More Rain, More Plantings.

8-7-23 VERMONT: Frequent rains continue here with another 1.55 inches and more today. It’s been cool, and today, cold with afternoon temps in the fifties.

Alison and Dan are visiting. We went to Saap in Randolph a few nights ago and last night saw ‘Oppenheimer’ at the Nugget. Tonight we’re eating here and might grill if the rain stops. 

I planted another yarrow, Achillea millefolium “Red’, two more lilies, L. orientale ‘Baferrari’ and ‘Casa Blanca’ on the pond bank with the others previously planted. I brought home the magnolia, M. soulangiana, ‘Betty’ for the area across the bridge near the new maples. Getting it to the site will be an issue with all the soggy areas. The root ball probably weighs 300 pounds. 

A kingfisher has been here every day getting fish from the pond. Butterflies, bees, wasps, and hummingbirds have been using the milkweed, bee balm and echinacea.

New blooms: white turtlehead, first aster.

Kingfisher, immature, will loose most or all of the rusty feathers when grown up.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. You can see all six legs, two antennae, tongue, four wings oin this pose.

Red Admiral working echinacea.

Hybrid lily 'Muscadet', smells gorgeous too.

First aster growing with phlox. The aster appeared almost to the day that the last daylily bloomed.

White turtlehead is growing in the sun and appears months before the pink turtlehead that is growing in the shade.