More Stone Work.

6-30-08 VERMONT: A beautiful day today after another 0.2 inches of rain last night. I rebuilt the bottom step under the apple tree, replacing two small steps with one large one. I took some large rocks from the pasture, cannibalizing an old wall to do the job. Every rock I lifted up had an old snake skin under it. One had a tiny live milk snake, no more than six inches long.

New blooms: first orange day lily, first hydranga—it must be summer.

Peony hiding among beebalm leaves.

Mr. Snapper Pays a Call.

6-29-08 VERMONT: Yesterday started as dark, gray and overcast and then the T-storm began after ten minutes of high wind which knocked out the electricity and phones for a while. The generator performed magnificently. The rain continued overnight, delivering 0.85 inches as of this morning. Today began with another T-storm, but almost cleared up a few times before watering us again tonight. The afternoon was muggy and buggy, but who’s complaining.

Thanks to Ken K. for helping me, actually, me helping him, change the control switch on the disposal during yesterday’s storm.

In between storms, I trimmed the high grass around the edge of the pond and cleaned off the old steps from the deck to the pond under the apple tree. One of the steps was badly awry. I pulled it out, packed gravel behind it and reseated it. The pry bar and sledge are my favorite tools, after the Mac. Then I dead-headed the peonies and meadow rue, raked it all up and dumped it.

While doing the pond, I twice got a glimpse of a large turtle, dinner plate size, probably a snapper.

New blooms: delphinium, salvia, more spirea, more trascantia.

Aliens in Vermont.

6-27-08 VERMONT: Wow. Two days of no rain. It’s probably the beginning of a month-long drought. It was actually hot and muggy today. It felt like summer.

In addition to weeding and pruning, I bought two cotoneasters, Praecox cotoneaster, and planted them in front of the front porch to finish those beds, at least for the moment.

The water lilies seem very happy this year, in spite of being trampled by frog-hunting dogs twenty times a day. Every year, some stuff seems to have loved the winter, and other things have barely survived. Every spring it’s different. Seemingly successful perennials just vanish over the winter. Could it be aliens?

New blooms: trascantia, summer sweet, campanula, clematis, more spirea.


Don't need to be watered.

Neighborhood News.

6-24-08 VERMONT: Today we got another 0.3 inches of rain in a mid-day storm. The pond is full and overflowing. Big news in the neighborhood. Two neighbors have seen a mom moose and twin calves across the road from our pasture. We have possible moose tracks near the barn.

I am trying to post a new picture of one of the neighbors who moved in last fall. I mentioned them in the post of 10-18-07. I heard they were soon to move on to cooler pastures.

New blooms: lady's mantle.


Rodgersia and Honeybee. The bee is packin'.

Check out the eyelashes.

Doing It Under Water.

6-23-08 VERMONT: Every day we get dark clouds, showers, some are electrified and noisy, punctuated by short interludes of sun. It’s cool, about 70°, and calm. The gardens seem to be on hold, waiting for warmth and sun.

We went to the pet store on an errand and found a display of aquatic plants, I guess they’re for Koi pools. I bought a pickerelweed, Pontederia cordata, hardy to Zone 3, and put it in the pond. Years ago I had tried, unsuccessfully, to get it going in the pond with plants from the Connecticut River. It has big, arrowhead shaped leaves and blue/purple flowers.

It’s hard to transplant under water. Digging a hole leaves a dirt cloud that obscures the hole and things float away when you think they’ve been embedded. I make large staples out of fencing wire to hold stuff down and go back to look at them an hour later when the water has cleared. And then there’s the issue of sliding down the bank into deep water while holding the trowel and plant and trying to stay on your feet. Best to leave your wallet on the bank.

We’ve been here a week and have had 0.75 inches of rain, and about 0.75 hours of sun.

New blooms: fox glove, phlox.

Summer Solstice

6-20-08 VERMONT: The solstice has just passed and the sun is now slowly sinking southward toward the equator and autumn, but we do have the summer ahead. It doesn’t feel much like it today. It was rainy and in the sixties, barely in the sixties, with showers. The house was cold and damp, but a fire warmed things up.

We have a duck, a female mallard, who visits the pond almost every day. She lands, swims around for fifteen minutes, quacks, stands on the rocks and then flies away. The dogs stare in bewilderment. There are also two turtles in the pond dropped off by a neighbor who found them on the road. The turtles are very cautious when sunning on the rocks. With the least sound from the house, they both dash into the water.

New blooms: water lilies, hesperis.

Let the Summer Begin.

6-18-08 VERMONT: Judy and I arrived yesterday afternoon to cool weather and showers. There was 1.75 inches of rain in the gauge which was enough to keep all the new plants from getting thirsty while we were away. As usual there were problems. Someone, Dan[?], Anna[?], Alison[?], left the hall lights on in the old house. The pilot light was out in the old house hot water heater, a circuit breaker was tripped in the new house, and a power strip in the media cabinet was blown.

The gardens look pretty good, if I say so myself, but today I pruned, weeded, planted sun flower seedlings in various gaps in the gardens and along the south side of the small barn. I culled the corn and pumpkin seedlings and re-planted the hills that didn’t germinate.

The horses are here. So far the dogs are tolerant of them this year, even Chloe. We went to an Eaton auction for a couple hours and bought an old atlas of Orange County, Vermont.

I had to make a list to remember everything in bloom: azalea, stephanandra, weglea, burning bush, Wentworth viburnum, all the roses, diablo, white spirea, lilac, solomon seal, columbine, forget-me-not, pulmonaria, rhubarb, lamium, jacobs ladder, daisy, geranium, meadow rue, all the iris, rodgersia, cranes bill, all the bleeding hearts, mountain bluet, apricot day lily, valerian, celandine, baptisia, poppy, buttercup, red and white clover, yellow pimpernel, jill-over-the-ground, thyme, basil, dill and, today, peony.


Poppy, and only a couple days late for Father's Day.