Creature Feature.

7-31-18 VERMONT: The weather has been fine for several days, even though rain has been predicted. Rain, actually, would be welcome. We have a malfunctioning washing machine, but a repair is scheduled.

The Thetford Select Board approved our request for additional culverts because of the huge drainage ditches the town dug on the roadside. The ditches are so deep, almost two feet deep, so that a car can’t drive into the pasture or yard.

I have started repairing two rotted porch posts, replacing rotted structural wood with pressure treated wood and using Azek for trim work.

There are lots of tomatoes, but the corn looks like it needs a few more days. Butterflies are on the milkweed and beebalm, and the hummingbirds are in the beebalm all day. I saw a Broad-Winged Hawk yesterday evening. The game cams have caught deer, turkeys and the fox, who looks worse from the mange, less fur and thinner. We hope he/she will respond to the ivermectin treatment.

New blooms: echinacea, Indian pipe, new hollyhock.


Bushnell Game Camera catches a deer at 4 AM.

Black Swallowtail butterfly on Beebalm, dorsal side of the wings and

And the ventral sides.

Phlox.

Monarch female on milkweed. There were two females for a while.

Broad-Winged Hawk, I think, anyone?

Mid-Summer Rant.

7-27-18 VERMONT: The morning we left NJ there was another 2 inches in the rain gauge for a four-day total of 4 inches which left everything well watered. Back here in VT, there was probably as much, but I think the rain gauge leaks a bit so there was only 1.5 inches when I looked the next day. Even with all this rain, things are still dry, the ground has sopped up all the moisture and some of the grass is still brown.

Today we have had T-storms teasing us. Earlier there was an hour of almost continuous thunder, no visible lightning, and about 30 seconds of rain, followed by sunshine. Now it’s dark with thunder again, and the weather radar shows a cell creeping this way. On the drive up, we had intense rain for the last thirty miles of I-91 that required driving slower than normal.

Counting both our trips to Québec and Short Hills, we drove the whole length of I-91 in Vermont, north and south. It is a great road. The whole interstate highway system is great and easily taken for granted. It’s named for President Eisenhower, and, I believe, it was his conception for the rapid movement of troops around the country, should that be necessary. It is essential for travel, trade, commerce, shipping and vacations.

Could it be done now if it didn’t exist? Probably not, because we have too much political polarization, and too many conflicting loyalties, agendas, agencies, concepts and constituencies.

In the fifties, when the interstate system was started, the country was much more unified in outlook, and good ideas were not rejected because a person from the wrong party suggested them. Gender and racial inequality were wide spread but not yet at the boiling point. The sixties with the Vietnam catastrophe, the civil rights conflicts and the sexual revolution were on the horizon.

Trust in the government has never recovered from that war, and the fractured and polarized constituencies now present in our society derived from those conflicts, and brought us to the present pathetic and disastrous regime.

That said, I have been busy with chores including weeding and staking flowers bent over by the rain. We had dinner with Shari and Dave last night and will have with Ken and Jane tomorrow.

New blooms: ligularia, monkshood, more phlox, Helenium, soapwort, Queen Anne’s lace.


Hummingbirds love beebalm, as do I.

This is a female, the males have a black collar with a red bowtie.

Monkshood is hard to capture, the color is purplish, like this, but it often comes out bluish. The reproductive parts, inside the hood, are also hard to show. This pic took a bit of editing to get it to look life-like.

Tiger lilies are usually more orange and have more black spots.

This hybrid daylily is a light pink, but the upper set of petals are different from the lower set in size, texture, color and shape.

Great spangled fritillary was a customer at the milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, along with dozens of other insects.

Fritillary and some black bees[?].

Leonard's skipper, also on the milkweed.

July in NJ.

7-23-18 SHORT HILLS: We have been back here since Saturday. The yard looked very dry when we arrived, and I turned on the sprinklers to test the system. Three sprinkler heads were not working. One needed replacing, I rebuilt it with spare parts, one was clogged, and the other just needed a branch removed from the mechanism.

 Almost immediately it began to rain. We got 1.6 inches that night and another 0.4 inches subsequently. It is hot and humid, and doesn’t cool off much at night. The AC is running.

 I weeded and pruned yesterday and today and have taken two carloads to the dump and have another load for tomorrow. Yesterday we had dinner with Lynn and Bill and tomorrow we eat with Bebe and Ronnie. Back to VT on Wednesday.

 In bloom: rose-of-Sharon, rose, hydrangea.


Two flavors of Rose-of-Sharon.

Road Trip.

7-20-18 VERMONT: the weather has been beautiful—warm, sunny, dry, cool at night. We had 0.35 inches of rain three days ago, but things are drying out again.

We had a fox visit last evening. It was small and thirsty enough to drink from the pond while it was daylight and the dogs were sleeping on the deck. Our neighbor saw the pix and diagnosed the fox as having mange, a skin infection that will be fatal if untreated. Since we will be away for a few days, she will leave out bait with medication, ivermectin, which the fox, hopefully, will eat. We couldn’t leave it out if the dogs were here, they would steal it.

I have a big Asclepias incarnata, a milkweed variety with white flowers. It’s on the bank of the pond and attracts many pollinators—bees, wasps, small insects and butterflies. Monarch caterpillars feed and morph into butterflies on the plant. I saw three different butterflies on it today.

We are going to NJ for a few days to check on things there.


White Admiral on Asclepias incarnata, a milkweed.

Red fox appears to have mange. Our neighbor will put out bait with ivermectin, mange treatment, while we are away.

The fox has a rash, scruffy, discolored coat and is too thin.

The corn is higher than my eye. Who's scarier, me or crow-face?

Fritillary on the milkweed.

Monarch and friends on the milkweed.

Mid-July.

7-17-18 VERMONT: We finally have a rainy day. The trip back from Québec was uneventful. The dogs all survived their vacation at the kennel in Orford. The public works crew has been here clearing the culvert and making a deep ditch on our side of the road. The pasture was mowed. I love how it looks when mowed, but I also, ambivalently, love how it looks with the wild flowers in bloom. Fortunately it all grows back.

The corn is forming tassels and silk. We are picking Sun Sugar Tomatoes, a cherry tomato, the full size tomatoes are just starting to ripen. A few blueberries are blue.

New blooms: first phlox, tiger lily, summer azalea, pickerel-weed, another meadow rue, another asclepias, evening primrose.


Another Hybrid Daylily.

Bushnell Game Cam caught this young buck before the pasture was mowed.

Sitting for a portrait, for a brief moment.

Monarch, female, I think.

Freshly mowed pasture. I love how the pasture looks mowed, but I also miss the wild flowers and the unmowed look, a quandry.

Sulfur Butterfly.

Québec II

7-12-18 QUÉBEC CITY, CANADA: Today we walked west from the Chateau Frontenac up hill on the Grande Allée Est, which became the Grande Allée Ouest as we walked west. The street is home to countless hotels and restaurants and a Festival lasting for several weeks with nightly music shows with major performers.

After the city gate, a remnant from the days when cities had walls and gates, the street is wider and the restaurants sprawl out on the sidewalk. The buildings changed from stone to brick as we continued uphill, and became mixed commercial and residential with occasional government agencies. We detoured into the series of parks and gardens along the cliffs above the St. Lawrence River.

We stopped at the MNBAQ, the Québec National Museum of Art, for a exhibit of oils by Berthe Morisot. There were about fifty paintings, mostly of her daughter Julie and her amies et cousines. On the way back down hill, we stopped for a snack at a sidewalk eatery before our nap.

Dinner was at IX Pour on the other side of the St. Charles River in a modest neighborhood, a short taxi ride away from the hotel. The restaurant is in a small, failed pizzeria with only twenty chairs and only one seating per night. Fabulous food. Another place worthy of a journey for a dinner.


Alaclair Ensemble is a hip-hop collective that we caught by accident yesterday, very energetic performers.
[video on FB]

La Grande Allée Est walking uphill from Chateau Frontenac is lined with restaurants and hotels, all with colorful signs, flags, gardens and hanging planters.

The city wall gate,  remnant from the colonial era along with many sections of the wall.

Top of the National Assembly Building, totally baroque.

Grande Allée Ouest is lined with more restaurants and hotels.

At the National Museum of Art of Québec, we saw the Berthe Morisot Exhibit.

Judy was attracted to this painting for some reason.

Tonight we ate at IX Pour, a taxi ride to the other side of the St. Charles River. They have one seating per night and only 20 chairs. They're in a failed pizzeria and it was extraordinary. The wine list is in chalk all over the walls.

Québec.

7-11-18 QUÉBEC CITY, CANADA: We are here on a mini vacation from our summer vacation. Québec is a fav, but we haven’t been here for few years. The old city is a delight, reminiscent of France without the jet lag. There is great stone architecture, tons of clever shopkeepers, many great hotels and restaurants, street art and street performers, daylight from 4 AM to 9 PM, a citadel, city walls, festivals and a chance to practice your French.

We think the food is as good as Paris or NYC. Last night we ate at Restaurant Initiale where it took us three hours to get through the tasting menu with the wine pairings. I could eat there once a week. The restaurant is in the old city, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. On the top of the riverside cliff is the upper city a few hundred feet above the river and where the Chateau Frontenac, our hotel, is sited. We walked down to the restaurant and then back up to burn off a few of the ingested calories.

Today we walked around the lower city and had dinner after an après-midi nap, at Restaurant Legende, another extraordinary place. We again walked down to the restaurant and back up after the dinner event.

We drove up from VT, a four-hour trip with light traffic, on Tuesday. We had a small T-storm on the way. The dogs are vacationing in Orford, NH. We go back on Friday. More exploring tomorrow and another super meal at Ixpour Bistro.


Le Chateau Frontenac claims it is the most photographed hotel in the world. It is definitely unique.

The Quebec skyline is strewn with domes, cupolas, weathervanes, statues and flags.

Umbrella display only missing five dozen Mary Poppins.

Restaurant Initale is worth a journey, as Michelin says, we have eaten here before and made it our first stop this trip. working our way through the tasting menu with the wine pairings was a three hour event, but we walked down and then back up from the lower city to the upper city on the cliff top.

Cathedral-Bascilica.

Champlain statue looks down on street performers.

Restaurant decorated with flower pots. I wonder what else they might sell.

Quebec flag.

Old city church square.

Almost Missed a Whole Week.

7-9-18 VERMONT: We had a big, 0.9 inches, rain when the heat wave broke. It was followed by a windy day with a rain of dead branches. One of those branches damaged our TV antenna out in the woods, which will be repaired today.

Alison and Lily have been here for a few days, and we went to Old City Falls in Strafford yesterday and walked the stream below the falls.

Before that they arrived, I had done a day of pruning and generated two cartloads of branches for the compost pile. I am, I think, almost caught up with pruning.

Today Anna and Gardner were here to meet with the tent man and contractors about siting the tent for the wedding and prepping and leveling that site this fall. It looks like the wedding plans are all set, or mostly set.

New blooms: another milkweed, delphinium, oxeye, daisy, monarda, hydrangea.


A hybrid daylily in vivid red with a yellow throat.

Still water offers reflections.

More reflections.

I did a bunch of pruning, this is one cart load on its way to composting.

Old City Falls has a double waterfall, high on the left and lower on the right.

Asclepias incarnata, butterfly weed, also swamp milkweed, also rose milkweed. The problem with common names is that the same plant has different names in different places and different plants may use the same common name.

Tiger moth hiding in the 'lawn'.