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Living Lawn Ornaments

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Like most gardeners, I have accumulated a fair amount of yard art. I have a gnome, for instance, and a gazing ball or two, and a plastic Adelie penguin that covers up an obnoxious pipe.

However, the best garden art we have is the live kind. And when live birds combine with yard art, you really have something. I'm still trying to get a photo of a phoebe perched on the penguin's head. Working on it.

Hummingbirds are the chief carriers of charming around here. They will fetch up on the darnedest things, the main requirement being that the perch be small around enough for their teeny tiny feet. There is almost always one on the bail of my hanging baskets on the front porch.


Little stretching dude.


Look closely, and you will see two tiny and admittedly not very spectacular garden ornaments, each with its own bail to perch on. How sweet. I mean, they're not spectacular until you realize that, while some people have stone lions or Foo dogs on either side of their front door, we have live hummingbirds guarding our door. Arf! Arf!


Not to be outdone, Gouty's mate takes the morning sun on our farm bell, the same one that graced Bill's house in Pella, Iowa, when he was a little kid, the one that, when rung, brought Billy and Andy home from Bunnyland.


My personal favorite is the male hummer who likes to sit on the frog's kitestring in the shade bed on the north side of the house. He likes the little gentle bounce he gets when he lands, or when the wind blows.

For sheer serendipity, though, I have to hand it to this shot of life imitating the Garden Forge art made by our friends Betsy and Jan.

14 comments:

Lovely, Julie. Beats those pesky garden gnomes any day of the week!

Great shots! I have a chickadee who likes to splash in a little saucer left out by mistake and now, there forever, to accommodate bath time.

Wow, great door guards. Still too cold in my area for hummingbirds. They are showing up just a short distance away and I can't wait to hear their little wings.

I'm not much for yard art, but I do have a Red Queen statuette that I simply could not resist. Wonder if Zane will let me put it in his garden?

Most beautiful yard ornaments I've ever seen.

Decorative and the live ornaments make your garden lovely.

We have a tacky solar light that is a hummingbird feeding from an open bloom. When we spied some hummingbirds in the yard a couple weeks ago, they were zipping around near it. It's clear lucite so I doubt they even saw it but the serendipity of the moment was beautiful.

Oh, I love those little zippers! Great shots, Julie. All I can manage without a zoom lens is shots of them at our feeder or perching on a bald stem of the front shrub...and I've got tons of those saved up. After 5 years in the same spot I've gotten to enjoy watching where these little guys sit and rest just as much as their aerial displays. Has anyone ever been flown into by one of these guys? We have so many close calls it seems! I've been thinking about your previous post about hummingbirds and flowers and really enjoying watching them go from the feeder to the hanging calibrachoa - once my out of control patch of bee balm starts to bloom it'll be mayhem in that corner of the yard too. Such fun.

Your previous post reminded me of Gene Stratton Porter's Girl of the Limberlost. You have a way with words that touches my heart so often. Our hummers came and then left. I was concerned until I heard someone on our call in radio show explaining that they were visiting the honeysuckle that was in full bloom. Now they are back at the feeders nonstop. It's sit at your own risk on our back porch.

love your yard art - and your photos! :^)

There's no better lawn ornament than a hummie. I think I'd gasp at the loveliness of your home and gardens.

The hummers we have perch, like yours do, on just about anything and often on the flowers they feed from. They are clever birds and I am hoping to see some here soon.

You probably don't remember when people lived and died at home and endured wakes. I wrote about it here. http://bing-it.blogspot.com/

I just love hummingbirds. They appear to be so delicate and yet so athletic. Sipping around at god knows what speed, suddenly coming to a screeching halt, dangling in the air as they collect nectar from a flower or feeder, I doubt there is a more perfect creature.

Thanks for the post.

bill;www.wildramblings.com

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