Blue Sky Day.

6-30-23 VERMONT: It stopped raining yesterday after successive daily totals of 1.0, 1.75, 1.75 for a total of 5.75 inches for the week. The upper pond is full and a torrent off water is coming down over the waterfall. Today is sunny and things are drying out. There are still large puddles everywhere. 

In between storms I have been doing garden chores. The peonies were soaked by the rain and washed to the ground. I cut off about a hundred, but was able to salvage a handful. Other plants have needed staking or supporting. 

Today is the beginning of the long Fourth Weekend. We will have a houseful, starting today with Lily, Danna and a few friends with more coming later.  

The phoebe babies are out of the nest. Turtles are back in the sun today. I have had to pull the boat out of the pond every day to empty it.

Last summer was very dry and was a La Niña year, but this year is an El Niño year and is very wet, so far.

New blooms: rosebay rhododendron, swamp valerian, water lily, lychnis, catalpa.

This is the biggest waterload I have ever seen here.

The phoebe chicks. Three are obvious, the fourth is lower and in front of the others, facing left. Today is nest is empty.

One of the last to open, I like the single flowers better than the usual doubles.

White Admiral butterfly, first one fo the season.

The rain stopped.

Rain.

6-26-23 VERMONT: It’s been a busy week. After a couple dry days, we have had rain, 1.25 inches, and more since that first stormy day. The upper pond seems like one drop away from flowing. 

I have been busy, and Hillary was here on Wednesday. I did a pond Rx. The pond, BTW, is covered with pollen, I’m guessing pine pollen, and it looks white at times, as if it were filled with milk. 

We bought tomatoes, basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley. I put the game cams out in the pasture. Hillary planted the primrose that we brought up from NJ in the upper brook. She and Matt, her assistant, cleaned up the pond bank, staked the delphinium. I bought four phlox at Gardeners Supply and planted them on the pond bank near the apple tree. I have emptied the boat twice.

The phoebes are busy feeding their brood of three chicks, who look like they’re nearly ready to fledge. The wrens are in the wren house on the small barn. I haven’t seen any activity at the owl box or the bat houses.

New blooms: fever few, Russian sage.

Peonies are at peak, but they have been pummelled by the rain and are drooping sadly.

Itoh peonies, a new hybrid, offer dramatic new colors.

The fence roses are at peak, in the rain, with Itoh peonies to the left in front of the wall.

Goats beard is happy in dense shade.

Siberian iris in white in the upper terrace bed.

A cedar waxwing in the willow tree.

Phoebe taking a small break from feeding the chicks.

The young phoebes, taken through a dirty window and screen, but you can see three hungry babies.

This is a Question Mark butterfly on milkweed in the pasture.

Fever few just starting.

Summer Begins.

6-20-23 VERMONT: Getting out of the Metro area today was hellish. There were traffic jams on the GSP and I-95 in Greenwich. I switched  to the Merritt Pky and landed in a bigger jam. Other minor jams further adorned the trip—Vermont was traffic free.

Anyway we’re here, the house and gardens look great and the upper pond is an inch from being full. The rain gauge had 4.25 inches which is why the gardens and yard look so good. Forget-Me-Not [FMN] are everywhere adding a touch of blue to everything. The brook is blue, not from water, but from FMN. I guess I forgot how good they look at this time of the season. Some of the peonies are open and some of the Itoh peonies also. The poppies are very colorful. Lupin are out in force as well as iris and flags, anemones and more on the list of new blooms.

The Summer Solstice is here, Spring is over. The sun begins its descent.

New blooms: Wentworth viburnum, weigela, diablo, knapweed, bishops weed, meadow rue, bearded iris, Siberian iris, flags, chives, peony, Itoh peony, apricot hybrid daylily, dianthus, thyme, abelia, burning bush, terrace roses, fence roses, goats beard, ladies mantle, bridal wreath spirea, Asian lilac, foxglove, baptisia. 

Lupin on the pond bank, a rogersia on the right and FMN in front.

Poppies, vivid color

An Itoh peony and bud for another flower.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on yellow flag. There are at least two flitting about.

The brook flowing with FMN.

FMN around the upper, new pond.

Siberian iris has three sets of three petals--the upright three, the drooping three and the horizontal three close to the lower three. The nectar is between the middle and lower sets, and the pollinator gets covered with pollen going for the nectar.

This hybrid daylily has two sets of three, thin petals that bloom before the native daylily and have that apricot color uniformly on the petal. Petals in sets of three usually indicate that the plant is a monocot.

Greenwood Gardens.

6-18-23 SHORT HILLS: Siobhan has been in NJ for a JNJ conference, and came for a visit Friday afternoon. We went to dinner at a Greek place in Millburn with Alan to make a foursome. Blue, the new dog, was a hit with Siobhan and Alan. 

Saturday we went to Greenwood Gardens in the morning before Siobhan’s flight back to SFO. Judy and I have been there before, even before it became Greenwood Gardens, but not for a while. 

The estate was built by architect William Renwick for Joseph P. Day’s family in the early 1900’s. It was purchased by Peter Blanchard Jr. and his wife Adelaide Frick Blanchard in 1949. At that time, the property had tennis courts, stables and a golf course. Peter III and his wife Sofia converted the estate to Greenwood Gardens, a non-profit, public resource. 

Most of the buildings are stucco decorated with colored ceramics. There are pools and water features, ponds, several out-buildings, paths and lawns and beautiful gardens. The following pix are a few of the many I took on our visit.

An Amaryllis near the entrance.

The first pool and fountains are down hill from the main house.

The second pool, 'Garden of the Gods', is further down hill.

Looking back toward the house.

The 'Summer House'.

On the way to the 'Tea House'.

Siobhan at the 'Tea House'.

Geese on the upper pond.

A turkey seeking attention.

The 'Cascade', a waterfall, now dry.

'Pegasus' under a dawn redwood.

A Sycamore Allée with geese.

Lambs ears in bloom by the first pool.

No Smoking Area.

6-11-23 SHORT HILLS: We’re back in a No Smoking zone. The Air Quality Index is back below 100 instead of near 1000. I can see and smell the difference. It continues to be too dry, but rain is predicted for tomorrow. No rain is why all those fires are still burning in Québec. I suspect we will not be going to Québec City this summer, unless it rains a ton.

I have continued to do chores. I pulled out some tree trunk guards and changed some others and I continued to do pruning. I’m catching up with all the losses from last years drought. The predicted El Niño has not formed as yet. If it does, it might change the weather pattern of the last few years.

New blooms: linden tree, tulip tree.

Smoke free yard--compare to the pix from the last post.

Tulip tree flowers and leaves. The tulip-shaped flowers are yellow and orange.  Next to the flower in the center is a brown bud of an opening flower. The leaves are oddly shaped, one is seen pretty well above the centrally placed flower and bud.  

Linden tree flowers and leaves. The leaves are assymetrical and dark green, contrasting with the light green bract that frames the flowers. Both trees have actually been blooming for a while.

Smoke and Cold.

6-7-23 SHORT HILLS: We’re back in NJ in the cold and dark—a combination of smoke from the Canadian wild fires and the low pressure system stuck over Nova Scotia. The smoke is like a dense fog, except there’s a yellowish cast to everything and the burning-wood smell.

Yesterday I filled the feeders, fed the house plants now outside, got new tires for my car.

New blooms: southern magnolia, catalpa, red spirea, pink lamium, white clover, rose. 

Southern magnolia. These huge flowers start one day, open the next, and turn brown the third day. The funny color is from the smoke. It's like there's a huge barbeque in the neighborhood.

The whole tree, in mid-day darkness.

Catalpa flowers and big leaves.

The catalpa in the smoke.

Smoky skies.

A Change in the Weather.

6-4-23 VERMONT: It finally rained, 0.75 inches, yesterday and some showers today. Things were very dry before the rain. It dropped from record-setting nineties to fifty with wind and overcast. I was outside doing pruning and other chores all day and got cold. I knew I shouldn’t have taken out the storms and put the screens in.

We are off to NJ and won’t be back until the 20th. With the unpredictable weather, I’m glad I didn’t plant anything new or get tomatoes until we are here for the season. The ponds have stayed pretty clear so far, but I treated them today.

Eoin and Morgan left yesterday by the Dartmouth Coach to Logan. I remember when we had to fly to SFO to pick the boys. We look forward to their next visit.

We ate at Saap in Randolph, and we were disappointed. We had liked it better on previous times. Night before last we all went to Elixir in WRJ and were pleased. 

New blooms: lupin, rogersia, bachelor button, poppy, anemone.  

Eoin and Morgan.

Poppy makes a bold statement.

Lupin and Rogersia, neighbors.

Creeping Veronica says blue for about a week.

Pagoda dogwood. For dogwood fans--the leaf looks familiar, but not the flower.

Blanca on the bridge. [Judy's photo]

Blue in the brook with the primrose. [Judy's photo]