Broken Gate, New Flower

I stepped outside this morning to provide some aid to my husband.

I walked right back in and grabbed my camera.

It's not fall.  This is my red leaf maple.

We had a broken gate.  I was providing a small amount of assistance while my husband worked on the repair.

The repair went so well that we moved to the back to fix another gate.  My camera spied our bird feeder from a completely different angle.

I have given up trying to photograph the hummingbirds at this feeder.  My camera has refused to focus, until this morning, when the new angle made all the difference.

The birds were not bothered by the noise.

They were also not bothered by an empty feeder.

We have well-defined job descriptions in our household, and feeding the birds is not in my domain.

Don't worry.  The other feeder was full.

I was completely surprised this morning by this flower.  Big as life, there it was in my garden.  I have never seen it before.