I spent the beautiful sunny gardening yesterday digging mud. I got the old pond pipes out, mostly, and the new valve is installed so I could finally move a lot of soil back where it belonged. More rain is expected tonight, so I took advantage of the dry day.
However digging mud creates no pretty pictures, so for eye candy, just some of the Aloe arborescens flowers in peak bloom. We saw then along the side of the road as we took our walk. These neighborhood Aloe clumps hang off rocky outcrops and vertical slopes, as they do in their natural range in southern Africa--no wonder they look happy and healthy. The clumps must be twenty, thirty, or more years old as they are 10 feet (3 m) or more across. Hummingbirds fighting over the nectar added to the show, but the hummers didn't stick around for pictures.
Unless you'd rather have a picture of some mud?
I had a digging day yesterday too. What's surprising here is that the garden is not solid mud. Some of the soil is downright friable. Probably due to the fact that a thick layer of the smoke tree's leaves and rain came down at the same time, maybe shedding some of that rain onto the pathways. I tried that aloe for cut flowers but it sheds sticky florets all over the mantle. Stunning in the landscape.
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