Stop and Smell the Roses

I apologize that the clarity in these pictures isn't fantastic, but I just had to share my little treasure with you. Overhanging our swimming pool is a tree that probably needs a little pruning right now, but it won't be getting any attention from us until this little mother is thru using it. Monday afternoon as my husband was drifting on his big air cushion in the pool, a hummingbird buzzed by--as he followed her flight, low and behold, she landed in this nest swaying gently in the breeze. Of course when he got me to come take a look, I brought the camera and with the zoom was able to capture her sitting on her nest while the tree took care of the rock-a-bye part of the equation. Now we run out every day to check her progress in the nest and consider it one of life's little treasures to be savoured and enjoyed. The nest probably isn't 2" deep and though sitting in plain site once you 'see' it, it blends in with the tree well enough to never notice it.

Now the gardener and my daughter, the landscaper, have strict orders to stay away from that tree, and area until the eggs are hatched and the babies fly away. I, on the other hand, will be out there daily sitting just far enough away to see the progress in the nest without frightening the little mother away from her brood. Fortunately, I think the nest is too far out on a limb, and too high in the tree, to be threatened by the family hunter, the dread cat--Legolas.