Monday, June 29, 2015

Seeing red

I’m sitting in my bedroom looking out the window at a red bubbly fountain I installed yesterday. I ordered the fountain after a serendipitous chain of events that began with a Facebook post linked to a YouTube video of a hummingbird bathing in the bubbling water of a red urn-shaped fountain.


My new bubbler fountain


The video (posted below) was fascinating. The little hummingbird seemed delighted by the lightly bubbling water cascading down the rippled curve of the shiny red fountain. The tiny bird dipped its head in the wet, shook off the water and, after playfully splashing in the fountain, fluffed out its feathers repeatedly. I don’t know if it was the water, the red color or a combination of the two that drew the hummer, but something about the fountain definitely had an allure. It drew me in as well.




Several days later, I was out doing errands around town, including a stop at Kmart, a store I hadn’t been to for a while. Being a plant enthusiast, I entered through the gardening center instead of the main entry. Although the store’s gardening selection is limited, a display of fountains caught my eye. In the forefront was the exact same model fountain as the one in the video, an aesthetically pleasing red glaze pot artistically crafted of polyresin complete with two sets of LED lights. I was pleased to see a price tag of just $69, a reasonable amount I thought, for a pretty water feature with the potential to attract hummingbirds.

Despite the fair price, I didn’t purchase the fountain that day. Instead, I bought only the items I came into the store for and when I returned home, looked up the fountain online. Surprisingly, the online cost from Kmart was only $50. I quickly added it to my virtual shopping cart. However, before I had time to place the order, my husband Ralph asked me to consult on a repair project he was doing. After that, there was dinner to prepare and various other distractions. Before long, I was too sleepy to contemplate anything other than turning down the covers and tumbling into bed. My online shopping spree remained stalled for that day and the next.

A couple days later, I returned to Kmart’s website and was happy to find the fountain still sitting in my online cart. I was even happier when I noticed that the price had inexplicitly changed. Instead of $50, the Essential Garden Red Glazed Pot Fountain was reduced even more. I could now buy one for just $39. Naturally, I bought two.

So now I sit by my bedroom window gazing out at the new addition to my south-facing garden. I purposely placed the fountain in a garden where hummingbirds regularly feed on the sweet nectar of Wendy’s Wish Salvia and the sticky blossoms of the bottlebrush tree. 


A hummer checks out the red salvia flowers

At some point, the jeweled beauties are bound to notice the fountain and fly over to check it out. I want to be here when they do.

The perfect ending to this story would be if a hummer chanced by as I was typing these words. Unfortunately, that hasn’t yet happened. But I’m patient. It doesn’t have to be today or even tomorrow. I know at some point hummingbirds will find the bubbly water.

Meanwhile, I’m reaping my own benefits from the unexpectedly inexpensive garden feature. The 17-inch tall, under-eight-pound bubbler may be small, but it packs plenty of serenity in its compact shell. One can do worse in the daytime than sit by a bedroom window gazing out at a waterfall in a flower garden, waiting for something wonderful to happen and wondering when.


A hummingbird rests on a branch
I also wait patiently for something wonderful to happen...


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