Québec.

7-11-18 QUÉBEC CITY, CANADA: We are here on a mini vacation from our summer vacation. Québec is a fav, but we haven’t been here for few years. The old city is a delight, reminiscent of France without the jet lag. There is great stone architecture, tons of clever shopkeepers, many great hotels and restaurants, street art and street performers, daylight from 4 AM to 9 PM, a citadel, city walls, festivals and a chance to practice your French.

We think the food is as good as Paris or NYC. Last night we ate at Restaurant Initiale where it took us three hours to get through the tasting menu with the wine pairings. I could eat there once a week. The restaurant is in the old city, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. On the top of the riverside cliff is the upper city a few hundred feet above the river and where the Chateau Frontenac, our hotel, is sited. We walked down to the restaurant and then back up to burn off a few of the ingested calories.

Today we walked around the lower city and had dinner after an après-midi nap, at Restaurant Legende, another extraordinary place. We again walked down to the restaurant and back up after the dinner event.

We drove up from VT, a four-hour trip with light traffic, on Tuesday. We had a small T-storm on the way. The dogs are vacationing in Orford, NH. We go back on Friday. More exploring tomorrow and another super meal at Ixpour Bistro.


Le Chateau Frontenac claims it is the most photographed hotel in the world. It is definitely unique.

The Quebec skyline is strewn with domes, cupolas, weathervanes, statues and flags.

Umbrella display only missing five dozen Mary Poppins.

Restaurant Initale is worth a journey, as Michelin says, we have eaten here before and made it our first stop this trip. working our way through the tasting menu with the wine pairings was a three hour event, but we walked down and then back up from the lower city to the upper city on the cliff top.

Cathedral-Bascilica.

Champlain statue looks down on street performers.

Restaurant decorated with flower pots. I wonder what else they might sell.

Quebec flag.

Old city church square.

Almost Missed a Whole Week.

7-9-18 VERMONT: We had a big, 0.9 inches, rain when the heat wave broke. It was followed by a windy day with a rain of dead branches. One of those branches damaged our TV antenna out in the woods, which will be repaired today.

Alison and Lily have been here for a few days, and we went to Old City Falls in Strafford yesterday and walked the stream below the falls.

Before that they arrived, I had done a day of pruning and generated two cartloads of branches for the compost pile. I am, I think, almost caught up with pruning.

Today Anna and Gardner were here to meet with the tent man and contractors about siting the tent for the wedding and prepping and leveling that site this fall. It looks like the wedding plans are all set, or mostly set.

New blooms: another milkweed, delphinium, oxeye, daisy, monarda, hydrangea.


A hybrid daylily in vivid red with a yellow throat.

Still water offers reflections.

More reflections.

I did a bunch of pruning, this is one cart load on its way to composting.

Old City Falls has a double waterfall, high on the left and lower on the right.

Asclepias incarnata, butterfly weed, also swamp milkweed, also rose milkweed. The problem with common names is that the same plant has different names in different places and different plants may use the same common name.

Tiger moth hiding in the 'lawn'.

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.