R E F L E C T I O N S

 One day I sat outside on a bench in the carport. We use the carport like a veranda so jokingly I call it our "caranda". Anyway, a hummingbird inspected one windchime then another one. I stopped using the hummingbird feeders after I became unsteady and took them down. The bird seemed puzzled. It flew towards me and hovered about only two or three feet from me. I imagined it asking me what happened to the feeders.  Then it flew away. A praying mantis crashed into the siding behind the bench. At first I thought it was a hummingbird. It rebounded off the wall and landed on the bench next to me. It sat there looking up at me. When I put my hand out it followed it, turning its head and eyes. We sat like this for about half an hour. When I gently touched one of its legs, it flew away. I had a wonderful relaxing time in the fresh air with my two visitors. Or maybe I was the visitor.

I'm continuing to look through some very old items in my hardly organized collection of family items. I can find no one in my family who recognizes the man in this photo. The format of the photograph is called the Formato Margherita. Here's a description from the AI called Bard, developed by Google:   Formato Margherita is an Italian photographic format that measures 12.6 x 8 cm (4.96 x 3.15 in). It was named after Queen Margherita of Savoy, who was queen consort of Italy from 1878 to 1900. The formato margherita was introduced in the early 1900s and quickly became popular because it was larger than the previous standard format, the carte de visite (10.4 x 6.2 cm). This allowed for more detail in the photographs and made them more suitable for framing. The formato margherita was also popular because it could be used to create postcards. This was a new way to share photographs with friends and family, and it helped to popularize the formato margherita even further. The formato m...