10/10/10 – Sunday – What a beautiful day! I have been out of the hospital for 10 days, my fever has been normal for the past 8 days, and I have been able to restart the chemotherapy drug, Tarceva. The weather has been perfect all weekend, I have been outside in my garden and the back yard. Just look at the lush growth in the video of my view out of my front door. Al says the plants are blooming and seeding before the winter; it’s their last chance to seed before the cold weather comes and they die back. Well, I know what’s dying in my body – cancer cells, and they won’t be reseeding!! I continue to claim God’s healing promises every day and to put on the Armor of God every day to keep negative forces away.

There has been a pair of monarch butterflies visiting my garden every day. As Al and I were hanging a bell and some tile plaques in our doorway outside, the butterflies stayed right there. I thought our noise would scare them away, especially when Al rang the loud bell, but they stayed right there in the lantana, flitting from bloom to bloom.

Last night as I sat on the bench just before the sun went down, a tiny reddish-brown hummingbird flew out from under the bench and hovered near my feet at the lantana blooms. I could clearly see its head, about the size of a green pea, and its tiny beak, a quarter of an inch long and no bigger around than a straight pin. These one and a half inch birds are immature ones. No wonder they stay in the lantana and not the inch-long tubular 4 o’clock flowers. Those tiny little beaks can’t reach the nectar in the 4 o’clocks. Then I watched it go from one lantana blossom to another, never staying still. The saying “busy as a bee” should have been “busy as a hummingbird”. These tiny aerialists never stay still!!! Shortly I noticed a black hummingbird, and then another reddish brown one appeared. As long as I sit still on the bench, they flit around me and come as close as 3 inches.

This afternoon I went outside again to see if any butterflies were in my garden. No butterflies but there were 2 mockingbirds in the tubs. They were startled by me and flew onto the truck. I stopped and didn’t go any closer, not wanting to scare them away totally. They did a ritual dance, flying around each other in the air. “Aw,” I thought, “Love birds, like me and Al.” Then one of them flew over to the windmill. It then hopped up on the wheel, which started to spin with its weight. So the bird naturally hopped up to the next step of the wheel but, of course, it kept spinning. Then the bird obviously figured it out, because he hopped over to a stationary part of the windmill! A quick learner!

It is comforting to know that God is taking care of and providing for me just as He does for the butterflies, hummingbirds, and mockingbirds!!

The pictures show me in my friendship outfit. The shirt, hat, scarf and jewelry were all given to me by friends and family. The picture of the garden shows the gorgeous bright blue salvia.