An Update on the Landscape
Reflecting today on the progress I've made with this landscape. As we look out over our work on a daily basis, it is sometimes difficult to truly see how far we've progressed. When I moved into this rental home over 4 years ago, there was very little here in terms of vegetation and virtually no life within it. As I've written before, I could not even find a honeybee to pollinate my newly planted key lime and I had to do the work myself in order to get some fruit. It was a staggeringly barren desert here and, I suspect, much like the landscapes around me. Today, things have changed markedly. I no longer have to hand-pollinate the flowers here as they open and the woody plants are starting to provide some habitat. I still do not have the cavalcade of spring and fall migrants that graced the landscape of my former home, but I'm noticing small changes. A few days ago, I saw a female summer tanager and a pair of white-eyed vireos here. They didn't stay long, bu