Rough Seas

It was a wild night on the coast with the wind whipping up the surf. Quite dramatic but very cold! - Fern

lunch 2 - The Sandwich

Above is the sandwich made from the tomato that was featured in yesterday's post. It was excellent although I think I should have left the tomato on the vine for another few days to get a little more sun-ripened sweetness. But I was impatient - you can't get tomatoes like this in the store and it seemed I'd been watching this one ripen since the dawn of time.... Wikipedia has a long article on sandwiches so if you want a little more food porn click HERE.

Lunch!

Here's a picture of what I'm going to be enjoying for lunch today, accompanied by some crisp lettuce, vegan mayonnaise and a vegan cheese slice on toasted whole-grain bread. This is a homegrown, organic, Beefsteak Tomato, vine-ripened in the back yard and I know just how delicious it will taste. I love summer for many reasons but one of them has got to be that the food is better than in the winter. I hope you too have a good lunch.

Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)

I mentioned yesterday that two kinds of hummingbirds are visiting our feeder. These photos are of the second kind, a Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus). Unlike the Anna's Hummingbird pictured yesterday, Rufous Hummingbirds are only here during the summer. Within the next month or so they will head south for a long flight that will carry them to their winter home in the Mexican state of Guerrero, an extraordinary journey for such a tiny creature.

Hummingbird Delight

As I spend more time in the back yard this year I am starting to notice who likes what. The honeybees, for example, definitely prefer Oregano flowers. The Hummingbirds, on the other hand prefer the Fuchsia flowers. I say hummingbirds (plural) advisedly because while watching the Fuchsia yesterday morning, I noticed that there are two distinct kinds of hummingbirds visiting these flowers. Above is an Anna's Hummingbird (Calypte anna), probably a female. The other nectar eater dropping by occasionally is a Rufous Hummingbird and we will have a look at him tomorrow.