Birds and Bees.

7-31-11 VERMONT: The cellar doors are finished, the project turned out fine. I will need to use a can of spray foam to plug all the holes and gaps between the cinder block irregularities and the new wood. Yesterday I was back to pruning and weeding. We had a rain Friday night that gave us exactly one inch, a much needed inch. Since then it has been gorgeous.

Alison and Dan left this AM with a quart of newly picked blueberries. The bushes are so productive this year that I picked another quart for us afterwards. Some of the apples are ripe enough to eat, Brady the horse has been eating them for weeks. We have had tomatoes every day, but no flood of red as yet. The corn has tassels and silk. There are about six soccer ball sized pumpkins in green stripes.

All our guests have commented on all the bee activity on all the blossoms. I haven’t seen any honey bees, but there are lots of different bumblebees and a variety of other, smaller bees. Wikipedia says there are 20,000 species of bees overall, and 250 species of bumblebees.

Yesterday Judy and I both saw two turtles in the pond at the same time. Also yesterday there was a blue heron here for second day in a row. When you’ve been looking at chickadees and robins all day, the heron seems enormous. There was a kingfisher here for a few hours also, but he/she was camera shy. Maine Tuesday.

New blooms: monkshood, goldenrod.


Bumblebee and echinacea.

Heron cleared for landing.

Where's the frogs?

Hammering in the Cellar.

7-28-11 VERMONT: We ended up with 0.8 inches of rain from the last storm, and every thirsty plant was sated, but now, it’s almost time to think about watering again.

I have spent two days in the basement, taking the doors off. In VT all doors are paired to keep out the cold, cutting out the rotted wood which is always ten times as bad as you think it is, making concrete footings for the new door jambs. The original situation was, untreated wood set in dirt, duh, it rotted out? Today I removed the forms around the footings that I had poured yesterday and put in pressure treated replacement jambs, for the lower two or three feet, glued them to the cinder blocks. The cellar is half original field stone and half replacement cinder block. Remounting doors is a struggle, they weigh much more than you think when off their hinges. I used a lever to get it into position and re-attached the hinges. The door works, but is not in quite the same place that it was before. That’s because the new wood is in the usual standard sizes, and the old wood was probably locally milled and non-standard size. Hopefully, I’ll finish it tomorrow.

New blooms: another Asian lily and more daylilies.


More daylilies, this one is called fire alarm or fire engine or something that suggests redness.

I remember this one-'Blueberry Breakfast'.

Back on Four Wheels.

7-26-11 VERMONT: We got that rain last night and today, 0.5 inches so far. Now it’s cold enough for a jacket. I knew if I watered, that it would rain.

I finished that wheel for Judy’s pumpkin cart and mounted it. It will need painting before the cart comes inside for the winter. Onto the next project—repairing a rotted door frame in the root cellar. Does that sound exciting?

New blooms: goose-neck loosestrife.


Spokes and rims pegged and glued by, ahem, the Gardener.

Real Vermont Weather.

7-24-11 VERMONT: Today was gorgeous, it didn’t get out of the seventies, low humidity, blue skies, sun—what a pleasant change from the past week. Still no rain and lots of plants starting to wilt, so I watered all the beds, which took four hours. Paying attention to every individual plant is good once in a while, I found lots of weeds and plants that needed staking. What we need now is a nice soaking rain, without electricity.

Lots of guests for a few days—Alison, Dan, Lily, Steve, Val, Lucy and Anna yesterday. The house is noisy with laughter and everybody getting corrected by everyone else, the usual chaos.

New blooms: liatris, ligularia, coreopsis, soapwort.


I realize this is getting to be a Daylily Only Blog, but here is another hybrid in white.

...And another in pink.

Cooling Off.

7-22-11 VERMONT: Yesterday was up to 94° and today hit 95°, that is as hot as I remember it getting in twenty summers here. Tonight is cooler and the humidity has dropped making it so much more comfortable. Usually in VT, the nights are cool, if not very cool, and sleeping is fine, occasionally with a window fan to clear the room of the midday heat. Last night it didn’t get below about 80° and was not so nice.

We all, Judy, Val, Steve and I, have been hiding in the shade for two days. I did do a bit of veggie garden work yesterday and was drenched in moments.

Camp visiting tomorrow for Lucy, and later, Alison and Dan arrive for college parents weekend.

New blooms: helenium, joe-pye weed.


Helenium, aka Sneezeweed, for its appearance with late summer allergens.

Another true lily.

Hotter Times.

7-20-11 VERMONT: Ninety degree heat continues, but I guess most of the country is hotter. I’m busy doing the usual chores, but not too busy to admire the blossom parade.

We have been studying soapstone, as in counter tops. Soapstone, it turns out, is mostly talc, the mineral of talcum powder. The chemical formula, Mg3Si4O10(OH)2, shows magnesium, silicon and oxygen. The rock is a metamorphic shistose product of silicates altered by heat and high pressure. Talc is the softest mineral, 1 on the Mohs hardness scale [diamond is the hardest mineral at 10]. Soapstone, because of the softness of talc, is easy to carve and has been and continues to be a favorite of sculptors.

New blooms: queen annes lace, echinacea, phlox.


Daisy. I love the spiral patterns in the center, either from the right or left the spiral from the outer edge curls into the center pit.

Hot Times in Vermont.

7-18-11 VERMONT: July is slipping away, just like June did. We are almost a month past the summer solstice, and the sun begins to noticeably retreat from the north.

We’ve been back in VT for a day. There was 0.35 inches of rain in the gauge when we arrived, and we got another 0.3 inches today. It has been so hot, however, that I watered the new grass and veggies yesterday. Today I went back to work on the wheel for Judy’s pumpkin cart.

Speaking of veggies, the corn, some of it, is as high as a gardener’s eye and starting to form tassels. Some of the tomato plants are that tall as well, but none of the fruit is ripe yet, but the blueberries are. Our bushes are lovin’ this year, lots of new growth and lots of fruit. I picked a pint for dessert tonight.

New blooms: shasta daisy, first asian lily, more hybrid daylilies, summer azalea.


Hybrid Daylily.

Another one.

And Another. Not only are the colors different, but the petal size, shape, length and frilliness vary. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I don't remember the names of the varieties.