We are feeding hummingbirds and have a small bird bath for water for the other birds.  So far we haven’t seen anything but hummers and cactus wren.  I’m told there’s a neighborhood woodpecker, but he hasn’t wandered our way yet.   We had a feeder for the hummers but the bees were taking over and chasing them off.  Yesterday we went into Florence to the really cool hardware store there and found some feeders that say they are bee resistant.  They are different from any I've seen before.  We bought two and hung them out yesterday.  Immediately the bees swarmed around and then after a few minutes they took off and we haven't seen any since.  I had put Vasoline along the edges of the yellow part -  advice of the guy at the hardware store.  We are seeing hummers regularly now.  

I went to the first book club meeting of “the season”  here yesterday.  About 20 women showed up.  All but two of us have been coming here for years.  Most of the them, it turns out, are also the water exercise members that I’ve met,  so I saw a lot of familiar faces - not great with names yet, but I’m getting there.  Everyone very friendly.  There is a woman “in charge” that put me off a bit, but shall see down the line how that goes.   The format for today was to go around the room and ask each person to give their thoughts on the book.  About 75% “loved” it, maybe 10% “Liked it ok,” and the rest didn’t like it at all.  It generated a lot of back and forth discussion after everyone had their say.  

The book for today was Anne Tyler’s “The Beginner’s Goodbye.”  It was a story about a man who lost his wife and how he copes and then finds love again.  In listening to the discussion it reminded me a lot of “A Man Called Ove” but only sadder.  I piped up and asked if anyone had read One and if they had did they see a similarity?  I guess I was on to something because it started a new line of discussion.   One of the members gave me the book to read which I thought was nice.  

I asked if they read any non-fiction and they said very little and they gave me some examples but I can’t remember what they were.  One example was “Boys in the Boat.”  I was told, NO ROMANCE and NO SELF HELP books  :-)  

We are awaiting our shed delivery next Tuesday, the patio installation the week after, and then the landscaping.  In the meantime we sit and stare at the lot and make adjustments here and there and continually move the stakes in the sand that delineate where we think we want the patio!  It’s on about it’s third iteration!!   We found some colorful Mexican pots to put in the front of the shed.  You can see by the photo why we positioned the shed on the lot the way we did.  This is the view from our dining/living room.  The shed will hide the best part of the neighbor's rig and most importantly, the sewer line.  

It's very windy today!  My yard art blew over.  The rabbits look sad on their sides!  We are in the library right now in downtown Florence.  We can't be outside and listening to the wind blowing is annoying, so it was a good time to come here and use the internet for surfing, back up devices, and do some blog posting!  We also checked out some DVDs.   Rog will spend the afternoon in the wood shop.  I downloaded some crochet patterns to work on as I'm finally finished with Christmas ornaments.  

Maggie is getting used to being here and we are even able to leave her off leash (although it’s against the rules) while we sit outside.  The issue we had last March was she was chasing ground squirrels and we couldn’t let her off the leash.  They did something here this summer because we haven’t even seen one so far.  

Looks as if my iPad has updated and backed up, so it's time to wander home.