B & B.

7-3-18 VERMONT: Today is the fourth day of the heat wave, we’ve been hitting 90° every day, fans are going in every room, the dogs are mostly prostrate. The slightest exertion leaves me soaked in perspiration.

I have been watering daily and doing minor chores, trying to stay out of the sun. The lawn and part of the pasture were mowed yesterday. The pasture in front of the barns is pretty flat, but will need some fill and grading for the wedding tent. The corn is mid-thigh in height, and a couple of tomatoes are ripening.

I spotted a catbird nest in a rose bush in the terrace beds with a couple green eggs, probably a second brood. The Indigo Bunting has been a regular at the feeder.

In the pasture the milkweed is in bloom, and I went out there with the camera to look for Monarchs because I saw an orange butterfly in the yard. The orange was from Fritillaries or Crescents, who I did see, as well as a White Admiral, Sulfurs and Cabbage Whites.

New blooms: astilbe, rosebay rhododendron, rose mallow, yarrow, filipendula, Asclepias incarnata, a milkweed, [clover and vetch have been out for weeks, but I forgot to mention them before].


Indigo Bunting again, he remains gorgeous. [First B]

Water lilies are doing very well this year. Some are white, some pink.

Clover has taken over the lawn which is good. Clover is a legume and so takes nitrogen from the air and puts it in the ground, natural fertilizer. All these white dots are clover flowers.

Can you find the bird's nest in the rose bush? [Another B]

Here's a close-up of the nest and eggs.

Ms. Catbird in residence.

The other B. A White Admiral on a milkweed flower.

You must be over 18 years old to view this image, unless accompanied by a parent. Two Fritillaries at it, the female is the larger, darker one. They are on a mint leaf. I think they are Great Spangled Fritillaries. This congress went on for 20 minutes.

Big Rain.

6-29-18 VERMONT: We got a big rain, 1.35 inches, over two days. The ground above the pond is wet and squishy, and everything’s thirst is sated, for the moment. Today is hot and sunny, and it’s getting hotter this weekend. I have continued to prune and weed.

The rain has knocked things over, so I am propping them up with supports. The culvert is filled to the brim with gravel, and the flood cut a shallow trench across the road.

New blooms: red spirea, goats beard, first hostas, campanula, foxglove, feverfew.


I don't have much luck with foxglove, generally, but this one popped up on its own.

Lychnis chalcedonica, Maltese cross has brilliant red flowers for several weeks in June and July.

Campanula can get lost among bigger plants, but these and a few others found spots on the edges of the beds.

Goats beard grows in a very dark spot and has thrived. There is a new volunteer nearby.

Just Another Gorgeous Sky.

6-26-18 VERMONT: Last night was in the forties and tonight is predicted to be in the thirties. A frost would be a disaster. There was rain, 0.75 inches, followed by sunny and windy days and brrry cold nights.

I have done a lot more pruning and weeding and tomorrow, I start watering again. I did get to Browns Nursery and pick up a few things—an astilbe, A. chinensis ‘Mighty Pip’ that went by the new French doors, an echinacea, E. purpurea ‘Green Twister’ for the top of the new wall bed, a hibiscus, H. x ‘Hardy Hybrids’ ‘Cherry Choco Latte’ that is in the upper terrace bed, and three lobelia, L. siphilitica ‘Great Blue Lobelia’ went in the lower terrace bed.

New blooms: bind weed, native daylily, Russian sage, Purple Rain salvia.


I like the single peonies better than the showier doubles.

Sorry, I have to post another red sky, another dawn.

Bind weed is just that, a weed that grows over and on everything. It's a morning glory relative and an attractive nuisance.

Pond cliché, frog on a lily pad with a pink flower behind it.

Preversary.

6-22-18 VERMONT: Another beautiful day after a night in the fifties. It was sunny all day with a few fluffy clouds. Actually we need more rain, and I’ve been watering the veggies and new plantings. It looks like everybody else in the country is getting all the rain they want and then some.

I trimmed and pruned around the roses and cut paths in the pasture today. Yesterday I pruned the trees above the pond. I’m slowly catching up the yard work.

Today is June 22, a preversary, is that a word, for next year’s big event. The roses and the peonies never looked better.

New blooms: Maltese cross, valerian, yellow devil.


The last peonies to open are these red ones. Last because they get the least sun in early spring.

The pale pink peonies are next to monarda, which opens in August.

I call these roses the fence roses because they grow between the fence and wall...

and spill onto both.

It seems like a day for red and this Purple Finch was at the feeder, that might be the missus on the other side. House finches are common here, but purple finches are less frequent visitors.

Sunset at 9 PM, surprised us with more red.

Long Days, Short Nights.

6-19-18 VERMONT: Anna and Gardner were here for a couple of days planning for next year’s big event. They picked a spot for the tent, a caterer, tent provider and photog.

We had a very welcome 0.6 inches of rain last night. Before the rain I removed the corn cage and weeded and pulled out all but one corn seedling from each hill. I also did pruning and weeding elsewhere.

I have seen hardly any fish this year, but spent about a half hour walking around the pond and spotted a school of two-dozen baby fish, one-inchers. I assume there must be adult fish in there somewhere.

At 9 PM it was dusk, after an 8:30 sunset, and at 9:30 the sky was still bright, and I could walk around in the semi dark, with a first-quarter moon and fireflies. First light will be at 3:30 AM.

The Game Cams took over 300 pix in the past three weeks, mostly of foliage blowing in the wind and about forty of deer. The Moultrie cam had fewer pix and more deer and won this interval competition over the Bushnell. I moved them both to new spots.

New blooms: baptisia, cinquefoil, Indian paint brush.


Peony, along with iris and roses are the big three in June.

Showy lady slipper is a very complex orchid.

That yellow blob is another flower about to open.

Rose-breasted grosbeak, first one of the season.

Below are three pix from the game cameras. There were about 300 images over three weeks with many deer at night and during the day. Most of the pix were of wind blowing foliage, but the cameras react to motion, so that is expected. The Moultrie did better this time. I moved them both to new locations.

Bushnell-a pair of deer at midday.

Moultrie-he's growing a pair.

Moultrie- a doe posing just before dawn.

Summer Begins.

6-17-18 VERMONT: We’ve been here for a couple of days getting set for the summer. The days have been warm and sunny and the nights cool, but things are dry and we need some rain. I have been watering all the new plantings, which have been looking droopy.

The corn is up and about a foot tall, inside the cage. I will need to take the cage down now the seedlings are growing, and the crows have been foiled. I hope I can do that without destroying anything.

Neighbors have added turtles to the pond, and Judy also found one on the road yesterday. I guess there are six or seven now. There are tons of tadpoles and not many fish, which is why there are a lot of tadpoles.

The phoebes nesting by the back door of the old mudroom have been incredibly busy from sunrise to sundown feeding four chicks. Speaking of sunrises, there was a brilliant red one this morning sometime between four and five o’clock.

I planted a huge astilbe, A. chinensis ‘Mighty Red Quinn’, that I got at The Farm in NJ in a shady spot that has resisted or rejected everything I planted there. Otherwise I have done a little pruning, weeding and watering.

New blooms: Wentworth viburnum, maple-leaf viburnum, anemone, bishops weed, weigela, knapweed, meadow rue, bearded iris, Siberian iris, Jacobs ladder, peony, chives, thyme, showy lady slipper, lupin, rose, trascantia, lady’s mantle, white spirea, Asian lilac, water lily, stephanandra.


Indigo bunting and goldfinch again.

Primrose, iris, anemone, forget-me-not by the pond.

Canadian tiger swallowtail on yellow flag iris.

Brady in the buttercups, but eating grass around them.

The daylily in the center is a double with duplicate reproductive organs and twelve petals. I've never seen that before.

White admiral on a daisy.

The phoebes are busy feeding four chicks. They are back and forth all day long with bugs for the brood.

Early this morning.

End of the Year at Lincoln.

6-14-18 SHORT HILLS: Today was another beauty. We were at Lincoln Elementary School in Newark for the end of the year party. Judy visits there regularly during the year to help the students with reading skills. The teacher, Jo-Ann Catalano, made a hot dog lunch for everyone and followed with a sheet cake for dessert. Judy and Blair brought the therapy dogs and gifts for the kids. No reading got done today.

Yesterday I had dinner with Bill and Lynn, Judy was feeling ill then, but seems OK today.

Tomorrow we are off to VT for the summer, I always have slight ambivalence about leaving here before the late soring flowers open, but it's time to go, and there’s work to be done there.


Two smiles.

Maizie has almost enough kids patting her.

Taking a break.

Judy showing the kids how to give Maizie treats.

The black dog is Parker. Judy and I are in the background.