Date: 4/11/25 6:12 am From: Judy Griffith <9waterfall9...> Subject: Re: First hummer at Red Buckeyes (Fayetteville)
Amen.
> On Apr 11, 2025, at 7:32 AM, Joseph Neal <joeneal...> wrote:
>
> Over the years, I have very much enjoyed the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that visit the back porch at Ninestone Land Trust. So was especially happy to read the post by Ninestone's Judy Griffith that the hummers are back to all those amazing native flowers. Inspired enough I was thinking quite a bit about what all of this means to me. Sitting out on my front porch yesterday, saw my first hummer of the year (so April 10):
> It may not much matter if our president has decided we will or maybe will not go to war over the price of an egg or perhaps a Ford. But sunshine does matter. It matters a lot from which direction North or South the wind blows.
> In early April South wind and sunshine combine to unfold the hand-like leaves of my Red Buckeye that like a Statue of Liberty in the international harbor of New York graces my yard. I mean: it stands for something.
> Come 60 degrees on a fair wind with sun and there comes this astonishing reality of immigrants in ships. I mean actually red flowers. There is in the warming air promise of hummingbirds and maybe some orioles, all come for red flowers. Come into this country of my yard where they will in their ancient secrets begin the process of a new year.
> Yes, my yard as a kind of harbor. Your yard too, if you wish. And the year after that, and all the years to come may fill with these marvelous creatures that so astonish with their command of our shared heaven. It matters that after days of early spring sun they have come yet again to their North American home, part of which we share with them.
> It matters they have done so riding a south wind. It matters the buckeyes are again in bloom. It matters they now restore my faith that in this life there are things that don’t matter and other things that do. I have some choices to make.
> It matters that I have chosen to wait at a distance respectful for my first hummingbird. I’ll wait while the cardinals sing. I’ll wait while the red-bellied woodpeckers work their way into the dead trunks of my old maple. I’ll wait under the reality of flowering redbuds.
> I’ll wait because it matters when that first hummingbird visits the red buckeye.
