Clean Fruit - Thursday 7/27/2006

I think of myself as a person who is reasonably careful without being paranoid or petrified by the stuff she hears on the morning news. But recently I’ve started washing my fruits and vegetables with fruit soap that I bought at Trader Joe’s. It just seems prudent. And I find that I like my veggies and fruit without a layer of wax.

And on an unrelated note, I believe that the hummingbird outside my library window knows that it is I who replenishes the syrup in the feeder. No, really. He just came buzzing up to the window and hovered meaningfully. He quite possible made eye contact—who is to know for certain in such a tiny face?—and then backed away and looked at the feeder as if to say, “Forget something?”

Upon checking the feeder, I found it empty. So I rinsed and refilled it with fresh syrup from the fridge. I’d no sooner regained my seat here by the window than the little fellow came back, looked in at me again, and then landed on the sticky full feeder. He is even now leaning back and peering around the side of the feeder.

Is that an appreciative gleam I see in his eye? “It’s almost as if the humans understand when we need more nectar!”

[Good grief, can you tell I'm reading Melville?]