It feels like an omen

A friend wrote and said that while sitting outside at home being pensive a hummingbird zipped around his face for a few seconds humming and buzzing zipping back and forth examining his head and his face and all that felt kind of awesome. The Botanic Garden is one block away. That could be it.

The way he described his brief interlude with nature and that being surprise and occurring inside urban sprawl and filling with hope, put me in mind of Carlos Castaneda's humor that is made apparent right off in his Don Juan series. The aspiring anthropologist, a student interested in psychedelic mushrooms, visits an authentic native American shaman and approaching his subject obliquely and academically he describes something odd or coincidental that happened and characterized it to Don Juan as an omen. Don Juan, the shaman said, "No, you dope, that's not an omen that's a sign." Later, through their conversation Don Juan makes clear he really does not want to associate with the young white guy but he understood he was to expect an apprentice. Voicing his hesitancy to Castaneda right then a crow flew by and cawed overhead. Castaneda said, "that's a sign." Don Juan snapped, "That's not a sign, that's an omen!" The dopy student can't even tell the difference between a sign and an omen.

I said, "Those little birds feel like an omen." And when it's just you and your thoughts then those bird really do.

"Wow. Do you think the little bird is sending a message?"

Don't be daft I meant to say, yes, the message is, 'feed me.'

"I don't know."

He's more excited about this bird visitation than usual so I offered a feeder. He'll stop by next week to pick one.

The three from antique bottles are good for low hummingbird traffic, or for experimentation, or for goofy decoration. They don't hold very much. So no big batches of syrup wasted. The other four are commercial blown glass. All four of those are rather heavy.

I like these being placed with people who want them. The first is too impractical and not recommended. What was I thinking? This is boxed and ready to go. Indulge please, if I've shown these before. These are the three remaining from bottles and wire and marbles and stones.