Dragonfly Ranch

There are four or five bird houses on the ranch, but so far this is the only one we’ve seen in use. It seems to be occupied by a pair of sparrows.

This was planted as part of a group of mixed ornamentals. This blossom is at least 8 inches across.

Update 3/28/14: Sorry about that. I thought it was a strange looking dogwood, but it’s a magnolia.

I’ve been working on the roses on and off during the last two weeks. I’m not particularly partial to roses — they strike me as fussy and demanding, and most of the roses I’ve seen outside of blooming season aren’t attractive plants. And beyond that, they fight back when you work on them. But we have forty or fifty roses, so I’m pitching in to see if I can come to terms with them.

Most of the roses are in the rose garden, so I’ve concentrated there. I pruned to the best of my ability and fed them rose food left behind by the previous owners.

Two of the half-dozen roses by the pool have bloomed already, no thanks to my efforts, but the rose in the photo is the first to bloom in the formal rose garden.

A couple of days ago a rufous hummingbird visited the feeder. That’s the guy on the left. As far as I can tell, all the hummingbirds we’ve seen otherwise have been Anna’s hummingbirds — the other two in the photo, female (center) and male (right). The rufous has a striking rust-colored back, while Anna’s are iridescent green.

Phil and our neighbor Chris work very hard all day, closely supervised by the pups.

Not to brag (too much) but aced the written exam. And they even let me register the car!

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