Vermont in May.

5-11-26 VERMONT: We’re here. We arrived yesterday in the new hybrid Subaru, getting 33 MPH, actually I was hoping for better than that. It was cool and threatening to rain, but I took pix in spite of the black flies.

The metal barn roof has been partly cleared of rust and painted. The ponds  are pretty clear, full and draining. Trees are beginning to leaf out, maples ahead of oaks and ashes. The elm trees look good. The horses still have winter coats on, but they got new summer shoes today.

Scott was here today, and we got all the benches out, and all the storms replaced with screens, and the rockers put out on the porch, the hammock is out, Judy’s little cart is out, the deck chairs, benches and gates are out. Judy picked up her latest auction acquisition, a tub painted with flowers. 

I saw a hummingbird on the Virginia blue bell and will put out their feeders. The regular seed feeders for the other birds have been put away because of the bears. 

New blooms: trillium-red and white, Virginia blue bells, epimedium, purple lamium, violet, marsh marigold, primrose, hepatica, service berry, star magnolia, wild ginger, pulmonaria, vinca minor, bluet, dandelion.

A painted turtle admiring her reflection.

Another spring ephemeral, hepatica, apparently so named because someone thought the leaves resembled a liver. They do not look like human livers, kidneys, spleens, stomachs, etc. In long ago times, an apothecary would pick a plant and use it to treat a supposedly diseased otgan that he thought the plant resembled. The idea was that God gave us a hint for a cure by the plants shape. A heavy burden for little hepatica standing two inches high.

Trillium, one of my favorites, in white. They have three leaves, three sepals, and three petals.

Another trillium, in red, also called 'Wake robin'. Your guess is as good as mine.

Marsh marigold a large ephemeral. it's getting a lot of attention from pollinators.

Bluet, a one inch beauty, is another ephemeral.

Primroses with good color.

And a tree, star magnolia. this was the only magnolia that survived here in the past but others now make it, stay turned.