Guests.

6-2-14 VERMONT: The weekend was busy. Ken and Carol visited on their way from Saratoga, NY to Boston and then Maine. Judy threw a dinner party for their stopover. It was a great evening and included, Jim and Brooke, Julie and Dudley and Mark and Susan. The food, weather and wine were all perfect.

Before that visit, Lily and her friend Chiara spent a few days here prepping for exams.

I was busy tidying the gardens, trimmed and weeded, pruned and raked and got things to look pretty good before the party. After all the guests left, I put up the supports for the peonies, meadow rue, baptisia and delphinium this morning. This afternoon I transplanted several hostas to allow for expansion of the walkways in front of the new house.

There is another guest to mention, Brady the horse arrived for his summer vacation. He is grayer in the face than last year, and, at thirty something, is entitled.

Bally the collie met a guest of his own a couple evenings ago, a close encounter with an unnamed skunk. That was just what we were hoping for at bedtime, a chance to treat and shampoo the dog. The aroma has mostly gone at this point. The mix of peroxide, Joy and baking soda works pretty well.

New blooms: lily-of-the-valley, another viburnum, burning bush, baneberry, columbine, Indian cucumber, first hybrid daylily.


Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, missing a bit of the right hind wing.

Sun Halo probably means moisture in the upper atmosphere.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit.