Lincoln, Carnegie and Thetford.

6-10-19 VERMONT: The last week in NJ was action packed with a party at Lincoln Elementary School where Judy works with the dogs teaching reading to second-graders. It was a ‘thank you’ for the volunteers.

The next night we went to a packed Carnegie Hall to hear the Philadelphia O with Yannick Nézet-Séguin do an all-Russian program. They opened with Stravinsky’s Funeral Song and then Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Beatrice Rana on piano. After the intermission they played Symphony No.1 by Rachmaninoff. The NYT reviewer liked it all as much as we did. All three composers had to flee the Russian Revolution, and the first and third pieces were thought to be lost and only recently found. Only Prokofiev returned to the USSR.

After packing up and loading the cars, we came to VT on Saturday. Judy has been busy inside prepping the house for the wedding and doing some cooking for the next-day brunch. I have been outside busy with weeding, pruning, fertilizing and watering. I planted a bunch of ajuga volunteers that I brought up from NJ in the front walkway. I also planted two Obedient plants, Physostegia virginiana, one in the north terrace bed and one in the bed below the deck. The special herbs look fine.

We launched the pond rowboat, the official beginning of summer. The pond stills looks fairly clear, it’s teeming with breeding newts at the moment. I did the pond treatments. The frog opera performances continue nightly.

A flock of cedar waxwings was in the apple tree. They were eating the apple blossom petals. That doesn’t seem like much nutrition, perhaps there was a pollinator into the beak-full. The hummingbirds have drained both feeders.

The Game Cams caught five deer in one spot in the pasture. There was also a canine, either a gray fox or a coyote.

New blooms: Siebold viburnum, double file viburnum, lilac, Asian lilac, columbine, honeysuckle, mountain maple, blueberry, Japanese primrose, yellow lady slipper, celandine, Solomon’s seal, false Solomon’s seal, ajuga, geranium, veronica, lily-of-the valley, lupin, hawthorn.


Cedar waxwing apparently eating apple blossoms, maybe there's a pollinator in there.

Lincoln School end-of-the-year party with Judy and Gus and the other volunteers.

Japanese primroses are on the banks of the pond...

Along with Yellow lady slippers, Forget-me-nots, iris and anemones.

Maizie admiring the new grass in the pasture. The pasture is filled with wildflowers.

Eastern tiger swallowtail working the lilacs.

Carnegie Hall literally packed to the rafters...

For the Philadelphia O with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Beatrice Rana.

Game Cam with a five deer in the pasture.

Grey fox or coyote?