My Address

My Address, a photo by Colorado Hummingbird on Flickr.

This is my home in Denver. Yes there are Angels here, and ancestors...

The Denver Zoo - Autumn Shoot

I had a wonderful shoot this past weekend at The Denver Zoo. The Zoo has added a number of new features, and the autumn trees were spectacular in color. Look for a brand new opening in the zoo next spring called Asian Tropics. I can hardly wait, they have quite a bit of work done on it and it really looks exciting.

The animals put there on display for us to see always touch my heart. If it were up to this wildlife photographer, they would be free and not in cages. I simply did not have the heart to take a picture of a zoo animal that looked unhappy. The lions, tigers and bears were spectacular as the above picture denotes. They should have had awards for all the cute behavior.

So before it gets cold, take an afternoon and visit the Denver Zoo. It is just gorgeous down there and the animals are sure to steal your heart.

I know, they did mine.

Visit the rest of my Denver Zoo Pictures at Colorado Hummingbird Photography


TAKE A FUN TRIP TO THE DENVER ZOO

Happy Samhain - Féile na Marbh

Celtic Folklore
The Samhain celebrations have survived in several guises as a festival dedicated to the harvest and the dead. In Ireland and Scotland, the Féile na Marbh, the 'festival of the dead' took place on Samhain.

The night of Samhain, in Irish, Oíche Shamhna and Scots Gaelic, Oidhche Shamhna, is one of the principal festivals of the Celtic calendar, and falls on the 31st of October. It represents the final harvest. In modern Ireland and Scotland, the name by which Halloween is known in the Gaelic language is still Oíche/Oidhche Shamhna. It is still the custom in some areas to set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast, and to tell tales of the ancestors on that night.

Traditionally, Samhain was time to take stock of the herds and grain supplies, and decide which animals would need to be slaughtered in order for the people and livestock to survive the winter. This custom is still observed by many who farm and raise livestock.

Bonfires played a large part in the festivities celebrated down through the last several centuries, and up through the present day in some rural areas of the Celtic nations and the diaspora. Villagers were said to have cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames. In the pre-Christian Gaelic world, cattle were the primary unit of currency and the center of agricultural and pastoral life. Samhain was the traditional time for slaughter, for preparing stores of meat and grain to last through the coming winter. The word 'bonfire', or 'bonefire' is a direct translation of the Gaelic tine cnámh. With the bonfire ablaze, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit its hearth from the common flame, thus bonding the families of the village together. Often two bonfires would be built side by side, and the people would walk between the fires as a ritual of purification. Sometimes the cattle and other livestock would be driven between the fires, as well.

Divination is a common folkloric practice that has also survived in rural areas. The most common uses were to determine the identity of one's future spouse, the location of one's future home, and how many children a person might have. Seasonal foods such as apples and nuts were often employed in these rituals. Apples were peeled, the peel tossed over the shoulder, and its shape examined to see if it formed the first letter of the future spouse's name. Nuts were roasted on the hearth and their movements interpreted - if the nuts stayed together, so would the couple. Egg whites were dropped in a glass of water, and the shapes foretold the number of future children. Children would also chase crows and divine some of these things from how many birds appeared or the direction the birds flew.

Samhain is the tradition that gave rise to our current day celebrations of Halloween. Samhain (pronounced: sow-en) is a pagan holiday that is celebrated on October 31. It marks the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter.

In the past, Samhain was a festival for the time between the old year and the new year. It was a time for having bonfires and playing tricks. It was also thought a time when people could make contact with departed loved ones and foretell the future.

Today some people have special ceremonies on this day. Some people have parties and other people have special dinners.

One interesting dinner dish is called Colcannon. This dish is made of potatoes and cabbage. Items are put in the dish that are thought to tell the future. Traditionally these items are a thimble (for a spinster), a button (for a bachelor), a ring (for a marriage), and a coin (for prosperity).

The following recipe for a Samhain dish:

Colcannon:
4 cups mashed potatoes, 2 - 1/2 cups cabbage (cooked and chopped
fine), 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup onion (chopped very fine and sautéed), 1/4
teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Blend all ingredients (except cabbage) over low heat.
Turn the heat to medium and add cabbage (will be slightly green).
Stir occasionally until warm then add fortune items. Stir well.

Some people use decorations for their ceremonies or dinners. Fun things to use for decorating are autumn leaves or flowers, pumpkins, gourds, and autumn fruits and nuts. Candles also make pretty decorations for Samhain.

Life of Flowers

Life of flowers from COLORADO HUMMINGBIRD PRODUCTION FOR VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Enjoy this time lapse of the lives of flowers

Counting Days

I find myself breaking into a nervous panic when I look at the date, each day this month. Every single day brings me to the horrible day I lost my beloved dog, Cricket. It has started to take a toll on my body. Anniversaries are hard on everyone. I am no different. Cricket had sixteen days, as of today to live.

My husband had a scheduled game to umpire where old friends from the park where Cricket was killed would be tonight. He anxiously wanted me to bring my new puppy Ruby, and Maggie our Norwegian Cattle Dog. But, I couldn't do it. Dave would have been umpiring and this game was co-ed, so the couple would be playing. The couple owns two big huskies. I was going to be left to supervise four dogs. I won't pretend that one of the friends boasts about how his dogs are 'Alpha Dogs', and that's how he raises them. They are expected to get into dog fights.

I simply could not put myself, and my precious one year old puppy in the car. My body, my heart, my mind, every part of my being just wouldn't let me.

No matter what happens this month, I know that I will get through the 30th. I have had to pass other anniversaries and you know something? Time does not heal all wounds. You just hurt longer and you learn to live with the pain and the loss.

This 'Alpha Dog Mother' carries a bat now. No one's dog is ever going to rip one of my babies to pieces ever again.

I promise.

Hummingbird Quotes

"The goal of a genealogist is to transfer the past into information,

and information into insight; Insight into understanding."

Christine McClintock Hudspeth, American Writer

The Moon - Perigree and Apogee

The Moon's orbit periodically grows rounder and then more oval; it is never a perfect circle. The point at which it is nearest Earth each month is called its perigee (this varies throughout the year). The point at which the Moon is farthest from Earth each month is called its apogee (this varies throughout the year as well). I know you were just dying to know this. I watch the moon more than the sun, as I am a writer. The 'Writer's Moon' is my constant companion.

During the final quarter of the 20th century, the Moon was as close to Earth as 216,500 miles (surface to surface) at its most extreme perigee and as far away as 247,700 miles at its most extreme apogee. At perigee, tidal ranges are increased; at apogee, they are decreased.

To a lesser degree, the Sun has a similar tidal effect, a consequence of its location just 91.5 million miles away in early January but some 94 million miles distant in July. I leave you with this from another writer...

'The punctual tide draws up the bay

with ripple of wave and hiss of spray.'

–Susan Coolidge, American writer (1835-1905)

The Hummingbird Who Would Be A Polar Bear

I have a secret life....I am a Polar Bear Impersonator...

Why this 'coming out' all of the sudden?

I am doing it for my children. It is hard evidently to wrap your arms around a little hummingbird and say, "I love you Momma." So, I’m a polar bear now. It’s been a difficult transformation, requiring years of staying indoors, avoiding exposure to UV rays, taking daily vitamin D supplements. It also required careful study of polar bear behavior through in-depth analysis of wildlife documentary footage, countless reenactment sessions, improv classes, and instructions from dozens of the world’s foremost zoologists. Most people thought I stayed indoors due to a proclivity for reclusion, and that I spent so much time looking at YouTube videos of polar bears due to an irrational fondness for their furry white faces. Also, that my life was without purpose, descending quietly into oblivion like a defunct satellite.

No I just wanted my children to love me.

Everyone loves Polar Bears though...

Secretly, I have been spending all this time being quite productive on important polar bear related activities. I have surgically implanted bear teeth now. I can’t shut my mouth properly, and there are multiple infections along my gums, but look — I can bite through the tops of Coke cans. When my kids asks for something to drink, I will have it their hands before they can say please. Which they never do anyway.

Polar bears are classified as a “vulnerable species” and are therefore biological treasures to be protected, a stark contrast to 50-year-old throw-a-way mothers who society has no interest in protecting and would rather see extinct, or if not extinct then reduced to just being invisible. People see polar bears, and they say, “There is a perfect product of nature’s evolutionary mechanisms. I want to pet her head and hug her.” People see 50-year-old mothers and they say, “There is a waste of human life." Do I have that right Megan?

No one has ever looked at a polar bear and said, “You fat pretentious cow, go get a job.” No one has ever looked at a polar bear and said, “You sorry excuse for a human, all you do is talk about your boring life.” No one has ever looked at a polar bear and said, “You sociopath, your existence on this earth is unnecessary." Polar bears can’t talk, and even if they could, they wouldn’t say anything egotistical; they’d just talk about being hungry, and how much they love penguins, and discuss the environmental impact of global warming.

So, here I am walking around town on all fours, naked, grunting, sniffing trash cans and dried gum on the sidewalk. Everyone is enraptured by my presence. They thought they needed to pay an exorbitant fee to the local zoo to see a polar bear, but no, here’s one wandering down the street like a stray dog. All around me, I hear the clicks of camera phones. Other people's children stroke my head and squeeze my cheeks. They wish they had me. An elderly man hands me a cheeseburger followed by a toddler handing me a milkshake — and then a whole crowd coalesces, all wanting to feed me tasty treats.

So, when I growl at people I dislike, no one says, “What a conceited 'Bear'. Maybe she should work on her social skills.” No one says, “There’s nothing cool about being unfriendly or aloof.” They say, “She is a wild animal, a noble carnivore, an exalted arctic predator.” Even when I bite people’s faces off and chew their nostril meat like jerky, witnesses simply shrug and say again, “She’s a wild animal. What else could we expect?” Animals can’t be tried in the court of law, and “vulnerable species” can’t be killed for demonstrating normal carnivorous behavior. That’s my understanding at least.

Despite their alledged viciousness, people love and respect polar bears. I enjoy receiving both of those things in large quantities, savor the sensation of my ego swelling with my heart in direct correlation to their steady accumulation. If love/ respect were a publicly traded company, all of my capital would be invested in its stock, so that every dip and rise in price drastically affected my mood. Polar bears’ stock in love/ respect is probably at its highest ever due to their declining population, their function as symbols of global warming’s immediate impact, and that YouTube video of them playing with dogs. I am including it for you to see again, just incase you haven't.

I live a fairly simple life now, one focused principally on hunting, eating, sniffing, looking at things, and playing with my dogs. Polar bears have no bills or rent. No one faults me for being a "Bad Mother," because no one wants a gigantic bloodthirsty animal except maybe the circus, the zoo, or film studios making talking polar bear movies. It’s much easier to make friends as a polar bear. I simply wrap my giant furry arms around people’s necks and drag them away.

Finally I remarried, I roared and swiped and snarl until a phone number was presented by him. Turns out he is a Polar Bear too, and I love him dearly. Polar bears don’t get lonely you know, even while wandering for days across their icy frozen wasteland home, never seeing another living creature. If they feel depressed, they do thirty minutes of bear yoga and then they feel happy again. That’s how I do it at least when my Polar Bear mate is off hunting.

Ahh, I remember when....(Watch video)

I’m taken much more seriously as a polar bear than I ever was as a “Mother.” I can discipline my cubs without having to be called a 'child abuser.' People are more interested in my activities particularly because I might bite someone’s thigh or bash through a wall to reach a pot of jambalaya. But you know, I really half suspect people doubt my polar bear impersonation, particularly because of my lack of fur, and opposable thumbs. Maybe I should pick another animal to impersonate. I think I would like to go live in a cave in the arctic by myself and watch the ice caps melt.

Nawh, I think not...because even though it might be what I want the most in the world. To be loved by my own children and grandchildren, it is not worth the price I am being asked to pay. I will not give the devil his due, I already have since he abandoned them in 1992.

"No one is sweeter to me than thee "

Must be heaven you say? The best day in my whole life was when I spent time with my oldest daughter and my grandson. It also will be when two other special little boys walk up to me and say... you look like fun, can we play with you?

I have been waiting all my life for grandchildren, because that really is heaven.

So, I am going to continue being a Hummingbird. For I believe, to thine own self be true. Like me, love me, hate me, I have a purpose in this world.

I am a Hummingbird, hear me roar!

*Thank-you Stormy for the picture of the Hummingbird Mother.

Colorado Hummingbird Photography

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Thanks,

Hummingbird