Every morning I have been fetching the hummingbird feeder in, cleaning it, and filling it with an inch of fresh nectar.

Taking a break from the studio where I’m working on a painting of Prince Edward Island, what did I see a hummingbird choose for high tea?  Bee Balm!  He’s gone completely green, all right.   No thanks to that concoction in a bottle surrounded by plastic flowers!

Can you see the open end of the petals?  How quickly the hummingbird moved from one petal-tube to the next on the mop-like crimson flowers.  He then flew to a clump of bee balm a little lower in the garden and rapidly sipped his ‘tea.’

No bells rang out, announcing his visit, but some golden bells were joyous nonetheless.

I found these golden bells at Sheridan’s this spring, and bought the vine instantly, and planted it by our pond.  Its proper name is allamanda.

We grew this vine when we lived on the Island of Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands.  The vine filled a trellis at the end of the veranda with its wonderful scented bells and long, chestnut-brown, pointed buds.

Have you ever had a helicopter land on your deck in absolute silence?

After landing, it paused . . . then flew straight up, and back down again into the very same spot!   Was he having trouble with his landing gear or what?