Feels Like Fall.

8-20-24 VERMONT: A cold, gusty wind has blown us into fall today, it’s in the fifties. Suburban Energy was here today to service the furnaces. Tomorrow, the 21st, will see the sun halfway back to the Equator at about 12° North latitude, and a month from now it will be at the Equator and Fall begins. For now, it’s supposed to warm up by the weekend.

Today I saw one monarch caterpillar on the swamp milkweed by the pond, Asclepias incarnata. It was pretty big, but not big enough to go to chrysalis phase yet. It is the first one I have seen this year. I had almost given up hope of seeing them here. Maybe it’s the first of many.

The game cam caught a blue heron leaving the lower pond. The heron flies with his neck folded back in an “S” shape. This is one of the differences between herons, egrets and storks. The storks fly with their necks extended.

New blooms: Siberian catmint, mint.

A game cam pic of the blue heron with neck bent back and legs extended.

The blue heron taking off. The legs are still down and the neck not bent back yet.

A stork in flight with the neck extended. This shot is from our trip to Morocco.

A monarch caterpillar on milkweed.

Lobelia volunteer in the bed below the deck.

A volunteer Siberian catmint growing in the brook between the ponds. I saw it a few weeks ago, but I just ID'd it today.

Closing Up Begins.

8-16-24 VERMONT: It’s been dry with only a brief shower, 0.05 inches, for the last few days. We had warm days and cool nights. There was solar flare activity, but we had overcast skies. We are wrapping things up for the summer and do not expect to be back until Xmas. Judy brought the rockers in this morning, while I put away a couple hoses and emptied summer baskets and put out the dryer vent cover. Scott will help with the benches and storm doors.

I am getting a new knee in Sept and anticipate rehab and walkers, etc again. I hope this next go-round will be over sooner than the current one. 

New blooms: white star clematis, tree hydrangea, lobelia.  

Roses are back in action.

Roses and more of the pond bank.

Ecanacea and phlox.

More of the pond bank.

TS Debby Visits Vermont.

8-11-24 VERMONT: Tropical Storm Debby blew through the area a few days ago. Trees were down in places and a lot of rain fell. We got 2.75 inches of rain and a few branches came down. We did not lose power. It could have been much worse.

Val and Steve were here. We went to the Baited Hook for lobsters and clams during the storm. The day before we ate at Elixir. They left on warm, dry and sunny Saturday. 

Yesterday Roger, Ann and Laura-Beth stopped by in the afternoon to see us and Shari and Dave. In the evening we went to Cloudland Farm with Shari and Dave and Cousin John for one of their extraordinary meals. After dinner, we stopped by at the Pavilion Dance Hall to catch neighbor Steve and his band playing for the contradance. It all made for a busy day and night.

New Blooms: ghost plant [used to be called Indian pipe], ligularia dentata, goose-neck loosestrife, monkshood, first aster.

Ligularia dentata opens a month after rocket ligularia.

Blanca goes for a swim while Blue walks the bank hunting frogs.

Game Cam pic of the fox on nightly rounds.

Steve playing his violin in the background and an unknown dancer.

August Begins.

8-6-24 VERMONT: Dan and Alison left yesterday. They were great guests because Judy and I were both sick, again, with a gastroenteritis. We were in bed or sleeping on the sofas while the guests helped take care of us—shades of the future. Now we are recovered, but still a bit tired. 

Valerie and Steve are due to arrive tomorrow. Hopefully we will remain well. 

In the gardens things have pretty much taken care of themselves, but that only works for a short while. There has been rain everyday, sometimes a brief shower and other times hard rain for most of the day. We have had 1.3 inches in the past week. 

We have had Blue Heron and Kingfisher visits this week, and the owl has been back at the upper pond for crayfish, but the game cam pix weren’t good.

New blooms: black-eyed susan, goldenrod, sedum.

From the bed below the deck, upper right yellow flowers of cup plant, in the center orange oxeye, magenta bee balm, purple meadow rue.

Game Cam caught this fox.

Another Game Cam image of wild life.

Paradise Regained.

7-30-24 VERMONT: Judy and I are back in VT as of Sunday, the day Anna, Gardner, Emmett and Yangchen left for NYC. They left the house in good shape and had a great time here, judging from all the pix and stories. We are very pleased that they had a good time, and just wish we had been here to be part of it.

Both Judy and I have some residual fatigue and cough, but we are 98% recovered from Covid. I resumed PT yesterday. Judy is preparing for this week’s guests, Alison and Dan. 

The gardens have been busy on their own in my absence. [As if they would behave differently in my presence.] There are lots of new blooms, all ahead of schedule. The last daylily, I think, came out today as July ends. We had 2.3 inches of rain, but the ponds have gotten lower still. 

I brought a couple Rose-of-Sharon volunteers from Short Hills. They are growing all over that yard with many volunteers available. I tried to transplant one here in the 90’s that died during the winter. Neighbor Valerie has some growing in her garden, so I decided to give it another try. 

New blooms: mullein, lily, fall anemone, white turtlehead, cup plant, meadow rue [second kind], Joe Pye weed, helenium, more phlox.

These are true lilies. They last for several days. Daylilies are much easier to grow.

Another kind of lily.

White turtlehead. These are smaller and much earlier than the larger pink ones.

Helenium, also called sneeze weed because it comes out at the same time as ragweed, but is an innocent bystander.

Fall anemone usually blooms in September, but here it is now.

Meadow rue, a similar tall plant with the same name blooms in June. That one has flothy, cotton candy like flowers. This one is a favorite of hummingbirds. The hummers also like the bee balm and hostas that are out now, but are very territorial and chase each other away. They also drained the feeder, which I refilled.

In Exile.

7-23-24 SHORT HILLS: The date line is correct. We are here in NJ because I caught Covid and passed it on to Judy two days later. The reason we left VT was to give the place to Anna, Gardner, Emmett and Yangchen. They were scheduled to have this week, with us, to do lots of Vermont things. 

We were looking forward to this week as the highlight of the summer, but it’s not to be. I got sick Thursday and started Paxlovid Friday after a positive Covid test. I finished the drug yesterday and am nearly well today. Judy got it a couple days after me and can’t take Paxlovid, but is already recovering without it. This evening she was outside trimming and weeding. 

In a few days we’ll retest, and if negative, go back up, maybe catching the guests their last day. 

New blooms: Rose-of-Sharon.

Emmett seems to like the kithen bench.

Confronting a cow at Billings Farm.

Daddy and Emmett.

First goat.

Bouquet on the deck. They have been feasting on tomatoes and blueberries from the yard.

Beryl Causes Havoc.

7-12-24 VERMONT: Hurricane Beryl is now history, but the damage she left in VT—flooding, outages, wind damage, road and bridge damage—will take a long time to repair. It all happened on the one year anniversary of similar flooding. Here we had almost nothing, 0.80 inches of rain, no wind damage, no road damage. We were south of the storm track. 

We have had some very hot days, in the nineties, but the heat pumps have kept us cool. Since the storm passed the weather has been fine, even the bugs are less annoying. 

I did some more pruning yesterday, and still have lots more to do.

I saw three painted turtles in the lower pond, and I have not seen the snapper for a few weeks. I set the game cam to take pix of the owl house, and it took almost sixty pix over a couple days, but no sign of anyone using the house. 

We are almost half-way through the summer and flowers are all ahead of schedule.

New blooms: summer azalea, echinacea, evening primrose, rocket ligularia, astilbe, pickerel weed, more hostas. 

The delphinium, first the blue and then the purple, bloomed recently, but the storm broke several stalks so I cut them off and brought them inside. Judy put them in a vase.

The delphiniums turned the water purple.

Pickerel weed is an aquatic plant that makes a small tuft of purple flowers.

Great spangled fritillaries on milkweed.

Echinacea.

Our tenants, nesting under the eaves of the old mudroom. Yesterday I opened the door and they all flew away. I'm sure the parents are still feeding them somewhjeres in the yard.

Hybrid daylily.

Filipendula, there's one in the first picture also.