I am smitten this summer with hummingbirds. Well, with two of them. It began with a colorful glass bulb of a feeder that I received as a birthday gift in the spring. A perfect gift.

I began to follow the maps online showing the birds’ weekly progress across the continent, all heading specifically for our street. Soon friends began sharing the news that a hummingbird had arrived at their feeders. My first one took several weeks longer. And when he did, I rejoiced to see this determined little butthead shoot straight across the window, freeze in mid-air, pause for a quick drink before he backed up, switched gears and vanished.

Poof. Over days and weeks, the back and forth zips across the window became so frequent that we decided there had to be two of them, taking turns at the spout. And finally, around the middle of July, two arrived at the same time. Now they perform aerial pirouettes together, swan dives to nowhere, miniature chest-bumps in mid-air. I am hoping that, before they leave, a third appears, a microscopic offspring.

Congratulations to Shaelah Huntington on her new job. Her dream job, in fact. Shaelah graduated this year from Yale with a masters degree in pediatric nursing, with a specialty in diabetes, and will be working at Children’s Hospital in Boston, where she received treatment during her childhood.

More congratulations. Both Henry and Robert Hambardzumian earned gold medals in their categories at the wrestling world’s summer nationals in Atlantic City. The boys are grandsons of Anna Alley.

Congratulations and happy anniversary to George and Andrea Hartman, Monday, August 5. Birthday greetings to Tristan Atwood on Monday and to Keston Smith on Thursday. And belated Happy Birthday wishes to Allen Whiting who celebrated the same day as his gallery opening this past Sunday at the Davis House Gallery.

Jeanne Staples, Cindy Kane, Ross Coppelman and David Wallis are the artists exhibiting at the Granary Gallery opening today, Friday, August 2. On-going this week at the Field Gallery are works by Susie White, Jennifer Brown and James Carter. And Margot Datz brings her fanciful paintings to the Grange for a one-day, one-woman show Saturday, August 3.

Lots of films coming up at the Grange. Rescued Hearts is a film based on the work done at Misty Meadows and screens at the Grange on August 7; Meanwhile, a docu-poem on race, racism and resistance, is August 2, and Butterfly in the Sky tells the history of the long-running PBS series Reading Rainbow. It screens on August 4 with LeVar Burton leading a discussion after the film.

Zelda Gamson talks with Nan Doty about her newly-released memoir Don’t Play Like a Girl at the library on August 3. There is also plenty of music at the library next week. Check out the library website for the schedule.