The Fourth.

7-5-22 VERMONT: We’re getting rain today, no wind, in the sixties. Yesterday, The Fourth, I went with Judy on her rounds partly because I was sore from the previous day. On the third, I weeded the primrose bed, spending about 90 minutes on my knees crawling around and in the bed, pulling out invasive anemones and forget-me-not, grass, dandelions and more. We have a lot of primrose and many, many baby plants that appeared with the weeds gone. In the afternoon, I set up soaker hoses to water the hydrangea transplants, most of which look tired and thirsty. By the end of the day, everything hurt, from my muddy knees to my dirty fingernails and I was tired and thirsty.

We had Anna and Gardner here for a few days over the weekend, and Gardner senior for dinner Saturday night with the kids. Last week we met Laura-Beth for Chinese.

I saw a Yellow Warbler here for the first time. It landed on the hummingbird feeder, looking a bit confused. I grabbed for the camera, but it was gone before I got the camera turned on.  

New blooms: fox glove, daisy, echinacea, bee balm, evening primrose, mallow, ox eye.

Hybrid daylily. Each one is a surprise for the eyes.

Great spangled fritillary. This is an iPhone pic and so is the one above, pretty good shots.

Goldfinch near the feeders.

Water lilies.

Here's our new horse guests, testing the grass. Peaches and Raven.

The robins have a second brood in the Mohican viburnum growing between the two houses. We tend to ignore robins because they're so common, but their enormous success as a species is why they are so common.

The catalpa tree is covered with blossoms and has littered the ground with the white flowers.

The other night after dinner with Laura-Beth, we saw fire in the sky. The setting sun shone through a hole in the cloud cover to light up the clouds to the east.