afraid of nothing, evidently

21 years ago

I may take the long way round the barn to get this back to hummingbirds, but my little garden has seen some changes this year, and this one takes the cake. they finally tore down the house closest to my garden. 5 months ago, there were 15 houses on my side of the street. now, there are 5. the private boy's academy across the street wants to buy all 5 left so they can have the city close the street, and pave it all for parking for their enormous football games. they reneged on their deal not to tear any down until they owned them all, and demolished the 10 they already own to avoid blockbusting charges, as they'd evicted all their tenants 2 years ago and stopped maintaining the properties or even mowing.

I rent, so I'm just twistin in the breeze, watching it all go down, trying to have a guerilla hummingbird garden in the middle of it all, but the owner/occupant neighbors are pretty upset with the strong arm tactics of the school, which has deep pockets and powerful alumni, and will get to do whatever it wants to anyway, I guess.

I'm going to fire my own salvo in this battle soon. I've bought bird/bee/butterfly wildflower seed packs that I'm going to scatter when they sow grass seed. if they mow regularly, why, no one will be the wiser. if they don't, I'll have a little meadow next door.

anyhow, when I first heard about the demolitions last spring, I was really worried that it would disrupt hummingbird activity here in my little world. I didn't really consider that whereas construction noise might last a season or a year, demolition noise lasts, oh, about 12 minutes per house.

this morning, the diesel shovel pictured below was scooping debris up out of the basement and dumping it in a metal rolloff dumpster. it sounded like godzilla and thunder out there. a particularly loud noise made me look out the window, and there was mr. ruby-throat at the far feeder about 10 feet to the right of this garden bed, maybe 20-25 feet at the most from the swinging back end of the diesel shovel. this hummer was not afraid of that shovel, and I bet he'd have chased it off if it got too close to his feeder!

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Comments (10)

Mint_for_you
21 years ago
Your garden is so pretty!!! Even with the back hoe in the background. Mint for you
sarahbn
21 years ago
That's awful standard! But I'm glad the hummers okay and your garden is beautiful I hope they wait untill fall to tear it down. Sarah
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mimidi
21 years ago
Standard a little bit of heaven in the middle of all this destruction. Your garden is so pretty and the grass is so green. You have done such a great job. I hope that when you move you will pot your plants and take them with you.

I see you cannas blooming. Mine are too. I have the Robert Cline and an orange one blooming now. I have been so pleased to see the hummingbirds feeding at them. Another flower I never thought I would have again.
standard65
Original Author
21 years ago
a backhoe! that's the word I was groping for last night. thank you, mintforyou.
sarah, my landlady is one of the 5 holdouts, so they won't be tearing down my garden this year. one year, though, it will be a parking lot when the hummers return, and it gets me thinking about large scale environmental destruction and habitat loss.
mimidi, take your pictures on a cloudy day. it makes things look greener in the pics. I will definitely be taking most of the perennials with me. I'm going to leave the butterfly bush, japanese honeysuckle, and poison oak for the school to deal with.
I still can hardly believe that hummer fed right next to the backhoe while it was in operation.
flowerpowereverett
21 years ago
Mr Famous Amos vs The Might Backhoe. I love it. That is amazing how fearless the hummingbirds can be. It is pretty discouraging to think that even those beautiful trees will be gone as well. No wonder you are being so careful about where you move. There used to be a field around my neighborhood where they actually had buffalo. Kind of a landmark, but guess what? It is gone now and the talk is a big box store is going to go in.
Birdlegs
21 years ago
Standard,
I Hope when you do have to move you find a hummer heaven. It's funny that noise dosn't bother them. I'm afraid to cough when I see one.
standard65
Original Author
21 years ago
well, they came back for the garage. I don't know if you can see the hummer near the feeder in the first pic, feeding during the demolition. things got out of hand when a ceiling joist came over the lot line. amos picked up the backhoe in his claws and flew off. haven't seen it since.
;-)
amos is now enjoying a new shephard's hook.
wardw
21 years ago
If ever pictures were poetry, these are. They stand for much of what is wrong with the world these days. How small and frail the green garden looks, then the thin fence, and the backhoe and all the destruction. It is a sad thing, and I'm sorry that any of us has to live with it.
standard65
Original Author
21 years ago
yeah, ward, it really is symbolic of larger things.

joni mitchell was right:
they paved over paradise and put up a parking lot...
sarahbn
21 years ago
Pictures are worth a thousand words! That's terrible and it happens everywhere and in every community (I will probably get in trouble for this but the courts ruled emminent domain over private property So I guess that means real estate developers because they line the politicians pockets! Sarah