Can't somebody somewhere do SOMETHING about the weather???!!

I do believe that as a nation we stand taller than any other in history so that I disagree. Perfect, unblemished, and alutristic a big NO but as a nation never before such diversity of ideas has existed. Who do you think is more as a nation Summer? Note just a question not a challenge.

Well, at the risk of diverging into politics, my opinion is that we as a nation have come a very very long way since being forged & founded on the twin pillars of genocide & slavery.

Do I think there is a better nation? Not one composed of people. I take a very dim view of unfettered human nature.

AND ...... A PIC! She is about 6 feet off the ground in a rhododendron that is roughly 8 feet tall & wide, and she is under the eave just to the right of my window. It's not very well hidden, really; I picked it out while wandering around wondering "should I be pruning this thing?"

They use cobwebs! And you can see the camouflage of lichen. It is about the size of a large lemon.

Thank you so much!!!! THAT IS AMAZING!!!! I truly have never seen a nest before. I can't believe you got the pic with the hummingbird inside of it! She must be sitting on some eggs? Those must be tiny eggs.

I can't get an angle to see more than one egg. That pic was taken from the ground, outside. I'll try to get a pic of the egg but first have to catch her off the nest long enough to rush out & clean the outside pane.

That is wonderful. Have never seen that before.

Well, that makes up for any weather huh?
Lovely. They usually lay 2 to 3 eggs, we had one on a wind chime once at my Mother-in-laws house in Osoyoos. it was amazing.

Thanks for sharing.

I have a superb new camera with a tremendous zoom. This is from inside the bedroom, about 8 feet away. Light's bad because it's 7 p.m., but I have high hopes for photos in the coming days.

(The camera is a Lumix DS5 & cost only $230. It has manual capabilities too. I had the DS1 until I dropped it on the kitchen floor last week, and that was a terrific subcompact as well.)

Enye, the nest looks twice as big to me as it should. Internet stories say that they will build on previous years' nests. What do you think based on the one in the chimes?

http://www.phoebeallens.com

That's great, Katie!

Feeling so blessed to have my own private "window cam" ... the nest is the first thing I see when I gain consciousness in the morning. I think her buzz as she flies in & out is what wakes me.

Love it Summer. I feel like you are sleeping with them in their cozy nest.

That is a very artistic nest. Just for you.

Guys can you remember what thread had the recipe for the hummer food. My wonderful boys gave me a hummer feeder. Have always wanted one.
Hope you all had a great day. The boys went back to school today so we had dinner Saturday.

After Japan, the Southern tornadoes and floods, I will never complain about the weather ever again.

The news said tonight that the snow fall was 750% higher than ever except in 1950. The big problem is if warm weather shows up to early and gets warm to fast, then big floods for Utah, Northern Nevada and Colorado..

My hummers have taken over my courtyard. If I go out the front door they come down nose to nose. I have climbing fig vine and they love to nest in it. I can always go out the garage side or just go out the front door, sit down immediately and pretend like I am not there. LOL.

BTW, I was born in Portland and my dad was in the Army. He was sent to Nevada by the Army to work in the mines during the war. The government took over the mines. I was born in August 1942. I moved to Nevada when I was 4 months old. My uncles were berry farmers in Gresham. We went to that area every summer for two weeks every year.

Have a great day tomorrow and week. Sharon.

Hope you all had a wonderful day. Sharon from windy Las Vegas

springcolor, hummer food is just sugar & water boiled together. i use 2 parts water to 1 part sugar.

Sharon, I've nicknamed my little nesting mother "B-52."

Thanks Summer. Just couldn't remember what amounts.

For hummer food I use 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. Guess anywhere in between will work.

I measured the liquid capacity of my hummer feeder, figured out my ratio (forget exactly what I used, I think 4:1) and keep that measuring cup in the sugar cannister. Then I just pour the sugar directly into the feeder using a funnel and fill it with warm water. It takes a few minutes and some shaking to totally dissolve, but then it's ready to go.

I have one hummer nest right next to the two large stacked windows on the stair landing. The windows overlook the courtyard. Well Mrs Hummer does no like my husband going up the stairs. That is where his man cave is located. So every time he goes up or down the stairs, she delivers this white liquid that messes up the window. I do not clean it for two reasons. To high up and just a waste of time.

Now there is another nest right in front of the window in my mother's old bedroom and that hummer is doing the same thing.

They are both nesting in last years nests, just rehabbed. Sharon.

I have a couple of 'cheap' sage - $.49 at the grocery store - that has grown into a nice shrub. Last year it bloomed heavily and the hummingbirds loved it. I was pretty excited to see that.

I plan on putting them all around the yard this year. They are evergreen and don't need excellent drainage. I can't get Salvia to look very good, so these are a bonus for me.

Pineapple sage? Is it hardy here?

Literally, just the cheap, plain sagey-smelling sage . . . I guess it would be called a culinary sage . . .

I think someone is doing something with the weather. I think he has had just about enough and has finally gotten angry. I have actually been expecting his visit soon. He is late as far as I am concerned. Sharon.

Well, I would like "he" to take all that energy that used to go into searching out Osama whatzisname and put it into flyovers of infrared-heater-equipped aircraft, mainly aiming them at coastal valleys at, say, 500 ft elevation ...

Frost this morning took me by surprise. I had checked 10 day forecast, and we looked good to go. Totally surprised to wake up to clear skies and frost, when I went to bed it was 50's and raining. I'm waiting for it to warm up to check for losses. I seem to never learn, and make this mistake every year!

Wow, just checked. It's actually way worse than frost. It's actually ice with frost. I have severe damage, and I'm almost crying. It was supposed to be a low of 42, but must have dropped not just into the 30's but below 32. Terrible. Dead plants, but new chicks hatching today so there is life somewhere.

ew, Kosk, sorry to hear that. This crazy weather! I hope you haven't lost much.

I saw a post on FB from Portland Nursery saying that the accepted planting out date for warm-season used to be Memorial Day, not Mother's Day around here, but I've never heard that before. I'm not prepared to wait that long!!!! I'm out of room and have to start hardening stuff off now whether I like it or not. My poor tomatoes have been doing great but now they're truly getting leggy and I'm out of height & light space-and not a lot of space to harden them off, either. :( Beyond anxious for a little warm around here. I haven't even started the herbs because I haven't had any room for them inside. (I, uh, underestimated my germination rate on peppers and tomatoes. I've got 80+ of each...I think I'm going to be very "neighborly" this year, lol)

Damage not as bad as I first thought. There were a few chunks of ice hanging off some plants, but not ice, ice everywhere. Hard frost though, bc even the marigolds suffered. And other things I shouldn't have put outside yet that were just sitting out on the deck bc I was tired of watering them inside the house. Thumbergia vines damaged and some gomphrena as well as peppers. Also platycodon damaged. I swear I'll never learn. We are at 700 feet elevation in a frost pocket valley. Some of these things might spring back. I have found that frost damage often functions as a pinch off for the plants and they grow back bushier.

Lets hope they do snap back.
It is best to not plant seeds until the end of March or into April.

Oh, kosk, that happens to me too, but usually at the back end of the season when I just cannot bring myself to frost if I don't want it too.

Can I mail anyone any nasturtium seedlings? I have lots. Does anyone know whether slugs eat them?

Susy, I'm a candidate for neighborliness! My local source for peppers & tomatoes, who had tons of experience with this area, does not appear to be offering any for sale this year. I'll be at Lisa's tomorrow through Sunday, actually.

SK, Ok, sounds good. Hmmm. I'll send you a dmail. I wouldn't mind a couple of nasturtium seedlings, either. My usual crop of volunteers hasn't shown up yet. As far as the tomatoes, I'm experimenting with lots of early-season varieties and/or ones that are supposed to do well in cool summer areas. Did I mention that I went a bit overboard?

Thanks for reminding me about the nasturtiums, since I promised some to Lisa. She is a nascent gardener, having taken it up when I moved here to provide inspiration, plants & moral support. It's cute, because she's just in awe of the funniest things, like the blooms & growth rate of the vinca we transplanted to her sidewalk strip, and the brightness of the nasturtiums. Her husband built a raised bed, where she has killed all sorts of veggies for 2 straight years. She has become a diligent composter too, partly because she can use it for science studies in her grade-school classroom.

Oh, how fun that she's starting to garden! How does that saying go- you aren't a real gardener until you've killed the same plant three times? Something like that....
Anyway, she needs good material for her compost pile...

It sounds like she's on her way to the start of a fine gardening obsession. Well done!!! :) With her color sense and design skills once she gets the hang of the keeping it alive part, she'll be great...

I hope that all this means a long and warm fall season. That's our only recourse and it's still available so we must keep our fingers crossed. Never seen such a spring as this on the S. Or. coast. I lived in the Willamette Valley for 30 years and can't recall one like this out there either. Now I have lived here just as long. The difference between the W. Valley and the coast is rather surprising. We usually have a more mild winter here on the coast but a much cooler summer. However, the last two winters have been quite harsh. I have lost plenty of plants that usually make it with ease.

So, I am not too anxious to plant out the things I usually plant way before this. Everything will be late going in the ground, because this is a very late year. I think that is just the farmers rule of the thumb.
We just had one warm day(sort of) followed by a coolish one (today), but no rain. The weather man says it will be a rainy, cool week-end. Bah-Humbug.
Still, I think we are better here (weather wise) than other places in the USA.

Well you guys could come to Las Vegas. We are going to be 90 tomorrow. Last two weeks we went from 93 to 78 to high desert winds and then 3 beautiful days in the low 80 and tomorrow 90. And then Wednesday we are suppose to back in the high 70s. Crazy weather. But soon we will be over 100 so I am happy.

My tomatoes are loaded, my irises, columbine and oxilis are done for the season. The Quail are having babies along with the hummers. After watching the south flooding, I am OK with our weird weather.

Bee, where is Coos Bay. My father drove us to Portland from Nevada every year for 15 years. Through Idaho, up the winding road on the way up and down to Pendleton, before the big highway was built. I always got car sick about half way up the mountain. We road in a Chrysler Imperial with two adult in the front and 4 kids in the back seat. I think today it would be classified as child abuse. He drove straight through. We left at 3 am in the morning. We stopped along side the Snake River, somewhere in Idaho, and had the lunch that mother had prepacked. I remember seeing the Indians spear fishing on the Dales. Remember this was in the 50s. I can see it like a photo is right in front of me. I think my mother's sister lived in Coos Bay. Sorry for the trip down memory lane but the desert rat was just remembering her childhood.

OMG---I was a kid in the 50's, too. I remember lots of the same things you do. The Indians spearing salmon at Celilo Falls on the Colombia. Having to ride in the back seat with my little sis for hours. We made an annual trip to Bainbridge Island across the Sound from Seattle every summer to visit the grandparents.

I actually grew up in Coquille, which is 20 miles southeast of Coos Bay. Coos Bay is on the southern Oregon coast, about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the Cal. border. Or three. We are a 4 - 5 hour drive to Portland. Longer in the old days before freeways. When we say before freeways, some will think we were born in the dark ages. Kind of like when I say before TV. The little ones just gasp!!!

Those old cars....weren't they something? Kind of makes me car sick to think about it.
Our zippy new Honda CRV is So-o-o much better.

Glad you asked, Sharon. Trips down memory lane are getting more fun with each passing year.

Beebonnet

I went from twelve to twenty-one in the 50 also. Great memories. Love Vegas and southern Oregon, but think I will stay here in the far north. ^_^

Now, my old mind is really confused. Why do I remember Coos Bay so vividly, if you are that far from Portland. We never went beyond about 2 hours away from Portland. Majority of relatives were in Gresham.

I get cold if it gets below 80 degrees so the far North would not work for me. I have been in Vegas since 1960. Right after high school graduation at 18. I worked as a Mortgage Banker in Las Vegas for 35 years. Last 25 with Chase. Retired right before the economy and everything else hit the fan. Sharon

Bet you were glad about your good timing, Sharon. Banking would not have been pleasant during that time or even now, probably.

Willow Wind, how far north is Union? I can't think where it is.

Union is a postoffice on Hood Canal. Kinda NW of Shelton. Closest big town in Olympia.