Night visitor

It was mid 40's when I sat out on the porch with my cat and my coffee at 6:45 and I got buzzed by a hummingbird . This shot was taken around 7:30 AM. The colors are golden at that time and change quickly.



The morning calls me. As soon as I get my garden in place and get some plants, I'll be like Nona, tromping around outside in the morning in my boots with hoe and rake in hand.

You never know what you'll encounter up here in the mountain.
We bought a 4' X 8' piece of lattice to push tight against the house and secure in the railing as a large gate across the porch. If Maxine wants out as the sun is coming up in the morning or dusky at night and I feel it's too dangerous to let her off the porch, I put the lattice up and she can sleep in a chair or be free on the porch. She loves to look through the rails. The air was calm last night, no winds when we went to bed. This morning when I opened the kitchen door to let her out, the lattice had been pushed away from the railing at the bottom, still attached at the top. Some nights we get visited by a small cat, maybe one of the neighbors cats, maybe a small bobcat, because I find a spray spot in the morning. Natural methods of deterring cats is to place citrus peels around so I save our orange peels and place them out on the porch along with the lattice gate. I didn't put any out last night, but somehow I really don't think a little orange peel would have deterred out nocturnal visitor.