Madrones and ramblings

I figured out a way to get the dirt behind the madrone tree without crawling under the bushes. I carry the bucket of dirt around to the other side of the tree, stepping on the edge of the water feature,  plus I propped a bush out of the way. Still slow going, but every bucket helps the tree a little more. I'm not sure if it's because of madrone's symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi, or just to keep the roots cooler. Anyway, I guess the fungi does better that way.

Here's the other madrone that has had the man-made (woman-made) south slope for over 15 years. This photo was taken from the opposite side from the one I posted yesterday. So you can see why I'm making a slope for the other madrone. Just hope it does the trick.

Even though I've had twice as much rain already this year as I had in 2011, it's still only a third of normal rainfall. But we're forecast for rain, so I'm ever hopeful.

It's hard to force myself to water the trees when rain is forecast, but if I don't, then I won't have time to water them before I have to go back to town if it doesn't rain. And it's also hard to water trees when I keep wanting to go to Lajitas and look for the Halloween Pennant. Plus someone photographed a Cruiser species of dragonfly that I've never seen. Well, sort of, never. I think I may have seen it yesterday, but it flew before I could get a photo. I am going back in the morning, but really had the urge to go today.

I think it's so awesome to be able to visit Lajitas and Gage Gardens (Marathon) that take way more resources to create than I could ever do. Millions of dollars. Even though the justification for creating them is probably to give their hotel guests something to do while they're visiting, or so more people come to their hotels, or golf course, it's still a treasure. 

While taking a short rest, I watched this ant carry a feather for a long ways. Over the pink rock (upper right in first photo) was just part of its journey, wherever, for whatever. I ran for my video camera but when I got back it was gone. Probably a gust of wind helped it along its way.

During another rest break I watched a Verdin building a nest. It was working at lightning speed, all over the nest. Since I finished my nest building in 1979, I can more readily identify with the ant these days than the Verdin.