The Shovels Are Out.

6-21-16 VERMONT: Tonight is actually cool, in the sixties, after a pleasant day. Yesterday was too hot and too humid, but a front went through during the night, cooled things off and gave us a drop of much needed rain.

The grass is burnt, and I cancelled the mowing for this week. The pond is down two inches.

Yesterday I did some weeding in the late afternoon when it had cooled. Today I planted the catalpa tree, Catalpa speciosa, that we bought from Browns on the last trip. I put it in the southeast corner of the yard. I also got a bunch of perennials and, so far, planted a toad lily, Tricyrtis macropoda, and a centaurea, Centaurea montana, in the bed by the new French doors. I have some lupin, coneflower and hollyhock to plant tomorrow.

New blooms: rhubarb, trascantia, water lily.


Cliché.

Common Ringlet. These butterflies are hard to catch because they don't sit still for long.

Water lily.

Painted turtle catchin' some rays.