The Red Maple Is Gone.

8-15-19 VERMONT: We had a nice dinner in Canaan with Gretchen and John, Laura-Beth and Denny and hosts Julie and Dudley. Their place on the lake is beautiful, dinner was wonderful and the conversation interesting. That was Tuesday, tonight we were back at Candela Tapas with Shari and Dave. Tomorrow we go to Cloudland Farm for our 58th Anniversary.

Chippers, our tree people, were here yesterday to take down the dying red maple behind the pond. It used to have spectacular fall color, but the color faded as the tree was dying. This summer it dropped a huge branch that could have done damage to the other nearby trees. Joey and I cut that branch up for firewood. Chippers took the maple down, as well as a couple of crab apples, without damaging the nearby specimen trees. They ground down the stumps, graded and seeded the spots where the trees had been. I have some firewood to split and a load of chips in the pasture to rake out. I always feel a loss when an important tree dies. They will have to come back for one or two other trees that are dying.

Today I watered the newly seeded spots and used the string trimmer around the small barn and around the roses.

The big barn floor repair has started, but won’t finish until sometime in September.

New blooms: helenium, Casablanca lily, red sedum, mint.


Cedar Waxwing looking elegant even if his true identity is secret.

Mint in flower with a monarch who has a sweet tooth, or tongue.

The big red maple is gone. It should be in the center of this pic, but has been turned into chips and firewood. It wasn't completely dead, but had dropped major branches and was something of a hazard. At one time its red fall color was so vivid that people driving by stopped to take its picture, but it had stopped showing that dramatic pigment as it dwindled.

These Casablanca lilies have a perfume that fills the air. They appear just as the daylilies are finished.

Helenium.

Sedum. the first of several that will last into November.