Clickingbirds

Hummingbird, a photo by ngawangchodron on Flickr.

"Hummingbirds" is a misnomer. The Anna's Hummingbirds that cluster in the ancient branches of one of the apple trees at this summer's house-sit don't hum, they whir, like something between a very small engine and a very large insect.

They also chirrup as they zoom high into the air, usually in pairs.

For days, I've been wondering what the clicking sound has been in the backyard, the sound of a distant old-fashioned typewriter. Last night, I was down by the compost, frantically harvesting the last of the raspberries which will vanish with July. I heard that surprisingly deep thrum, and looked up as a hummingbird whizzed past my left ear in a streak of green. It hung above my head, sliding sideways every few seconds as if it were a bead on an invisible abacus.

I've watched them through windows for many years here in Victoria, yet this was the first time that I realized: hummingbirds click.

Eureka!

In the midst of a miserable week full of crying jags, rage, injustice, and possibly even cruelty (I've been trying to pluck up the courage to blog about it, but who the hell would want to read it?), I have this small triumph.

Google Images has a new feature called "Search by Image" which allows you to drag-and-drop, or upload an image into the search field. Remember a little while back, I was ruminating on my eleven-year bedazzlement and befuddlement on the origins of this photo which I see every time we have lunch in the Elgin Street Diner? Well, I uploaded the image and the one, single match took me to a French site which informed me that the photographer was Sam Tata, born in China in 1911. From there, all I had to do was "google" Sam Tata and among the many hits was this link:
Coolie Woman, Monsoon, Bombay, India

....to the National Gallery of Canada. It turns out that the gallery has an 1987 print of the 1948 photo, and that Sam Tata died a mere six years ago --- in Sooke, British Columbia. Sooke is 39 kilometres (24 miles) west of Victoria!

Tonight, when the troubles looming on Monday fly in my face like gnats, I'll conjure up this image and hold it against the dark...

Dancing between the rain-drops

When we first came to Hades in 2001, you could still smoke in restaurants. This was a bit of a shock to us because in Victoria, indoor smoking in public places had been banned for some time. Oh, there was a hullabaloo; restaurant owners and particularly pub and bar owners swore it would destroy business. Then everyone noticed that food tasted better and everything seemed cleaner and the fuss abated.

So we came to Ottawa and seemed to fall into a time warp, sitting in the so-called non-smoking sections and emerging into the streets stinking of tobacco anyway. We frequented the diners and delis along Elgin Street in those days, as we were living in a nearby hotel waiting for our house to be vacated. The Elgin Street Diner was one, and through the haze, I would gaze at a mesmerizing photo while waiting for my BLT.

It's still there, eleven years later. Poised like a ballerina about to take the stage, a lithesome lady in a veil hovers beneath a huge umbrella. Monsoon-like rain ricochets off the street around her beautiful bare feet. She makes the summer-suited men lined up across the street look ungainly and identical.

I've asked the diner staff about it; no one seems to know anything about it. I've googled and googled, thinking of every word combination to bring up the image, but am clueless about the identity of the photographer. Any ideas out there? Hello?

I can see the photo more clearly these days. A year or so after our arrival in Hades, smoking indoors in public places was banned. Restaurant and bar owners howled in protest, predicting economic doom. Everyone got used to emerging from eateries smelling of food and not cigarettes. We don't even need the rain to wash us clean.

Update: Some days later, the mystery was solved.