We had to name “the boat.” I came up lists of gods and goddesses. Joe came up with groups of animal names. We asked the kids. The finalists that I remember were Shiver, Charm, and maybe Zephyr, the west wind.
Joe had all kinds of cool names for groups of animals – did you know a “shiver” is a group of sharks? Or a “wreck” a group of seabirds (that clearly didn’t make the short list of boat names).
Here’s a link to more.
A “charm” is a group of hummingbirds. At our house in Colorado, we regularly had hummingbirds visiting after we finally put up the feeder that I bought several years prior. We had a hummingbird feeder because my mother believes that her father (my grandfather) was reincarnated as a hummingbird. Why she believes that, I don’t know. I’ll have to ask.
Part of the reason we are able to spend time in Europe is because my grandfather was Irish and I was able to get Irish citizenship by descent. So, in a way, he is a patron of our trip.
In any case, the hummingbird, despite its apparently nasty personality (they’re aggressive and always hungry, therefore aggressive), seemed like a special creature. And “charm” is a nice word to have attached to you in some form.
I’m hoping that, while a hummingbird on its own might be rather unpleasant, when grouped with others, their unattractive traits blend to make a charm-ing combination? I hope that’s the case with our family! Not that we have any unattractive traits that we would speak of . . .