First of all I have to apologize to Queenie because she is not fat but has her feathers all puffed up because of the cold conditions. Sorry Queenie it was just my first impression. And then Rebecca said those are the Anna’s Hummingbirds that do winter over. OK.

I broke out my two trusty bird books and checked on what was written about the Anna. The Peterson said it was basically an Oregon, California, Mexico bird and casual (means marginal) up to southern Vancouver Island, Canada. And the Audubon guide said it stays year around near Victoria which is at the south end of Vancouver Island which is a little north of us here in Seattle. OK, so it seems given the right micro environment and some food source which I suspect has to be human provided would suffice to hold them over this far north. So, Queenie’s color, size and markings lined up with the Anna also, not that she knows that word. For habitat the Peterson said chaparral, broken woodlands, gardens. Maybe add hospitals, don’t you think?

Why is this even remotely important I had to ask myself? Did I just need something to blog about? Am I boring my readers with random baloney? I really had to think about this last evening. And what I came up with was that one of the lessons of the Camino was that everything and everyone that we come into contact with on our daily walk has a message for us. First we have to recognize that fact and then second we have to learn how to decode it and then to interpret it. Somethings are easy as getting handed an orange by a smiling pilgrim that you don’t know. Or have the tip of the perfect pyramidal rock come up though your boot sole and line up perfectly with your perfectly painful blister. Yike isn’t really the word that you scream. Or maybe it something more subtle like coming across a perfect little patch of shade or the perfect or imperfect wildflower.

Maryka, the dear, reminded me of the heart rocks that would appear as you walked and especially on a tough uphill stretches would they be welcomed. They were saying that you have the heart to do this, keep going. Thanks Maryka.

So, what does Queenie say? Here I am stuck at the hospital on a beautiful day getting a gallon chemo cocktail pumped into me and feeling pretty marginal. And just out the window is this little fat hummingbird living her life on her species margins and doing her very best. Aren’t we kind of “birds of a feather” as they say? I like it, can you tell?

Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve here but Brisbane and Sydney are about three and a half hours into New Years Day. Yea! Looks like Sherif is next in Cairo. OK, it looks like we should just give a big global Happy New Year at this point. Love you all wherever you find yourself now, Felipe.