Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Thursday’s Thoughts #4.
Good morning everyone! It is a nice, mainly sunny morning here today, and already quite windy. But we did get more frost last night. Officially the temp fell to 30F (-1C), though right here it was 28F (-2C). And it stayed in the frost range for over 5 hours which is a long time. As a result several more of my flowers are not looking good this morning, my dahlias especially were really drooping this morning. The dianthus were not looking good either or the osteopermums. I think those might be finished completely. I might not have many flowers this summer after all. It is so odd to get frost here this late, and 2 nights in a row is even more odd. Plus there is a possibility of frost tonight also.
I might have to go buy more flowers, I really would like to have the color out here this summer since I’m not feeding birds this year. Speaking of birds. My poor hummingbirds are having a tough time with this cold too. It only got up to 43F (6C) yesterday which is not very warm for these tiny birds. And with the extra cold nights and snow, it has been hard on them. I wouldn’t doubt that many hummingbirds died through all this cold. Last evening I was watching and one male hummingbird was sitting on the feeder drinking, then he sort of lay down against the “flower” on the feeder. I thought maybe he had died. The main male hummingbird came along to chase him away, but stopped, and just looked at him closely, then went to another “flower”.
I could see the one male move a bit so I knew he wasn’t dead, but figured he wouldn’t last. The other male flew away and a female came. It looked like she was going to chase this male too, but stopped, and gently poked him which woke him up and he sat upright. She went to another “flower” next to him and kept watching him. I could see him shivering. Then I saw something I have never seen before. The female came over and nudged him a bit so he moved over and she sat down beside him, obviously sharing her body heat with him. They sat together for quite a while, taking turns drinking that wonderful sweet nectar from the feeder. Finally it was getting late and she flew off.
He flew away a short time later, looking much better. I have only seen the one male so far this morning. But it was so cool to see the female helping the male like that. A good lesson for people. We should be helping each other whenever we can. And it doesn’t take much sometimes. A smile, a kind word, or a hard one, giving up watching our favorite TV show to help someone we know with something that needs to be done at that moment in time. But it could be a great encouragement to someone that will help them keep going, instead of giving up. Like those little hummingbirds. Remember, it doesn’t always take much to be a great help. I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve and Muffin’s Wildflowers #13.
Hello everyone and welcome back to our wildflower series! Today’s wildflower is Muffin’s favorite, the “field pussytoes”. There are actually several species of pussytoes and they are hard to identify, even by experts. Some say there are 6 species and others go as high as 32 species. They are all very similar and a couple are fairly easy to identify, like this one, and another that we also have which is the “plantain-leaved pussytoes”. They have both male and female flowers on different plants, the ones above are female flowers. I wasn’t able to find any male flowers last year, though obviously there must have been some around. The bloom from April to June, though up here it’s usually late May to early July. The field pussytoes can be found right across Canada. They are soft and furry, like a cat’s toes, which is why the name. They like sunny locations but will grow in light shade. They also like it on the dry side and will often grow in very poor sandy or gravel like soil. I hope you all have a fantastic day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 