Sogginess Prevails.

6-29-17 VERMONT: It continues to rain every day. There was another 0.7 inches in the gauge this morning with more rain most of the afternoon. It’s also chilly and overcast today. I have done a few chores during the dry spells, but the ground is soaked and the trees are dripping.

We had dinner in Hanover last night with Denny and Laura-Beth and Dave and Shari.

New blooms: foxglove.


Rose-breasted grosbeak is a frequent summer visitor, but I haven't seen one before today this year.

Lychnis also called rose campion is a reliable perennial about two feet tall with red or white flowers.

Typical weather this week with blue sky here and a storm over there.

Barn Swallow chicks in the barn, of course.

I like the single peonies better than the doubles, the wasp seems to agree.

New Plants.

6-27-17 VERMONT: I planted yesterday—three roses, Rosa rugosa, one of them ‘Alba’, and the other two pink, and two butterfly weed, Asclepias incarnata ‘Ice Ballet’. The Asclepias went on the north end of the pond bank in full sun, and the roses along the pasture fence near the small barn and the other roses. That part of the fence is behind a stonewall, and I dug up a lot of rocks while planting the roses, the rocks will get replaced on the wall.

After I planted, we got an hour of so of rain, and today it’s raining again. I did a little weeding this morning before it turned wet. These last two days were cool, in the sixties, we needed jackets in the evening.

New blooms: stonecrop sedum, red peony, lychnis.


Mustard and Catsup or goldfinch and purple finch. Sorry the focus isn't quite sharp, but that is a very red bird.

Speaking of red, red peony.

Judy's pumpkin cart with flowers.

The red peonies, above, join their pink cousins below.

A not bad sunset.

The Roses Get the Treatment.

6-25-17 VERMONT: We had rain, 0.7 inches, but by afternoon yesterday, it was dry and sunny so I worked on the roses. The one rose I thought was dead is alive, re-growing from its base, it was hidden in a mass of weeds and grass. I used the string trimmer to cut down most of the weeds and then pulled the stuff at the bases of the bushes by hand. Pruning roses is hazardous, the thorns always get you—'death by a thousand stings'.

Today is sunny, breezy, and cool with deep dark clouds hurrying by and changing the light. An Indigo Bunting has been sighted at the feeder a few times.

New blooms: valerian, baptisia, summer sweet, water lily, red spirea, cinquefoil.


Indigo Bunting. These guys have been around infrequently, not last year, but the year before. Dramatic color.

Could he be dating a goldfinch?

Diablo is a shrub with purple leaves and flower balls.

Valerian, also called Garden Heliotrope, has a great aroma, sometimes listed with herbs, shade tolerant.

Goats Beard is very shade tolerant.

Water Lily.

Dramatic sky with dark clouds plus sun and shadows.

Rainy Day, Day Off.

6-23-17 VERMONT: It’s a rainy day, on and off, so I am not working. We did walk around the pasture with Wellingtons on to get the dogs, and us, some exercise. There are lots of little orangish butterflies dancing from flower to flower. I got a couple pix and am working on the ID’s. Yesterday I did some weeding and am getting caught up on maintenance. I did shovel out the culvert in anticipation of the rain.

New blooms: goats beard, catmint, diablo, sage, rosebay rhododendron, yarrow.


Showy Lady Slipper seems happy by the pond.

Showy Lady Slipper, thanks, again, Melissa, for these beauties.

Big pink peony. After all the flowers, the peony plant lasts all season and is an attractive dark green 'shrub'.

The actual blossoms get lost in all the greenery.

European Skipper, one of a bunch of small, orange butterflies in the pasture.

ID Problems.

6-21-17 VERMONT: Welcome to summer. It was a workday here. Weeding and pruning from first light to dusk, well, actually mid-morning to mid-afternoon with a mid-day break. There’s always more to do.

Yesterday was very exciting—I planted two foxgloves, Digitalis, by the side of the pond near the drain, saw and photo’d three butterflies and an eastern phoebe. Two of the butterflies are not ID’d, any help appreciated. Speaking of help, Judy was out there weeding the primrose bed yesterday, and between us there were two loads of compost generated.

New blooms: Knapp weed, showy lady’s slipper.


White Admiral.

White Admiral, ventral side.

I'm on break from weeding with friends. photo by JWF.

Eastern Phoebe is a fly catcher, never goes to the feeder.

Knapp weed with bumblebee and another pollinator hovering.

Butterfly. No ID, anyone?

Another butterfly. No ID, anyone?

June in VT.

6-19-17 VERMONT: We left NJ yesterday, but just before we did, I got a few pix of new blooms. We both had fast trips and got here on a muggy, hot, breezy afternoon. I took pix of the VT flowers, but it was so windy that the flowers were dancing around so much that I had to re-take many pix today before the massive rain we got this afternoon.

New blooms—NJ: St. John’s wort, catalpa.

Some disappointment here in VT is the total loss of the corn crop. The seeds germinated, but something, maybe crows, pulled up the six-inch seedlings, I guess to eat the germinating seeds. Little corn cadavers are scattered all over the veggie beds. The electric fence keeps out furry critters, but the garden is open to aerial assault. It is too late to re-plant corn because it won’t be ripe until we leave for NJ at the end of August.

The tomatoes are all fine and the herbs are OK. Some of the basil and oregano had died, but I added new plants today.

The perennial beds are fine, all the new plants and transplants are doing well. That is except for the butterfly weeds on the pond bank. They were just coming up when I left at the end of May, but have been overwhelmed by the established grasses et al growing on the bank. Maybe I can rescue them. The new bloom list is extensive because it’s June and I haven’t been here for almost three weeks. I am listing everything that open since I left, even if some of them are almost finished.

New blooms: yellow lady slipper, lady’s mantle, iris—bearded, flags and Siberian, Asian lilac, Wentworth viburnum, weigela, white spirea, hybrid daylily, celandine, lupin, columbine, meadow rue, hesperis, geraniums, primrose, rose, anemone, Solomon’s seal, pink thyme, bunch berry, Jacobs ladder, centaurea, stephanandra, sweet woodruff, wild daisy, flea bane, vetch, clover, Indian paint brush, buttercup, dianthus.

New blooms today: trascantia, peony.


St. John's wort, the many stamens make a beautiful star. These first two pix are from Short Hills taken the day we left for VT.

Another southern magnolia huge flower.

Yellow Lady Slipper, one of about six, by the pond is almost done for this year. Thank you, Melissa, for sharing these beauties.

Siberian iris has three sets of three petals. The upper set are upright and the lower two sets are paired and hang downwards. The pollinator has to get between the two lower sets of petals. The other irises have a similar pattern.

Another Siberian iris as above, the anatomy may be more easily seen in this one.

Yellow flag iris has the same pattern as above, but the upright petals are very diminished in size.

Bearded iris has the beard on the lowest set of petals, and it is between the two dependent sets of petals. The upright petals are visually dominating.

Flag irises on the left and primrose on the right.

Eastern tiger swallowtail looks a lot like the western tiger swallowtail from Los Gatos, post of 6-13-17.

Lucy Graduates.

6-17-17 SHORT HILLS: We were in Brooklyn for Lucy’s graduation from Packer Collegiate along with some 80 classmates, and had grilled burgers, sausage and veggies on Val and Steve’s deck afterwards. We met Chester, the new cat, and had a brief garden tour.

Back here in NJ, I planted a new butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii, next to the one I planted last fall. I bought it at Home Depot along with a couple of gorgeous foxglove destined for VT. It’s been raining on and off for a few days, perfect for a new shrub.

Tonight we have dinner with Lonnie and Bette and Bruce and Ellen. Tomorrow we go to VT. I hate to miss the flowers about to open here, but eagerly anticipate the flowers in Thetford. Ambivalent as ever.

New blooms: southern magnolia, hydrangea, winterberry holly.


Lucy graduated and will soon be off to college.

Chester will stay in Brooklyn.

Southern Magnolia has huge flowers that open in succession. This was the first.

Southern Magnolia, just opening second flower.

Multiple tiny flowers of Winterberry Holly turn into red berries in the fall. This holly is deciduous and the flowers are not male or female but bisexual, unlike the evergreen hollies.

Our shady yard stays cool on hot days.

Heat Wave.

6-13-17 SHORT HILLS: We’re back from Los Gatos and cowering inside under the AC while the yard swelters in 90° heat. It’s been hot for several days, apparently after three days it’s officially a heat wave. It’s supposed to be cooler tomorrow. Actually a couple of days ago I did spend a few hours outside pruning and trimming the walkways and weeding some of the more flagrant infestations.

Yesterday was the end-of-the-year party at Lincoln Elementary School for the dogs and reading lessons. It was incredible hot, especially for the dogs, so it was a bit curtailed. I was there to take pix.

That butterfly from California is a Western Tiger Swallowtail.

We have a bunch of stuff about to bloom: southern magnolia, catalpa, hydrangea, daylily, winterberry holly, st johns wort, butterfly bush.

New blooms: native rhododendron, Asian hollies, red clover, white clover.


Anna's Hummingbird in Los Gatos. The females of the four or five species of hummers in Northern California are very hard to tell apart. The males are distinctive.

Another rose with buds, can't resist.

Up close, the red clover is an interesting flower.

I went to Lincoln Elementary School with Judy to take pix of the last party with the dogs. It was very hot.

Native rhododendron is the last rhodo to bloom.

Graduation in Los Gatos.

6-9-17 LOS GATOS: We came out to Cal for grandson Joey’s graduation from middle school. There is now a direct flight from Newark to San José, so we got to stumble through a new airport, much closer to Los Gatos.

The ceremony was well organized and fairly brief. The school was proud to be using their new gym. When we were here for Eoin’s graduation, a few years ago it was outside in a town park. I think I liked the outside venue better. In addition to their diplomas, the 400 or so graduates were all given a rose and instructed to give the rose to someone important to their successful graduation.

Afterwards we all went to dinner with a few of Joey’s graduating friends and their parents, friends of Jon and Siobhan. Everybody, almost, was an engineer, and they were from France, Britan, Ireland as well as the US. Los Gatos is cosmopolitan and wealthy.

During the day we were at Jon and Siobhan’s house on the mountain. I wandered around outside and saw a few birds and got a couple pix of a swallowtail butterfly and some flowers. I heard, but didn’t see a coyote. There are always flowers out here. Now there are roses and oleander everywhere.

Tomorrow we have a very early flight back to EWR.


Swallowtail on vinca major. To be ID later.

Turkey vultures working on a dead rodent, a bunch more were in the nearby trees and circling above.

An iris of some sort.

Dark-eyed junco busy eating seeds.

Dark-eyed junco now surveying the scene from a post.

Assembled throng in the new gym for Fisher Middle School graduation.

New graduate offering his mom the rose.