Arbutus Menziesii: Pacific Madrone

Having labored for weeks on removing bamboo from a narrow strip of garden outside our bedroom door, OilMan has declared it finito although I am still doggedly picking dead bamboo leaves out of the borders, the pots, underneath the remaining plants and even the crevices between the boards of the deck around the hot tub. This is futile, I know, but strangely difficult to resist. 

Equally futile is convincing OilMan that the job is not finito until the shovels, buckets, irrigation equipment, rakes and clippers have gone back to where they live.  Although there was some 'discussion' about whether they would be needed again, it appeared to have been put away when I went out and moved a chair into the shade at one end to sit and admire our handiwork. 

It's all lovely until I noticed that OilMan had gone to work removing a louvered section of fence that seemed to serve no purpose. The ground is littered with crowbars, hammers, splintered bits of wood and another large pot which once contained bamboo and now contains nothing but dirt. Like painting the Golden Gate Bridge, it is never ending....

I move my chair a little further around the corner where I can't see the mess and concentrate my attention on the section which is clear of bamboo. A struggling arbutus has been uncovered and more dirt has been placed around its roots. The hummingbirds love it and zoom around my head aiming for the bell-like blossoms. Impossible to catch one with my camera, but I did realize when I looked closely at one of my pictures, that I didn't get the hummingbird but I did catch a white butterfly enjoying the sun.