponds and marshy areas

Thanks a lot islandbreeze! Ribbon palms are probably about as cold hardy as Chinese fan palms and I have gotten my Chinese fan palm through 3 winters with protection. They lose most of their foliage from the cold, but grow back in no time. When I saw a ribbon palm at home depot for only $15 at that size, I had to get it! Hopefully it will be reasonably cold hardy. They are really fast growing. Alocasias are just as easy to keep in my experience as colocasias and are a lot more rewarding since they get noticably bigger every year (My colocasias have kind of maxed out in height now). Thanks John! It's a ton of work to bring everything inside. I don't even want to think about it yet even though I will probably start taking things inside starting in another 2 weeks or so (I would wait longer, but it's impossible to take everything in at the very end of the season). Thanks for looking! -Alex

Oh, I am sure it will be fun. Yesterday evening one dived down into the yard, flew under the shade sail over the pond and snatched a bee of of a flower. I am sure once they have babies to feed, that will be a common occurrence. They fly so fast, darting and diving in what looks like a very wreckless manner. They are in pursuit of insects so they don't follow a straight line when they fly. The next couple of months should be quite interesting!