This was not the idea

Alan had been wanting a hummingbird feeder in the yard for a while, so I picked up this pretty glass one from a going-out-of-business sale held by the owner of a chic local garden shop. We put it in the middle of the area most frequented by butterflies, thinking that hummingbirds would naturally be drawn to its locality.

I didn’t really expect to see any hummingbirds, as we’ve never spotted them in the yard before, and I didn’t much care either. There is so much action already (for a city garden): a cardinal’s nest in the mock orange, plenty of other birds bathing on the stones of the waterfall, demented squirrels, an occasional rabbit, and lots of butterflies. Not to mention all the bugs.

However. What I wasn’t prepared for was that the thing would become a bee exterminator. They were squeezing into its tiny little opening and then drowning in the sugar water—a truly horrible sight. So now it has this dahlia stuck there to stop them from going in, and of course now it is utterly silly and useless. So it goes.