dsglass' photos
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Desert honeysuckle, one of his favorite flowers. :) He didn't want to soak in his water dish today - started squirming even as I was setting him down in the water, eager to get back to his snacks - but he was happy enough to munch on some mulberry leaves while I misted him (and the tree, and the rest of the garden) with the hose on one of the gentle settings, and so for at least a few minutes his shell was less dusty and you could see all the lovely patterns. :)
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Sedums are among his favorite kinds of plants - I reserved a couple of clumps from the original plant in a pot out of reach, and I collected all the leaves that had popped off in transit - some of which already had started putting out roots by the next morning! - and planted those in pots as well, for a longer-term food source; he hasn't yet found all the clumps I planted around his garden, but he's eaten several almost all the way to the ground. :)
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Mulberry leaves are another favorite - and he likes them dried just as much as fresh; I set out a bunch of leaves right off the tree, he ate a few then wandered over to a pile of dried leftovers and crunched on some of those before continuing on. :)
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I've been bringing him the pale desert willow flowers every day since he moved in two and a half weeks ago, and he's always ignored them; he's also ignored other white/pale flowers, instead going for the brighter/darker ones. And so when I was shopping for new trees for his little corner of the world (i've transplanted baby volunteer desert willows from elsewhere in the garden, but it'll be years before they're big enough to provide any real shade, if they even survive) I decided to get a darker-purple flowering desert willow (they also come in a medium-lavender). And so of course this morning of course he finally "discovered" the pale flowers (i scattered a handful of both kinds at the entrance to his burrow), eating them before going to check out the purple ones... :)
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I've been bringing him the pale desert willow flowers every day since he moved in two and a half weeks ago, and he's always ignored them; he's also ignored other white/pale flowers, instead going for the brighter/darker ones. And so when I was shopping for new trees for his little corner of the world (i've transplanted baby volunteer desert willows from elsewhere in the garden, but it'll be years before they're big enough to provide any real shade, if they even survive) I decided to get a darker-purple flowering desert willow (they also come in a medium-lavender). And so of course this morning of course he finally "discovered" the pale flowers (i scattered a handful of both kinds at the entrance to his burrow), eating them before going to check out the purple ones... :)
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Ghost is fascinated by Rango's emergence from his burrow, but once he's out and about she seems way more interested in the garden, and all the new butterflies who've been coming by to check out some of the new flowers I've been planting... The butterflies appeared the morning after I brought the plants home; I suspect the bees have been spreading the word. :)
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Ghost always runs over to watch Rango emerge from his burrow... When she's not watching from his "roof", or perched in the mesquite overhead (when the bees were busy elsewhere)...
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Rango had already been out earlier in the morning, when it was cooler out but before I was awake; he started stirring again when he heard me (and Sophie and Ghost, who always like to help with the digging ;) ) puttering around in the garden; I grabbed a handful of desert willow flowers from one of the backyard trees (and another from the new darker-purple-flowered one waiting to be planted) and scattered them along his entrance ramp to help motivate him. :)
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The mesquite are blooming again, and the bees are hard at work! There were hundreds if not *thousands* of bees buzzing around the two ginormous mesquite - sometimes as many as five or six working a single fuzzy not-flower thingy - pretty much all day for the last few days... As long as I give them their space they don't seem to mind my presence (when I get too close - my hat kept getting caught ducking into the "cave" zone under some of the really long and overloaded low-hanging branches - they'll hover in front of my face for a few seconds until I back off and let them get back to work, but they've never bumped me or attacked)...
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New trees! :) Two mulberries - the one in the front yard is fruitless, but at least in theory these will eventually produce actually edible fruit - and a burgundy desert willow. I've transplanted a couple of inconveniently-located tiny volunteers (as for example the one sprouting right in the middle of the driveway) into Rango's garden, but all my trees are the ones with extremely pale flowers; Rango, apparently, prefers more colorful snacks. :)
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