
We've been living in our new place for a year now and it really is okay - comfortable, spacious, nice view of the woods in the canyon outside the living room window but there are days when I miss my hummingbird garden. The first time we saw one it stopped at a random basket we'd hung just because it was nice to have outdoor flowers after years of no yard and no balcony apartments. We thought it was a dragonfly at first but after a few more visits we realized there really are hummers in the middle of the city.

Over the next eight summers we got good at planting gardens they were bound to love and since we were east facing (with Mt Hood in the distance) we grew flowers that like full sun but some shade as well - fuchsias and lotus vines.
The building was purchased by developers the winter before last and everyone was given 30 days notice to vacate. It was bad enough as it was but thank goodness it was winter since at least the pots were already empty and the hummingbirds used the liquid feeders.
We moved to a little house whose only benefit was that it was still close enough for us to walk to our jobs while we waited for this place to have an opening. The medical students and young doctors come and go in summer.
It's nice but the balcony is tiny, open slat boards with a balcony beneath so the water might drip on heads. No garden but we keep the nectar stocked and even though the balcony doors are over in a corner we hear them buzzing and slurping. Sometimes we even see them - iridescent green with pinpoint black eyes.
We pass the building that had eight summers of hummingbird garden and it's still mostly empty but the hummingbirds came with us.