Summer Hummers & Bummers

The summer hummers are back for a season of love in their sugar shacks. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me every year when that first little hummingbird shows up, scouting the area to be sure that Hummingbird Farms is open for summer camp. In no time at all, that one little scout goes and tells his family & friends that they’ll be spending yet another summer at their favorite camping spot.

And then they eat me out of house and home.

I think I need to start growing sugar cane instead of lavender … Or at least buy stock in Imperial Sugar. Are they a publicly traded company?


I know, I know... my photography leaves much to be desired. Don't worry - Lisa is coming out here later this week and I'm sure she will get some great shots that truly document the number of hummers out here.

Along with the summer hummers, we also get visitors of another sort. We can call them the summer bummers…



This beauty bummer was actually on the curtains in my morning room! As soon as I saw it I started hollering for Jack to get a ruler. Because he never asks me questions anymore about why I need certain things, (he gave up doing that a long time ago) he just said, “I don’t know where a ruler is.” So of course I hollered back to go dig in the junk drawer in the kitchen.

And to hurry.

I guess he couldn’t stand the suspense any longer, being that I kept saying, “hurry, hurry, hurry, oooooh, oh Lord, ooooh, oh Lord!” He finally came into the morning room to see what was going on.

Jack: WHOA!

Me: Isn’t it just fantastic?

Jack: Well, it’s big, that’s for sure. Why do you need a ruler?

Me: So I can take its picture with a ruler next to it. I want everyone to see how huge it is.

Jack: I can't find a ruler.

Me: Well, I need something fast before this thing eats us. There! Grab that bottle of lotion; that will at least put into perspective the size of this thing.

So there it is, a beautiful summer bummer. I guess he's scouting for the perfect summer camp, too. I'm just hoping his extended family doesn't like the taste of lavender, especially if they decide that they, too, enjoy camp at Hummingbird Farms... We could be in trouble!

Now don’t let this picture deceive you. You see, after I snapped the picture I realized that the size of this creature wasn’t done justice being that Jack was holding the lotion bottle. Jack, you see, has huge football player hands, making my lotion bottle and summer bummer look meager and weak.

You’re just going to have to take my word for it! This mutant ninja grasshopper summer bummer was bigger than any of our summer hummers!

Lavender Market in Fredericksburg! And, oh yeah - I'm back!

Hi y'all! Yes, I'm back ... I would go into great detail about the family matter that has kept me away for the last 3 weeks, but to be honest with you I'm just not in the mindset to want to blog about it. One of these days, in time, I might post about it. But, for now -

That's all I have to say about that...

On an entirely different note, I wanted to let y'all know about the Lavender Market in Fredericksburg. To be honest with you, it's a kind of bitter-sweet story, but a good story none the less. Here's the sweet:

The Lavender Market in lovely Fredericksburg has opened! It's located at 339 E. Main, on the corner of Washington & Main.

It's one-stop-shopping for all you lavender lovers out there. In addition to carrying wonderful lavender items from France & England, they are also carrying lavender products from some of the area lavender farms, AND US!

I mean, seriously, who needs French lavender when you have Hummingbird Farms? Oh, wait a minute - at Humminbird Farms we grow French lavender... And English lavender, too!

Here's a close up of the Hummingbird Farms display. I like to look at it in several different dimensions. You see, I get this self-fulfilling head rush thing when I see our products in specialty boutiques...

Okay, I'll stop showing pictures of the same thing and discuss more about the Lavender Market. Now I said a minute ago that this is sort of bitter-sweet for me. Here's the bitter:

Many of you may have shopped at Villa Texas in Fredericksburg. I do admit, Villa Texas was one of my favorite shops in Fredericksburg; it was located in uptown rather than downtown (Lavender Market is downtown). Not to upset any of y'all, but I also must admit that I'm more of an uptown shopper than downtown shopper. This is for various reasons, one being that I just like to say I shop in uptown... It just sounds fancy. But also, I've always been one to travel the less traveled road. It's a sort of non-conformity issue that I can't seem to shake ...

Anyway, I mention Villa Texas in the past tense because it has recently relocated from uptown to downtown, and has transformed with an emphasis on Villa's Lavender Market. Darlene, owner of Villa Texas & The Lavender Market, had too many irons in the fire to continue on with her uptown location. Darlene is a VERY talented architect and has simply gotten too busy keeping up with clients. So, that's the bitter part....

Although I will miss Villa Texas, we're thrilled about the new store and location and wish Darlene all the best. As always, she has put together a precious store with all things lavender. You're going to love it! She's also made it real easy for all us lavender lovers to find everything in one place.

I'll have several more stores across the country to talk about later which are also carrying our products! One such store is called The Vogue!!! Imagine me, little ole' West Texas girl with products in a store called The Vogue!

I'm going to go slap myself silly now ...