The other night I was leaning against the tree in a very comfortable spot but realized the leafcutter ants were up to something so I got out of their way, to see so many of them going by like a great river.

They try to poison them here and I think they are a species that need protection, and they never take out a whole garden, only a little bit, unless things are really out of balance or something. But you can use soap bubbles if you need to keep them away from plants. My plants some consider weeds and they come and go. They were cleaning out the texas purple sage. Well it will come back and they waited for it to finish blooming. It needs trimming anyways too.

So then I went out to see the morning and see what birds were around. I have had a lot of good experiences with birds. They left a trail last night of seeds. They look like mesquite seeds, but I am not sure, and so I will leave those there and see what happens. I followed the trail over to the fence and found a dove's feather over by where I buried a dove in the summer. One had died, and I cried a lot... then I buried her and then just moments later another dove flew out of the sky and landed in my hand. I put him in the Buddha's lap and he made some cooing sound and then flew off into the sky. Then many doves started to come around. Also many other birds.

I already wrote about the 8 hawks a while back. They flew in a circle together then split off in pairs in 4 directions. They must have been Cooper's hawks because they fly together like that but at the time I thought they were red tailed. I had seen some other red tailed ones recently.

I love the birds. So many come around. Every day there is a beautiful mockingbird announcing morning. Yesterday a hummingbird flew over my head. I fill the fountain out front for the birds. So do some others here.

I love the ants too. They always leave little gifts. So the ants reminded me of the doves again. A lot of them have come around. I won't ever forget the doves. I put the feather up there on a little place with the vines for her and her mate.