Hummingbirds and Pineapple

I was watching Iron Chef tonight on Food Network and the food for the challenge was fresh pineapples. The host, Alton Brown mentioned that hummingbirds are not allowed in Hawaii because with the growing of pineapple, pollination is not wanted. If the flower pollinates then seeds will develop and that is not desirable in fruit for the market. So there is a Hawaiian State law that hummingbirds cannot be brought into Hawaii.

And apparently hummingbirds (Family Trochilidae) do not migrate to the Islands from the Americas. I was surprised to learn this. I’ve not been to Hawaii but I would have thought the hummingbird would have such a ball there with all the tropical flowers.

These are recent photos by Ted Grussing of a hummingbird nest near his home in Sedona Arizona. The nest started out with two eggs, two babies, but one was apparently kicked out of the nest or left the nest early. There is hardly room for two birds in the tiny nest. A few days ago the second one left the nest.

Hummingbirds are so much fun to watch in the yard or at a feeder.

If you like bird photographs check out Abe Lincoln's Bird Blog. Abe has some great photographs of various birds and a few animals.

And for more of Ted Grussing's Photography visit his website.

Photographs © Copyright 2009 by Ted Grussing. Used with permission.


~Linda

Sedona, Arizona

I Promise You a Rose Garden

Every year in early April I am amazed how fast my roses bushes have grown in the few short weeks since their drastic pruning. When pruned in the last week of January or first week of February the barren bushes, trimmed back to a few stalks, appear they will never recover to bring fourth again the beautiful roses.

While growing up we had rose gardens and I hated those things...stickery thorns...which seemed to outdo the beauty of the blooms, and I didn’t want anything to do with them. But that all changed. My late husband, Don Pendleton loved flowers and every spring we would visit the nursery and come home with a load of flowers for our patio and garden. During the hot summer months, Don would faithfully and enjoyably water the pots and our garden at least once if not twice a day. When we bought our home in Sedona, Arizona in 1994 we added rose bushes after discovering how well roses grew at the 4500 elevation. Sedona is a Planting Zone 6. Surprisingly, they did well in the summer heat and the summer monsoons (late June to September) may have helped along with the cooling off in the evenings and nights. Before Don passed away, we had planted about eight rose bushes among our lava rock landscaping and in the next two years I added to that number and had 28 roses, including an area of miniatures, all planted in direct sun. I really hated to leave my beautiful roses when I sold my home and moved back to California.

I now have ten rose bushes here in Northern California (Planting Zone 9) in their third year. And I have to say, the roses do not tolerate the heat here as well as in Sedona or even in Southern California. At this time of spring and after the first early blooms that are usually not too perfect, they are pretty and will do well until the heat arrives. July and August are not good for the roses here at all, and blooms can scorch in those hot afternoons of 100 degrees or more. The rose bushes are on automatic watering drip systems, but I have to admit that I do not give any of my patio flowers the attention that Don would have given. It’s just too darn hot. So this year I will not spend my usual one hundred dollars at the nursery but instead will pot a few more geraniums which seem to tolerate the heat and don’t need the constant watering that other potted flowers need. The potted geraniums even made it through the frost this winter just fine.

A couple of my favorite roses are the Brandy Rose, above, and the Peace Rose, below. I took the photos a couple of days ago.

~ Linda

Author Interviews by Linda

Recently I did a long interview/discussion with best-selling author Richard S. Prather, creator of the Shell Scott Mystery series. I hoped to create an unique and informative interview with a look at Richard S. Prather’s long writing career and his life. He is now eighty-five years of age. I believe we accomplished what we set out to do. I recently posted the interview to my late husband’s website, http://www.donpendleton.com

It was in 1950 that Richard’s first Shell Scott mystery novel, The Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published by Fawcett’s Gold Medal Paperback Originals. His successful and best-selling Shell Scott series of thirty-six novels plus four short story collections, published between 1950 and 1987, have sold over 40 million copies in the United States and have enjoyed foreign language publication, selling millions more world-wide. In addition to the Shell Scott mysteries, Richard penned three novels under pseudonyms. He wrote the first Dragnet novel based on the television show, Dragnet titled, Dragnet: Case No. 561, published under the name, David Knight; used that same pseudonym for the initial publication of Pattern for Murder, later republished by Gold Medal Books as The Scrambled Yeggs by Richard S. Prather; and used the pen name Douglas Ring for The Peddler, which was later republished under his own name by Gold Medal. He also published a number of short stories; and lent his name to the Shell Scott Mystery Magazine. The Peddler, a non-Shell Scott book, is now back in print, released by Hard Case Crime in November, 2006.

I enjoy doing interviews with authors. On the sidebar, Author Interviews by Linda Pendleton, in addition to the Prather interview, you will find links to two other interviews I’ve done with friends. Athena Demetrois, medium and trance-channel for the spirt guide, James Martin Peebles, Dr. Peebles being the subject of two of my nonfiction books. Athena hopes to soon publish her book on her journey of healing and spiritual growth. Her life story is an important one as she suffered sexual abuse as a very young child, and in her search for God she had a spiritual awaking and found healing. The other interview is with E. Nora Amrani, metaphysician, and author of American Indian Women Poets: Women Between Worlds.

I have also added links on the sidebar to two of my slide show meditations. Soul Reflections features my original nature photos, famous quotations, and beautiful instrumental music by Carey Landry. The second, Forgiveness Meditation also features a beautiful song by Carey Landry. If you need a few minutes to escape from the chaos of the day, I believe you will find the meditations enjoyable and relaxing.

Also on the sidebar are new links to my ECards and to my Sedona, Arizona original photographs. Please visit my free Ecards and send them to your friends and loved ones. I lived in among the beautiful red rocks of Sedona for nine years. I hope you enjoy viewing the beauty of nature.

Linda