2.2K. I know when I casually do 1.4 or even 1.6, that's much less than I can do. But 2.2K is an exceptional lot for me to accomplish. Having the pool emptier really does help.
Today after my swim, after pad thai and Life on Capitol Hill and a peach for lunch, reading, as I had eaten, on the porch swing, glancing from time to time at the garden which is now in its late summer blooming of sage and agastache, I saw our hummingbird again.
Bright green, with a black tail, it zipped here and there among the flowers, sipping. I stood up to see better and called in to RDC. It makes me so happy to have attracted such a bird with natural growing things rather than a feeder.
I replaced the broken bird feeder. I should have tried instead to replace its springs. When this one snaps I'll do that. The squirrels had really enjoyed the two weeks of the old feeder, but I was happy to disoblige them. The other day as I came into the kitchen, I saw the winged regulars arranged along the branch, all facing my house, not the neighbor's, the way they do when I haven't filled their trough. When I got to the window and looked down, I saw why: a squirrel was back on the feeder, trying to figure it out. I rapped on the window and it fled. Too bad the trees don't come with the same sort of anti-squirrel device: the fruit, what there is left, is near ripe, and the ground is littered with more premature fruit than I thought was on the trees to begin with.
Also, RDC called me at work to tell me the peregrin falcon made another appearance. It was Blake who told him, of course.