By Tessa Pulyer Posted on

Sunday Post 73 | There’s a Hummingbird in the House

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted here @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme

This week ended up being a pretty crazy week. I mentioned in my post last Sunday that I spent the weekend in Chapel Hill to see my daughter’s last dance performance as she is getting ready to graduate from UNC, and that it just so happened that Chapel Hill made it to the final of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. What that meant for me was three late nights in a row followed my three early mornings as I watched the games on Saturday night and Monday night and drove home after the performance on Sunday night. I didn’t get to bed before midnight any of those nights and woke at 6am the next day because I had to. Whew! What a whirlwind!

Over 1000 people attended the dance performance.

Over the years, we have had quite a few unexpected guests in our home – guests from the animal kingdom. When we first moved to Charlotte, we had a large black snake find its way into our dryer vent all the way to the back of the dryer, which of course stopped working. Boy, was that dryer repairman surprised. I am terrified of snakes and had nightmares for at least a month. If we hadn’t of just moved in, I would have pushed for moving.

Then, we had the outside of our house painted and the painters took off the screens and left our bedroom window open just a crack. We awoke in the middle of the night to two bats flying around along with our ceiling fan. Luckily, I’m not scared of bats, and neither is my husband. We opened the window wide, and he shooed them out with something – I forget what now, and I covered my head with the comforter because I did not want them to get caught up in my hair which was somewhat long.

Well, this week, after dinner my husband and I went into our home office. He had left the door to the deck open as well as the screen door. We do this often as it is a second story deck, so birds and flying insects are the only critters we ever see (and once a tree frog, which was cool) and the cats enjoy going out. When we came back into the living room, we had a big surprise when a hummingbird was in the house and somewhat caught between the ceiling fan (which was off) and the ceiling. My Theo was just sitting there watching it with the widest eyes I’ve ever seen. It really freaked him out. I had my husband gently guide the hummingbird back to the door with a broom. It ended up sitting on the broom which worked too. And we were able to safely get it back where it belonged. That is a first. Poor hummingbird! What a fright it had. I tried to get a picture, but I had left my phone upstairs. Oh, well! But, I pulled one from Canva because I just had to have a visual.

Then Friday night we went into downtown Charlotte to dinner and a show. I talk about the show under “what I watched.” And in the middle of the night Friday, my husband was hit with food poisoning. Yikes! We had completely different things to eat and luckily, I did not suffer the same fate.

How was your week?

From NetGalley (widgets and approvals)

Historical Fantasy
A rollicking feminist tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman’s place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. • The first adult novel by the Newbery award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours, except for its most seminal event: the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales, and talons; left a trail of fiery destruction in their path; and took to the skies. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of. Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of this astonishing event: a mother more protective than ever; an absentee father; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and watching her beloved cousin Bea become dangerously obsessed with the forbidden. In this timely and timeless speculative novel, award-winning author Kelly Barnhill boldly explores rage, memory, and the tyranny of forced limitations. When Women Were Dragons exposes a world that wants to keep women small—their lives and their prospects—and examines what happens when they rise en masse and take up the space they deserve.
Romantic Comedy
Lizzie has made endless mistakes. Kitchen fires, pyramid schemes, bangs (of the hair and human variety), you name it, she’s done it… and made a mess of it too. One mistake she’s never made is letting anyone get closer to her than a single hook-up. But after losing yet another bakery job due to her uncontrolled ADHD, she breaks her cardinal rule and has a two-night-stand that changes everything. Once burned, twice shy, Rake has given up on relationships. And feelings. And any form of intimacy for that matter. Yet something about charming, chaotic Lizzie has him lowering his guard. For two nights, that is. Then it’s back home to Australia and far away from the pesky feelings Lizzie pulls from him. But when Lizzie tells him she’s got an unexpected bun in the oven, he’ll do whatever it takes to be a part of his child’s life… except be emotionally vulnerable, obviously. He’s never going to make that mistake again. Through a series of mishaps, totally “platonic” single bed sharing, and an underground erotic baking scheme, Lizzie and Rake learn that even the biggest mistakes can have the most beautiful consequences.
Thriller
From the bestselling and award-winning author comes a wickedly clever and fast-paced novel of greed, revenge, obsession—and quite possibly the perfect murder. Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure … absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer. When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and obsession with revenge. These are just a few of the lies that make up the complex web…and they will have devastating consequences. And while both Vicky and Simon are liars, just who exactly is conning who? Part Gone Girl, part Strangers on a Train, Look Closer is a wild rollercoaster of a read that will have you questioning everything you think you know.
Historical Fantasy
MOST ANTICIPATED SFF BOOK of 2022 by Tor, The Nerd Daily, CrimeReads, BookBub and more! “Ordinary Monsters is a towering achievement: a dazzling mountain of wild invention, Dickensian eccentrics, supernatural horrors, and gripping suspense. Be warned… once you step into this penny dreadful to end all penny dreadfuls, you’ll never want to leave.” —Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fireman and Heart-Shaped Box A STUNNING NEW WORK OF HISTORICAL FANTASY, J. M. MIRO’S ORDINARY MONSTERS INTRODUCES READERS TO THE DARK, LABYRINTHINE WORLD OF THE TALENTS. England, 1882. In Victorian London, two children with mysterious powers are hunted by a figure of darkness—a man made of smoke. Sixteen-year-old Charlie Ovid, despite a brutal childhood in Mississippi, doesn’t have a scar on him. His body heals itself, whether he wants it to or not. Marlowe, a foundling from a railway freight car, shines with a strange bluish light. He can melt or mend flesh. When a jaded female detective is recruited to escort them to safety, all three begin a journey into the nature of difference, and belonging, and the shadowy edges of the monstrous. What follows is a story of wonder and betrayal, from the gaslit streets of London, and the wooden theatres of Meiji-era Tokyo, to an eerie estate outside Edinburgh where other children with gifts – the Talents – have been gathered. There, the world of the dead and the world of the living threaten to collide. And as secrets within the Institute unfurl, Marlowe, Charlie and the rest of the Talents will discover the truth about their abilities, and the nature of what is stalking them: that the worst monsters sometimes come bearing the sweetest gifts. Riveting in its scope, exquisitely written, Ordinary Monsters presents a catastrophic vision of the Victorian world—and of the gifted, broken children who must save it.
Romantic Comedy
LaQuette’s Vanessa Jared’s Got a Man is a debut sexy romantic comedy about a woman getting her groove back and getting a second chance at love…
Women’s Fiction
A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England’s witchcraft trials. Who is the real Hester Prynne? Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Edinburgh for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they’ve arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic––leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country, forced to make her way by any means possible. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other: he is a man haunted by his ancestors, who sent innocent women to the gallows––while she is an unusually gifted needleworker, troubled by her own strange talents. As the weeks pass and Edward’s safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which? In this sensuous and hypnotizing tale, a young immigrant woman grapples with our country’s complicated past, and learns that America’s ideas of freedom and liberty often fall short of their promise. Interwoven with Isobel and Nathaniel’s story is a vivid interrogation of who gets to be a “real” American in the first half of the 19th century, a depiction of the early days of the Underground Railroad in New England, and atmospheric interstitials that capture the long history of “unusual” women being accused of witchcraft. Meticulously researched yet evocatively imagined, Laurie Lico Albanese’s Hester is a timeless tale of art, ambition, and desire that examines the roots of female creative power and the men who try to shut it down.

Did you get any good books this week?

Friday night, after dinner out, we went to a comedy show by comedian Brian Regan. We’ve actually seen him in person a few times over the years and like his clean but humorous show. His been doing standup all of our adult lives and before. What a shock to see him with a head of gray hair now. Time does march on. He mentioned that he had a new show on Netflix of one of his standup routines, so we watched that when we got home.

Did you watch anything good?

  • Monday (April 4, 2022): Book Review of The Burning Pages by Paige Shelton (Cozy Mystery) 4.5 stars
  • Tuesday (April 5, 2022): Mini Book Reviews of Reputation by Lex Croucher (Twisted Regency novel) and In a Garden Burning Gold by Rory Power (Epic Fantasy) – both 4 stars
  • Wednesday (April 6, 2022): WWW Wednesday
  • Thursday (April 7, 2022): Book Review of Crimson Summer by Heather Graham (Crime Thriller) 5 stars
  • Friday (April 8, 2022): Book Blogger Hop: Choosing Favorite Books
  • Monday (April 11, 2022): Spotlight of the BBNYA Silver Winner
  • Monday (April 11, 2022): Blog Tour Book Review 0f Dread Wood by Jennifer Killick (MG Thriller) 5-stars
  • Tuesday (April 12, 2022): Book Review of This May End Badly by Samantha Markum (YA RomCom) 4.5-stars
  • Wednesday (April 13, 2022) WWW Wednesday
  • Thursday (April 14, 2022) Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen (Hard-Boiled Mystery/Thriller) 4-stars
  • Friday (April 15, 2022) Book Blogger Hop: Book Jackets On or Off?

44 Replies to “Sunday Post 73 | There’s a Hummingbird in the House”

  1. Jenny Mcclinton says:

    What a busy and great week you have had, what a great but unusual sight having the hummingbird in your home 😊 Hope you have a great week this week 💕

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Jenny Mcclinton says:

        If it was a big bug that would scare the life out of me lol. I did have a random bird come down the chimney once, eventually managed to get it out 😊

        Liked by 1 person

  2. jessicabookworm says:

    Wow that is some week there, Tessa! Mine pales in comparison! Although I really did enjoy work where we were able to do lots of lovely end of term/Easter activities. Take care and happy reading. 😃

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Kelly says:

    I love hummingbirds, I’m so pleased you were able to guide it to safety! When we were in Arizona, there was one hotel that had sugar water dispensers hanging everywhere, which was of course super popular with hummingbirds, I could watch them for hours.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      This one (if it’s the same one) visits our deck from time to time to enjoy our flowers we put out. We had brought all the flowers in because of a frost warning, and I wondered if it was following the scent of the flowers. Birds don’t typically venture inside our house.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Mareli Thalwitzer says:

    The poor little humingbird… So glad it got out fine. Elza and Stinkie wouldn’t have just looked, they would pounce. We once had to massive doves in the sitting room, Stinkie was nowhere and both birds were bigger than Elza (she is a very small cat) and to this day I have no idea how they got in here! Also just left all the windows and front door open. Let’s not talk about snakes no….

    Once again, you have some great books! Ordinary Monsters seems creepy, but something that I will probably read. And the women who turned into dragons book can only be interesting. Hope you are going to keep us posted!

    Have a good week Tessa and I hope you get some well deserved rest in as well.

    Lots of love,

    Elza Reads

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      We get a few massive doves on our deck. Josie and Theo love to chatter at them. Then Josie gets mad at Theo for getting to close to her to see the birds and smacks him😂. Cats are too funny. Have a great week!

      Like

  5. Louise H says:

    I hope your husband is feeling better. So many wow’s this week, 1000 people at the dance recital is a huge audience – I hope all went well. We don’t have anything as spectacular as hummingbirds in the UK, they are such beautiful birds. We did have a magpie in the house once – it hid in the washing machine – and a starling that kept flying in whenever we had the front door open. Happy reading and have a good week.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      Ooo…a magpie in the washer. Sounds like the start of a fun children’s book! Birds don’t normally come in, probably because of the cats, so the hummingbird was a shocker – for the cats too. And my husband is doing better. Thank you! Have a great week!

      Liked by 1 person

  7. harvee says:

    I have way too many NetGalley books to read! And I have to up my reading and reviewing rate! Too bad about all the wildlife in your part of the world. Birds I love, but bats and snakes, not!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      Even with all of these books, I have managed to get and stay at 80%, which I am very happy about ☺️

      Like

  8. Mia @ Genre Books and Me (@mia_genre) says:

    Oh, the poor bird! They would seem to me to have a delicate heart and maybe die of fright but you were able to get him outside again, which is great. I would be afraid of bats in the house, just because. I’ve seen them flying at dusk outside a few times but prefer not to have nighttime visitors here. My cats would go nuts running circles after them! The only critter,s we get in our home are field mice and unfortunately the score is usually cats 1/mouse 0 when they do.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      In the house with the bats and snake, we would also get little deer mice from time to time. I remember that two got trapped in our recycling bin and deer mice have such big eyes that they are cute, so I set them free far from the house.

      Like

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      They are not. And I was sitting there going, Be gentle! Be careful! Which probably didn’t make it any easier. I was glad when it grabbed a hold of the broom bristles. That made it a lot easier.

      Like

  10. Mae Clair says:

    It sounds like you had a really busy week! I’ve had bats in my house before and even a snake, but a hummingbird? Wow! Poor little guy. I’m glad your husband got him safely outside.

    That’s horrible about the food poisoning. I feel for him. I’ve had it a few times myself, but the last experience was the most wretched imaginable. Hope he’s feeling better now.

    Thanks for the heads up about Brian Reagan. I always loved him. Hubby and I will definitely catch that on Netflix!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      Yay! Someone who enjoys Brian Regan’s stand-up. That Netflix show is very funny.
      Hubby is feeling better. Not 100% but somewhere between 50 and 75%. He decided it was the Brunswick stew, which could be. Have a great week, Mae!

      Like

      1. Mae Clair says:

        Thanks to you, we watched the Netflix show tonight and loved it. Thanks so much for giving it a shout-out, otherwise I would have missed it and we are both longtime B. Regan fans.

        I hope your hubby gets to 100% soon. My guess is that it will be a long while before he eats Brunswick stew again. That’s always been my experience when I get food poisoning.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Lady Tessa says:

          I’m so glad you got to enjoy it! We thought it was pretty funny too.

          I can’t see Brunswick Stew being ordered again anytime soon. He hasn’t felt this bad in a long time but he is getting better. ❤️🤗❤️

          Liked by 1 person

  11. shelleyrae @ Book'd Out says:

    The only things we get in our house are ants and spiders, neither of which are welcome!
    Your latest acquisitions all look very interesting.
    Hope hubby is feeling better

    Wishing you a great reading week

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      He’s definitely getting there. Thank you!

      Ants and spiders are impossible. We had trouble with both in the house that had the snake and bat visitors but our current house has had only minimal insect visitors, surprisingly.

      Like

  12. stargazer says:

    Wow, I wouldn’t want to find a snake inside my house. Luckily, odds are low in the centre of London. Hummingbirds are a different matter. I still wouldn’t want them inside the house, but I love to watch the outdoors. What an adventurous week you had. Hope your husband is feeling better.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      We do love to watch the little hummingbird as he visits the flowers we keep on the deck in the spring and summer. We brought them in Thursday night because there was a frost warning. I’m wondering if he didn’t follow them in. Poor thing!

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Cindy Davis says:

    Oh the poor hummingbird! I imagine that would be awful. Nice book haul, I hope you enjoy them when you get a chance to read them. Have a great week.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Jinjer says:

    I will take a black snake, bats, and a hummingbird over these dang wasps that get in our house a million times over the course of a summer.

    Once my mom brought the hummingbird feeder inside to fill it and suddenly noticed a baby hummingbird was still ON the feeder! She managed to catch it in her hands and carry it back outside safely. This was when she was still living by herself.

    So very sorry about your husband. Food poisoning is awful.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      We get wasps from time to time if I forget to close the screen door in the summer. The cats love to chase them around the house. Lol. I just worry if they actually catch them. I don’t want them to get stung.

      Liked by 1 person

  15. jennielyse says:

    Oh my gosh! I hope that snake wasn’t venemous. I also hope when the repairman found it that it wasn’t still alive! Poor hummingbirds. I love hummingbirds. I wish there was a way that human society could have less affect on the animal kingdom.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      It was just a black/snake – non-venomous. The repairman just said it was pretty beaten up by the dryer fans.
      And I love hummingbirds too. They are so remarkable. Normally that one visits the flowers we keep on the deck but we had brought the flowers in because there was a frost warning. I wonder if he could smell them and just kind of followed the scent on in.

      Like

  16. WendyW says:

    I just love Hummingbirds, but not in the house! Good for you for getting it outside safely, I can just imagine how scared it was.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Carla says:

    What a busy week you had, Tessa. I love hummingbirds, but can’t imagine one in the house. You and your husband are getting good at safely sending nature back out where it belongs. I am going to have to find that Brian Regan special on Netflix, thanks for that trailer. I am watching The Maid on Netflix right now. Have a great week, Tessa.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      You will love his show on Netflix. It’s pretty funny. I still haven’t tried The Maid on Netflix but I’ve heard a bit about it. Hope you’re enjoying it ❤️

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Carla says:

        I am only 5 episodes in and it is interesting. Lots of issues addressed, it is a bit sad, but I am enjoying it.

        Like

  18. Mark says:

    Glad you were able to guide the hummingbird out. That would be a horrible situation for all. I’m not always good with wild life (scares me too much), but I probably would have made it worse while trying to help.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      That is always the risk, isn’t it? I was so glad he decided to hop on the broom. It made it so quick and easy to get him safely out.

      Like

  19. Teri Polen says:

    Just reading about a snake in your dryer will probably give me nightmares, Tessa. Your house seems to attract some creatures! Glad the hummingbird got out safely – Bond would have been going bonkers trying to catch it. Sure hope your hubby is feeling better – what a way to end a fun evening.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Lady Tessa says:

      That was our previous house actually in Charlotte (now we are in Davidson) – it was built in what had been a forest, so it had plenty of creepy crawlers and critters that had formerly made the forest home. The hummingbird is the first encounter we’ve had here. And hubby is feeling a bit better. I’m sure he’ll be 100% soon.

      Liked by 1 person

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