Patience...

That is what it took for today's shot - patience.  Something I've gotten surprisingly good at in the last six years.  The hummingbirds love bee balm.  And I love a nice shot of a hummer in the bee balm.  The problems arise when 1) the visits occur in less than a second, and 2) one is trying to focus on a fast moving bird in a very busy setting.  The autofocus loves bee balm...which means lots of great sots of crisply focused bee balm and badly blurred birds.  That's where the patience comes in.

I was standing near the largest patch of bee balm next to our deck, chatting to MIL who was sitting on the deck - it was a nice way to pass the time while I waited...and waited...and waited for my shot.  Gotcha.

This is a juvenile hummer with rather pale markings, a female as best I can tell.  She's defending her patch of bee balm with great zeal.

The weather is perfect today so we have been enjoying sitting outside on the deck this afternoon, Hubs, MIL and I.  Hubs is wearing big dark fit-over sunglasses to protect he eye, which is fairly painful and very light-sensitive.  I told him he looks like a cool-cat.  He disagrees.  Tomorrow he'll see the doctor again to check to make sure the cornea is healing properly.  

Found a nice caterpillar on something in the garden, so I carefully netted over it and hopefully I can take it to the Nature Camp for the kids on Wednesday.  It's a fuzzy white caterpillar - the kind that should not be touched.  Good to teach kids about things like that so they don't come home with a painful rash.

Started the day with a great chat with my parents.  Dad gave me some excellent advice about something that's been bothering me over the last few days, a thorny family issue.  Proving that a girl always needs her dad (and mom) no matter how old she gets.  Thanks, Dad.

Peace.

Debbi