Three on a clothespin

What a glorious day we're having today.  It rained last night, but today it's in the high 80's with a few clouds and just light breezes.  I'm being a total sloth and loving it.  I've been intrigued by the appearance of tiny hummingbird nests attached to clothespins on our veranda.  They seemed incomplete and I finally took them down.  A few days ago a new nest appeared on the next line.  It's not much bigger than a large egg and beautifully made.  They always seem to include bits of lichen and are beautiful works of art.  

Today, as I sat reading on our porch swing, I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird flying to the nest.  Wow, this one was the real thing.  It took me a long time, trying to stay out of the way, but watching the nest to see that there appeared to be two tiny babies in the nest.  I wish I could get higher to see down into the nest, but am thrilled with the gift I've been given of seeing these tiny beings.  

I hope I'll be able to catch more views of this wonderful little family before the babies leave the nest.  

I feel so fortunate to sit at my computer and watch a little yellow warbler, hear a red-headed woodpecker and in the distance the howler monkeys are letting us know we'll probably get more rain.  This truly is a paradise.  Blessings!

Rainy season

It's been raining almost continually for three days.  It's hard to complain as this is the rainy season.  We haven't been down the hill today, but this once again makes me really glad to not live by the river.  It had dropped a little, but all this rain is bringing it back up again.  It's hard to imagine that some local folks take canoes across to get home.  There was one fatality in Succotz of an older fellow trying to cross to his farm.  The water is really roaring.  I've traveled to town several times lately and haven't had any problems with our hill.  I have to thank both the truck and the Trooper and their four wheel drives.  In order to make it past the couple of muddy spots I just put the peddle to the metal and zip up the road.  I'm sure if I drove slower it would just dig in and we'd be stuck.  Anyway, no problems.

We've been thrilled with the new fence for the dogs.  Bailey isn't testing it much as he's never like the rain and definitely doesn't like to get his feet wet.  I think he's also leery of the fence.  We take his special collar off and Art walks him across the fence at the driveway, reassuring him all the time that "it's ok" and they take their walk.   Bailey is so smart, he get's it.  The pups do too as they will follow to a point and then turn around and come back.  I especially liked this Sport Dog system as the collar takes a 9-volt battery, but it's in a sealed, waterproof box. Given our climate and this rainy season, that was a huge selling point.  This particular collar gives us the ability to set each independently.   We also bo't a surge protector.  I questioned our electrician about that and he highly recommended it.  We get so many storms passing by and we want to be sure that the collars aren't affected.  He told me that if you can hear the thunder, there's a chance of a power surge that would affect the transmitter and then the collars.  We don't get that many storms that actually affect us, but we have lots of storms that pass by on their way to Guatemala. 

For today we're fine.  I ran the generator for an hour this morning and we'll probably have to run it for a bit this evening too as it's very gloomy and we're not taking in many rays.  As long as we have gasoline, it's not a huge hardship.  I can faintly hear a neighbor who doesn't have the batteries and his generator is running all the time.  I'd hate to live with that constant noise.  

Today is my brother's birthday and it was lovely to be able to call him.  It still is exciting to me to be so far away but be able to stay in touch.  We both have November birthdays and are astonished that we've reached this stage.  We're both so thankful that we're reasonably healthy and feel blessed.