Kay and I celebrated 18 years of marriage on Sunday, September 2; it’s been a great 18 years, too. Tim and Rosie, friends from the Rio Grande Valley visited after church, and we reminisced about old time and talked about future plans.

We played golf together in the Hot Springs Village Duffers annual member/guest scramble—I played poorly—and celebrated the winners at a cookout a couple days later.

Those clubs and organizations which took a hiatus over the summer have begun meeting again; for me, it’s the Camera Club and the VMUG (Village Mac Users Group—all things Apple).

In early September, we began to see a significant increase in the number of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the feeders, a sure sign that migration is in full force. And then on the 11th, a leucistic female Ruby-throated Hummingbird showed up. Though not as rare as true albino hummingbirds, leucistic hummingbirds are still rare but are seen more often than true albinos. Like “normal” hummingbirds, leucistic forms have black eyes, feet, and bills, but their feathers may be pure white, buffy, tan, or gray instead of green or some other “normal” color. We enjoyed her for 7 days, almost to the hour, before she migrated south.

Leucistic female Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the rain

Female Leucistic Ruby-throated Hummingbird

With a bit of cool weather, I joined other HSV oldies for cycling the Arkansas River Trail in North Little Rock and Little Rock while Kay shopped. This is one of my favorite bicycle trails. The ride begins at the Clinton Presidential Library, crosses the Arkansas River, follows the Arkansas River upstream to the Big Dam Bridge crossing the Arkansas River again, then along the river to Two Bridges Park, and finally to the US Army Corps of Engineers campground at Maumelle Park—out and back is some 30 miles.

Rest Station at Maumelle COE Park

Cook’s Landing near the Big Dam Bridge