Vermont in Late May.

5-24-24 VERMONT: We came up yesterday through heavy traffic. The trip took six hours and featured multiple jams. It’s in the eighties today, but lots of wind keeps it cool and chases the black flies away. I walked around the house and yard to make a list of the flowers and another list of the chores to be done.

There is one tiger swallowtail butterfly busy in the yard. There are few apple blossoms. Last year there were many, many apples, so the trees are resting this year. The ponds are fairly clear, and I saw one fish and several newts in the big pond. The waterfall is not running, the upper pond is down about one inch. Robins have a nest on top of a lantern by the back door of the old mudroom and are busy feeding the chicks.

In bloom: forget-me-not, trillium, Virginia blue bells, azalea, lamium, violet, ajuga, water avens, honey suckle bush, lilac, Japanese primrose, epimedium, bleeding heart, creeping veronica, geranium, alkanet, dandelion, Siebold viburnum, Mohican viburnum, magnolia, apple, spurge, cowslip, hellebore, wild strawberry, jack-in-the-pulpit, vinca minor, early daylily, blueberry, lily-of-the-valley, tiarela, pulmonaria, sweet woodruff, Columbine, star flower.

Tiger swallowtail on the apple tree.

Bleeding hearts sheltering under the apple tree.

Japanese primrose by the pond.

One of our neighbors, Tina, keeps her two horses here in our pasture. She made this blanket to honor Maizie.

Alison made this bowl with all the holes and the plate under it. Its for rinsing berries.