A spare pair

... of wings! I had no idea that a small skipper butterfly was whizzing around the garden while I was photographing this hummingbird. So, imagine my delight when I got the image up on the computer screen and saw the spare pair of wings. So while the hummer isn't as crisply focused as I'd like, it still made what was shaping up to be a tough choice of a blip quite easy. The hummer is a juvenile female, one of this year's babies, fattening up for her first migration.

And if you'd like to see my other six favorite shots from this afternoon, they are posted starting HERE on FLickr.

Today was a lovely day - started with tea on the deck, then a long telephone call with my parents in Oregon, then brunch with a dear friend. I got home near 4 and zipped outside to try to get my blip for the day ... and now I am preparing to relax and maybe have a glass of NZ savignon blanc. Five more sleeps until I fly to FL - yay.

I am enjoying every moment of my garden this summer. Of all the things I like about this house, the garden/patio/deck are what I will miss the most. We've worked on expanding the gardens a little bit each year for the past 6 years and it has a been transformed into a place I find incredibly peaceful. Hubs and I refer to it as "the sanctuary". I will definitely miss it ... but in a year or so we'll buy a place in FL and I will create another sanctuary for myself...and I know I'll have as much fun doing that as I did with this one. In the meantime, I'm taking loads of pictures of all the things I love in my garden - things that I'll look back at and smile.

Thank you for sending yesterday's hummer to the Spotlight. As usual, the company was a bit humbling.

Happy Sunday, good people.

Debbi

PS: And, as if so often the case, after I'd blipped today something even better showed up in the garden... a gorgeous, fresh Monarch Butterfly. If you don't know, Monarchs in N. America are in serious trouble, facing horrendous declines due to loss of their host plant, milkweed, as well as deforestation in their wintering grounds in Mexico.