Heretofore I have tossed overripe bananas into my compost bin or into my staghorn plants, both good uses, but thanks to the Village News, I found a better use. After reading the delightful article by Nathalie Taylor, I learned that bananas attract fruit flies, which make good food for the hummingbirds, which are God’s biggest little blessing to us gardeners in Fallbrook. Nathalie’s article about "Mother Hummer" and her baby chicks was a delight. Mother Hummer is Denise Gillen, Fallbrook’s resident expert on hummingbirds. I was surprised to learn that "our" Rufous hummingbird migrates from as far away as Alaska.

Although most of my gardens are on sprinklers and drip, I love those beautiful evenings when I spot water with a garden hose, because I know the spray will attract a hummer. It is an extraordinarily beautiful moment when I turn the water to gentle and steady and watch a hummer dance gracefully and fleetingly in and out of the stream, taking its spray bath. Not even the beautiful Bathsheba entranced King David the way a bathing hummer beguiles me in my own gardens. It is truly exotic, if not even erotic, to share such a moment. I will always cherish the hummer who danced in a rainbow created by the misty spray.

And I appreciate the writings of Nathalie Taylor in the Village News.

Joe Howard Crews