The madrone project

I arrived at CMO shortly after sunrise this morning. It's always a treat to get my first glimpse as the oasis comes into view.

My plan was to fill feeders and then work on the madrone project. I made a good start, but then talked myself into postponing it until tomorrow. Here's the "before" picture taken after I dumped my first bucket of dirt.

Notice how puny the madrone on the left edge of the photo looks. I put rocks on its south side, but that's not enough. It needs more, so I'm going to pile up dirt on top of that little yucca until I get a slope going down to the rocks. Then I'll add more rocks. What makes the project a killer, besides my age, is that I have to crawl under there with each bucket to empty it. Not room enough for the wheel barrow. Here's another madrone planted at the same time, 18 years ago, that looks much better. I made a slope on the south side of it not long after I planted it. The bare limbs you see in front of it is a Goldenball Leadtree. It may not look like it, but it's nice and healthy. Then a Gray or Mexican Blue Oak is on the very right edge of the photo.

I'm hoping the puny madrone will perk up eventually. I've lost a lot of the madrones that I've planted. They're difficult, but since it's survived 18 years, I'm optimistic that I can make it look better than it does now.

So after postponing that project shortly after starting it, I went to Lajitas to see if I could photograph my nemesis Halloween Pennant dragonfly. I actually did see one, but alas, it would not land and I eventually lost sight of it. Here is some type of "walking stick."