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.