It's Monday and we're still talking goats. The fact that this topic will not go away moves us closer in the direction of seriously considering them, even as one kid (of the goat kind) after the next disappears off of Craigslist. It's as if there is a herd of people waiting to take on goat raising. Perhaps we're at the tail end of a hot trend.
It's a sunny, cool, breezy June day. Astonishingly beautiful! I walk the garden very early, with clippers now, snipping off spent buds. That's how far into the blooming season we've come -- I'm removing flowers that have had their run already!
What's blooming now? The iris (siberian and japanese), everywhere. The delicacy of this flower (even as it stands on strong stalks) makes me fall in love with it each season anew. The German bearded iris may have a lovely, frilly opulence...
... but this simpler flower is solidly beautiful.
(in the Big Bed)
(in the Front Bed)
(the magic of the entirety...)
Some of the peonies have now completed their run, while others are just beginning. One of our oldest ones is really firing up this year!
(fronting the lily bed)
We eat breakfast on the porch, with a final bouquet of lilac from our late blooming French bush.
And the rest of the morning is dedicated to flower field maintenance, with an added side trip to the grape arbor, where we never get any grapes because the beetles eat them, but we are ever hopeful that one day we'll outsmart them. Thistle grows in abundance there and I spend a good hour clearing the area of it. We have blueberries planted there as well and it's no fun picking them (I'm thinking of the grandkids) unless the area is free of the prickly stuff.
The flower beds are sprouting too many weeds (oh those rains!) and so I unload dozens of pitchfork-fuls of wood chips to suppress the unwanted stuff. In doing this, I manage to step on Peach, who, unbeknownst to me was hiding under a day lily. No, Ed, I did not break her back, nor did I stab her with the pitchfork. Oh, and yes, I'm also undamaged. Honestly, who would would have thought that a resting chicken could pose a serious hazard in your garden!
I recover my energies and my composure on the porch...
And in the afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop.
A chat with the chickens...
... a book, a snack...
... a game.
A day like any other and yet it feels very different. We're moving so rapidly through this beautiful period of the year toward summer solstice! Really? In just eleven days?!
Evening. I get the bedroom ready for our guest who arrives later tonight (a colleague of Ed's) and, too, well, we talk to goat people. One has to look and ask questions and then think some more how all this and the rest of the summer will unfold!
It's a sunny, cool, breezy June day. Astonishingly beautiful! I walk the garden very early, with clippers now, snipping off spent buds. That's how far into the blooming season we've come -- I'm removing flowers that have had their run already!
What's blooming now? The iris (siberian and japanese), everywhere. The delicacy of this flower (even as it stands on strong stalks) makes me fall in love with it each season anew. The German bearded iris may have a lovely, frilly opulence...
... but this simpler flower is solidly beautiful.
(in the Big Bed)
(in the Front Bed)
(the magic of the entirety...)
Some of the peonies have now completed their run, while others are just beginning. One of our oldest ones is really firing up this year!
(fronting the lily bed)
We eat breakfast on the porch, with a final bouquet of lilac from our late blooming French bush.
And the rest of the morning is dedicated to flower field maintenance, with an added side trip to the grape arbor, where we never get any grapes because the beetles eat them, but we are ever hopeful that one day we'll outsmart them. Thistle grows in abundance there and I spend a good hour clearing the area of it. We have blueberries planted there as well and it's no fun picking them (I'm thinking of the grandkids) unless the area is free of the prickly stuff.
The flower beds are sprouting too many weeds (oh those rains!) and so I unload dozens of pitchfork-fuls of wood chips to suppress the unwanted stuff. In doing this, I manage to step on Peach, who, unbeknownst to me was hiding under a day lily. No, Ed, I did not break her back, nor did I stab her with the pitchfork. Oh, and yes, I'm also undamaged. Honestly, who would would have thought that a resting chicken could pose a serious hazard in your garden!
I recover my energies and my composure on the porch...
And in the afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop.
A chat with the chickens...
... a book, a snack...
... a game.
A day like any other and yet it feels very different. We're moving so rapidly through this beautiful period of the year toward summer solstice! Really? In just eleven days?!
Evening. I get the bedroom ready for our guest who arrives later tonight (a colleague of Ed's) and, too, well, we talk to goat people. One has to look and ask questions and then think some more how all this and the rest of the summer will unfold!
