This week has been a little slower and more relaxed than the first two, but we have continued to make progress.
We have cleaned out and dramatically improved three of the four herb beds that we created last spring. Planting is still in progress.
We dug up and discarded all of the trees in our little citrus orchard except one badly damaged tangerine. The others were completely dead. They have been replaced with a peach tree, two goji berry bushes, with the hole ready for an apple tree.
We also replaced the beautiful, but very frozen, lantana with a rose bush and added two more roses to the collection.
The birds are back! We have seen all our old favorites and added new ones to the list.
The hummingbirds have made a dramatic come-back. We were afraid that the cold winter had put the hurt on our tiny friends, but they seem to be tougher than they look. We have a large group - at least four males - I'm thinking there may be five or six, but they won't sit still for a good count. That means there are a bunch of females sitting on nests. With good weather, there should be a fine crop of little ones soon.
Stanley decided we didn't have enough corn planted, so he enlarged our vegetable garden to allow for three more rows. I'll be sending out invitations to the corn feed as we get closer to harvest.
We also planted out the okra and watermelon and tomatoes. Keep your fingers crossed.
Some things are still in the seed trays. They are just too little to put in the garden, but they seem to be growing fast and tolerating the wind and sun with no problem.
We are making preliminary plans for our trip out in April. First to Katie's wedding, and then on to Chicago, back to Flagstaff, San Diego, Sacramento, Seattle and on to Alaska. Lots of reservations to be made.
What are we reading? Rick Steves' Spain 2011, The Paris Wife, Majorca: Paradise Not Lost.
We had a couple of remarkable sunsets last week; still no rain; quite a bit of wind. Temperatures climbed to 85 one afternoon; they dropped to 45 one night. Most afternoons aren't nearly that warm and most nights are quite a bit warmer.
Solo Vino continues to be admired by all.
We went to a birthday party on Saturday night. Rudolfo, the man who worked as construction boss here at the hacienda for several years, has moved on to bigger and better construction jobs. His music career is also taking off. What a nice surprise it was when we realized he was the lead singer and guitar player for the party's live music. We affectionately call him "Don Coyote" because when he worked here, he was known to break out in song - loud and long - at the drop of a hat, nail, whatever. It's hard to imagine a man more pleased with his life.
