Roofing.

8-31-17 SHORT HILLS: This will be a first—a no pix post. Unlike Texas, the weather has been pleasant here, but I guess we’ll get the remnants of Harvey this weekend.

We are in the midst of getting a new roof, and if they finish Friday as scheduled, we’ll stay dry. Actually there was rotted wood roofing, under the shingles, that has been replaced, but one spot was so bad that a roofer put his foot right through the roof and ceiling of the sunroom. They will repair that tomorrow.

I have been out in the yard trimming, weeding and pruning, but there’s lots more to do. Also I planted six butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, and another butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii nanho blue, in the area where the big ash tree came down two years ago.

Judy and I went to the Farm in Chatham Township, a huge nursery, and bought two large crepe myrtles, that they will deliver and plant, probably next week.

Pleasant Dry Weather.

8-28-17 SHORT HILLS: The weather has been channeling the September that will arrive next week. The afternoons are in the seventies and dry, while the nights are in the fifties.

I have done a little pruning and weeding, tested and repaired the sprinklers. They always get problems with clogs in the nozzles, and plant growth often interferes with the back-and-forth movement.


The other color of Rose-of-Sharon.

Clematis. I forgot to mention this as in bloom in the last post.

Hydrangea flowers last a long time on the plant, subtly change color and dry very nicely.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on a butterfly bush. Photo from my iPhone is of marginal quality.

Back in NJ.

8-23-17 SHORT HILLS: Yes, we’re back in NJ a bit earlier than planned so Judy can get some dental work she’s been looking forward to. She came down a day before me, while I closed up in VT. When I got here yesterday, it was 90° but felt like a 100° because of the high humidity. After last night’s T-storm, it’s pleasant today and in the seventies.

Much weeding needs to be done.

Most of the trees and shrubs look OK, but there are many brownish and curled up leaves. Cicada make a nighttime racket. Some shrubs have been nibbled on by deer, I suppose, and all the hostas and lily turf were eaten by someone.

In bloom: caryopteris, hydrangea, roses, rose-of-Sharon, plumbago, white snakeroot, butterfly bush, red spirea and forsythia have a couple flowers each.


Rose-of-Sharon also comes in a mauve. I'll try to post one of those next time.

Caryopteris is a smallish shrub with late-season blue flowers that may last into November. Here it's adorned by Hobomok Skipper.

Plumbago is another fall bloomer with vivid blue flowers, about three inches tall.

White Snakeroot grows everywhere in the yard. Is it a weed or a wildflower?

Here's another pic of the Skipper. Like most of the skippers, [s]he's about an inch long.

The Monarchs are Back.

8-20-17 VERMONT: Monarch butterflies have returned to the pasture. There are at least three—two are male and the third is probably a female. I saw three together at one point, but it’s hard to count them because their flight is random, and they seem to disappear sometimes when on a flower. They are feeding on golden rod and mint flowers. The males have a small black lump on the hind wings that is thought to produce pheromones. There are plenty of milkweed plants busy producing their seed pods that could host monarch caterpillars.

We were at the Cornish, NH Fair yesterday with Shari and Dave. We had good Fair food, saw the tree chopping contest, watched ox pulling, saw cows and miniature horses and heard a little country music.

We have had a few rainstorms that delivered 1.75 inches over the last week. That was enough rain to partly fill the culvert with sand and gravel. I shoveled it out today, about twelve wheelbarrow loads that I used to fill holes in the pasture and driveway.

New blooms: Joe Pye weed, tree hydrangea, more asters.


Monarch butterflies feeding on mint and goldenrod flowers. This is a male, there is a swelling on the second black line counting up from the lower edge of the back wing. That swelling marks the male Monarch and may be the source of male pheromones.

Probably another male on mint flowers. I'm pretty sure the third butterfly is a female.

Cornish, NH Fair midway.

That falling 'tree' is supposed to crush the soda can standing in the shadow of the tree-just missed.

Ox pulling. All the teams had an easy time with this beginning weight.

Oxen and handlers watching the competition, except for the team facing the other way.

Today is Heron Day.

8-18-17 VERMONT: The rain started early this morning and got heavier, then fog and drizzle set in, followed by more rain. It’s in the fifties. None of these conditions kept the Great Blue Heron from his visit to the pond. He [she] stood on the rocks at the side of the pond for a long time before moving to the edge of the water and patrolling in slow motion and then strikes with speed when a meal happens by. She [he] hung around for two hours depleting the pond of invertebrates.


Great Blue Heron stood by the side of the pond for about 15 minutes before wading in.

Slow march around the edge....

Step-by-step....

I love this one with the golden rod and a reflection.

Back in VT with the Mergansers.

8-17-17 VERMONT: Now August is half gone. We got back from Maine Tuesday afternoon, settled in, put stuff away and started laundry, and I opened my new Moultrie game camera that arrived while we were away. I finished getting it set up this afternoon, I think.

We picked up the dogs Wednesday morning, our first chance to get them. They were incredibly glad to see us, as always, and we were as glad to see them.

Before we picked them up from the kennel, I took dozens of pix of a flock of six female Hooded Mergansers that had taken over the pond, eating fish and crawfish, and making themselves at home. The males, none were in the flock, are very distinctive, but the females are a bit harder to ID. They were back again this morning, but the dogs chased them away before I got any new pix.

We’re off to Pine Restaurant for an Anniversary dinner tonight, and tomorrow we have dinner with Dave and Gail at Elixir.

New blooms: Casablanca lily, white phlox.


Casablanca lily, a true lily not a daylily, opened while we were in Maine. We could have told it was open by the aroma if we hadn't seen it.

Early in the morning in Southwest Harbor the day after the sunrise in the last post. A different sunrise.

Camden, Maine. We stopped for a quick visit on the way back to Thetford. It was still foggy as you can see. It's a beautiful town with pretty real estate, pretty boats, a waterfall in the center of town, and cute shops. There's also a lot of slow traffic crawling down Route 1/Main St.

The morning after our arrival, we awoke to find a bunch of ducks on the pond, six swimming and diving, eating fish and crawfish.

A good look at the conformation of this lady.

They hung around for a long time. The ID, female Hooded Mergansers, has been confirmed by my expert consultants.

That one in the back is eating a crawfish.

Southwest Harbor, Maine.

8-14-17 SOUTHWEST HARBOR, MAINE: We drove here on Saturday, running into bad traffic in Portsmouth, NH and southern Maine, but arriving here in time for a boat ride to Ilsesford, on Little Cranberry Island for a seafood restaurant dinner. Lobster and tuna were the popular choices.

Sunday was sailboat race day. I haven’t done one for many years, and the technology has changed, and so have I. It was hard work scrambling from one side of the boat to the other when tacking back and forth. It was a long race with many legs, upwind and down wind. I got to see a lot of the area from the water. ‘Ranger’ is a beautiful boat. Dinner was at a fav of mine here, XYZ, a Mexican restaurant.

Today opened with a pretty sunrise, and later we went cruising in Ken’s powerboat, Mutiny. We toured both Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor, and we went up Somes Sound to Somes Harbor, which is smaller than the other two, but has a bald eagle in residence.

We saw osprey nest in Southwest Harbor on top of a navigational aid with some almost mature chicks.

Carol has a large, mesh cylinder in her kitchen where she is raising Monarch butterflies from eggs. She adds milkweed cuttings as needed to feed the caterpillars hatched from the eggs, who eventually form chrysalises and hatch out as butterflies. At present there is one egg, several caterpillars of varying size and one chrysalis. A number of mature butterflies have been released in the garden. We wonder if they will join the butterfly migration in the fall.

Tonight is Carol’s birthday bash.


Bald Eagle lives in Somes Harbor.

A bit of Ken and Carols gardens.

Carol raises Monarch butterflies. We saw eggs, caterpillars and a chrysalis. This adult male has been released to the garden.

Monarch caterpillars eating Asclepias incarnata, butterfly weed, a kind of milkweed, in the brooding container.

Lobster pots add an extra dimension to sailing techniques.

Osprey chick in Southwest Harbor on top of a navigational aid. They are almost mature.

Monday morning sunrise.

Southwest Harbor.

Somes Harbor near the upper end of Somes Sound.

Birds and Butterflies.

8-11-17 VERMONT: Summer is slipping away, sunset is now earlier than 8 PM. We had another shower overnight and heavy dew this morning. My shoes got soaked on my early rounds.

We did go to and look at Katy and Andy’s pasture milkweed, but saw no monarchs and no caterpillars. They had monarchs a few weeks ago for several days and identified small caterpillars on their impressive stand of milkweed. Yesterday there were no caterpillars that we saw, and almost all the milkweed leaves and plants were intact, without signs of being chewed on.

I did see a Swallowtail butterfly, either a Black or Spicebush Swallowtail. There’s a pic below if anyone has a ID to offer. Later in our pasture, I saw a Painted Lady butterfly where the mint is in bloom and where the milkweed grows.

The Indigo bunting has been back at the feeder a lot this week, and I finally got a nice snap and one with a gold finch sharing the perch.

We had dinner at Tuckerbox last night with Ken and Jane, and are scheduled for dinner tonight with Ann and Roger and Dave and Shari. Tomorrow we’re off to Southwest Harbor for a visit to Ken and Carol.

New blooms: white star clematis.


Indigo Bunting, again, finally an acceptable image, and the last one that I'll harass everyone with, except for the one below.

Yellow bird, blue bird.

The black-eyed Susans in the garden finally opened.

Black swallowtail or Spicebush swallowtail. Anyone?

Painted Lady.

Canoe Two.

8-9-17 VERMONT: There was rain over night day before yesterday and another shower in the late afternoon today, no big accumulation, but enough to keep things green. Today was in the eighties.

Yesterday we got the canoe in the water again, just above the Ledyard Bridge in Hanover and paddled into the cove by the Montshire Museum, which was filled with mallards and then across the Connecticut to Mink Brook and upstream in the brook in very quiet water. We saw a blue heron and cormorants also. The paddle back was into a bit of wind.

Today we ran errands and picked more blueberries and tomatoes.

Yesterday we had dinner with Katy and Andy at Samurai Soul Food, and heard that their pasture has lots of monarchs—we’ll check it out.

New blooms: liatris, blue lobelia.


Ms. Mallard giving us the stare down.

Blue Heron also giving us the evil eye.

We got our ducks in a row once...

And twice.

Mink Brook, Judy's paddle in the corner.

Boston and Maine.

8-7-17 VERMONT: Saturday we went to Boston for the day to visit granddaughter Maggie who’s been living and working there since graduation. We picked her up after work in Brookline, not far from where we used to live in the early sixties, that’s the nineteen sixties, which we visited with her. We went to her apartment, met a couple of her roomie’s and her pet rats.

We spent the afternoon at the harbor, explored Quincy Market, bought her a couple of early birthday presents, watched the whale watchers sail away and had dinner at Legal Sea Foods, which left everyone stuffed, like some of the entrees.

We got back about 11 PM to the unimaginable delight of the dogs. Thanks to Janet and Bill for giving the dogs dinner.

Here, it’s August, which means the beds are getting overgrown, the plants are leggy and sprawling, and weeds are everywhere. There’s also a ton of pruning to be done. I’m still picking blueberries and tomatoes are getting ahead of us. Judy and I have been walking on the dogs on the road for a couple miles almost daily in an attempt to improve our pathetic level of conditioning. There was one rain shower that gave us 0.2 inches, but we need more. After the soggy June and July, it’s now too dry.

I looked at a bunch of milkweed plants and all the leaves are intact, none of them has been chewed upon by caterpillars. No monarch butterflies sighted since that one male passed through.

Next weekend we go to Maine, to visit Ken and Carol.

New blooms: more phlox, more hollyhocks, monkshood, Indian pipe.


Maggie and me, you don't have to tell me it's an improvement.

Quincy Market on Saturday.

Harbor for whale-watching and boat tours, sailboats and condos.

Dinner at the Harbor was excellent. That place is a gold mine.

Gus says to Maizie, "Just because it's called golden rod, doesn't mean we're related."

Ruby-throated Hummingbird, female, taking a break on meadow rue.

Kingfisher, male, still terrorizing our crawfish. Doesn't he have tiny feet?

The Indigo Bunting has been back at the feeder, here sharing with a song sparrow.

I have to include a flower on the Garden Blog, this is a cluster of Indian Pipe, not a fungus, but a 'green' plant without chlorophyll. It is a parasitic plant, a myco-heterotroph, that feeds on fungi that are, in turn, symbiotic with trees. Is it demeaning to call it Indian pipe?