Flying Beauty

Friday, August 8, 2008

A wet evening here on the hill. Gail and Alex and I had a hasty dinner, caught the first ten minutes of the local news and watched a 47 minute recreation of an H.P. Lovecraft tale. It was a movie recreation made to look like a silent movie from the early 1900s. The similarities between an icon in the movie and something in the Johnny Depp/Pirates of the Caribbean series were amazing. Alex says that Lovecraft was not enamored by spiders or octopus tentacles so I guess that explains some of this. This all has absolutely nothing to do with gardening except that it was a prelude to our getting outside before the sun retreated in fear of more rain.

We made Karl the wonder dog go out back for a walk. He hates evenings like this because it is so silent he can't pick up the sound of intruders to his space. We walked some and stopped to pick wild blueberries which he loves. Too much sitting and riding for me in the past two days so the berry picking (bending) was brief.

When it rains like this, I wonder where the butterflies and moths go. The Great Spangled Frittillary pictured above is one of many here this year because the food sources they enjoy are so plentiful. The thistles, milkweeds, bee balms, and coneflowers are too thick to believe and the butterflies abound. I have been intrigued by a bumblebee-like clearwing hummingbird moth and I have found this website very useful because it can be made specific to Vermont's counties. We live in Washington County but you can find yours too.

As we walked around tonight I noticed some of the flowers were drenched from too much rain but still looked nice to me. The Oriental lilies have great fragrance when they first come out but even after today's rain, the perfume was apparent. Gold Band and Sheherazade are a couple I like.

As we walked along, I noticed that the purple echinacea which have been blooming at the nursery for two weeks are just unfurling petals here on the hill. 700 feet does make a difference.

In contrast, the beautiful color of the vase shaped hosta, Liberty, is as pleasing as ever. This one lost part of a leaf to a nibbling deer but it's still a beauty anyone would like in their collection.

The weekend is almost here and we hope for some improvement in the weather so gardeners can get out and see us. If you live nearby, stop in for a visit and let me know if you read this blog.


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the rain has started up again. The sound is tranquilizing and a little reading should put me away for the night.

Best weekend wishes,

Tired George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm