Mom's geranium

This is one of my mother's geraniums (actually a Pelargonium) that is doing very well outdoors this summer. Its a common garden geranium - maybe "Melody"? A nice pink in a wood basket. I gave her a Martha Washington geranium earlier this year (Mother's Day?), but these are not heat-tolerant and its not doing as well outdoors as her common geraniums. Kind of pettering out.

Grilled feast

A big feast on the back patio for my sister's visit. Salmon (grilled on a cedar plank) and dungeness crab from Alaska, chicken, and lots of grilled vegetables: onions, mushrooms, fennel, yellow and zucchini squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, red peppers, and tomatoes. We also served, green salad and a spicy corn salad, and corn bread. Yummmm.

Snapdragons

Rocket red and rocket white.

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Evening swim

Here's a picture from Skippy's swimming spot. We go here pretty much every day. Last evening was hot and humid. Skippy plods along the path on the way to the pond. Once he's wet, he's happy - he jumps and runs and plays.

Back seat

I bought a few more annuals yesterday. I thought my front yard needed color. And my sunflowers, which I was really looking forward to, didn't sprout. I always enjoy a nice garden center and the sight of a backseat full of plants.

Wildflowers in my parents' yard

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Saint John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum L.) and a wild pink (Dianthus plumarius).

A bit of random information: Echinacea is in the aster (Asteraceae) family. All plants in this family are native to North America. The genus name is from the Greek echino, meaning "hedgehog", an allusion to the spiny central disk. They are drought-tolerant perrenials. Echinacea has been attributed with the ability to boost the body's immune system and ward off infections, particularly the common cold.

Saint John's wort is an opposite-leaved perennial herb in the Hypericaceae family . Each yellow flower has black dots often visible along the petal margins , which are glands containing the phototoxin hypericin. This red pigment is also visible in glands on leaf margins giving the leaf a perforated look. St. Johnswort is invasive , as well as toxic to livestock. It is a Eusasian plant introduced to the US the 1900's. It is used to treat mild to moderate depression.

Pinks are in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to Eurasia. The colour pink was actually named after the dianthus. The flower was named for the ragged edges on each petal - as if produced by pinking shears.

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wildlife at Cleaveland Farm

Last Sunday was a great day for spotting wildlife. From upper left: a grasshopper that flies (adult Carolina grasshopper - aka black-winged grasshopper, Carolina locust - Dissosteira carolina. They fly very well, and once they land tend to be lost in the landscape due to their superb camouflage. Males of this species perform a spectacular, hovering courtship flight over prospective mates), dragonfly (Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis), garter snake, another dragonfly (With those black triangular spots on the abdomen, it looks like a female (or immature male) Meadowhawk.), milk snake, fox hole (?), another grasshopper ("Two-striped grasshopper? Hard to tell conclusively from this lateral view, but I would bet this is an adult female two-striped grasshopper, Melanoplus bivittatus. Fine shot!") and an Eastern towhee (who kept singing "drink your teeeeeee").

(All parenthetical IDs are from BugGuide: Eric R. Eaton and Stephen Cresswell)

wildflowers at Cleaveland Farm

I photographed these wildflowers on July 23rd at Cleaveland Farm State Forest in Rowley MA. One of my favorite spots to see wildlife and flowers. I will eventually identify all of these, though I am a bit short of time these days. If you know any, leave a comment. Here's a start at IDs: (from top left) pea family, pods of common milkweed, unknown pink flower, bayberry, wild spirea, wild blueberries, a little black-eyed Susan with ruffled leaves, daisy fleabane.


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Looking up

This is what you see if you look up in my backyard. A big Norway maple (Acer platanoides). Its probably 85 years old, like our house (built around 1920). Web pages list many undesirable qualities of this tree (shallow, fibrous root system and dense shade make it virtually impossible for grass to grow under it; a non-native exotic that has escaped the urban environment and is a threat to native maples). Nevertheless, it gives us cool shade, privacy from adjacent homes and it shelters many squirrels and birds.

Flower garden down the road

This is a lovely garden bordering the sidewalk by an old house on my street. Purple coneflower (Echinacea), purple liatris, pink bee balm, purple loosestrife, pink spirea, creeping bellflower, hollyhocks, roses, tomatoes, rhubarb, impatients and every year they put in the nicest pink cleome (spider flower) at the corner just outside the old post and rail fence.

Sparrows fledge

My sparrows fledged today. Two babies. Here's a picture of the dad feeding one of the fledgelings.

Skippy's haircut

Skippy got a nice short summer clip yesterday. I think he likes it. Lots of frolicking on our walk. Check out that little white spot that just showed up on his back. I've never seen anything like that.

Supermarket roses

A silly picture to post. But these are really lovely. Cluster roses from the supermarket. They have been beautiful for a week now on my table.

Stressed Blaze climber

Not a pretty picture. I would really like to grow climbing roses on this trellis. The first year we dug these approx. 2x2 ft holes (about 3 ft deep) in the brick patio, I had Climbing Eden and Sally Holmes here and they were stunning for about 3 years. Then they lost all their leaves and died. I put in an Improved Blaze. This is its second year and it doesn't look good. I'd love any advice you have. Does it need more consistant watering, soil improvement, or are the holes just too small? Is the winter damaging it too much or is it the summer sun? It gets full sun. It looked OK in the spring. The summer sun seems the problem. No bugs, no aphids, no mildew, just drops the leaves.

Koi

There are two koi fish in my pond. One is 3 years old, the other about 1. Both are getting quite big. They do fine over the winter. The pond is 5 ft deep in the center, so it doesn't freeze. And when its cold, the koi don't eat. Some years the pond is covered in several feet of snow for a month, though it always has an area where the snow melts and the water gets air. The fish are also fairly timid and hide quickly if I, or a cat, approach. New cats to the neighborhood will sit on the edge of the pond and watch, but they quickly get the idea that they can't catch the koi.

Backyard pond

We had a nice thunderstorm and good rainfall last night so I went out early and took pictures. The yard always looks best then.

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Dragonfly

A particularly photogenic dragonfly. He let me approach very close with my camera.

Wildflowers

A couple of wildflowers from our walk yesterday. I have no idea what these are. I tried to look up the fuzzy one, but couldn't find anything similar, so I gave up. It looks like pea-family leaves with a grass-like flower. The blue flower looks like fireworks to me.

Thanks for your help! The fuzzy flower is rabbits foot clover (Trifolium arvense).


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R. maxima again

Another photo of the rosebay rhododendron in full bloom. It seems really late in the season for a rhododendron to be blooming.

This corner of my yard is the catbird corner. Though I'm sure I'll never get a photo of them, there is a pair of birds that spends alot of time here. Usually in the afternoons, about 4 pm, they take a bath and hop around here. My mom says I should look for a nest, but I haven't found one. I think my new rhododendron could be a good spot, but we do have several big cats around.

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Rhododendron maxima

Early this spring, I bought a large rhodo-
dendron (R. maxima, also called rosebay rhodo) and planted it in the back corner of the backyard. This was an empty area, especially in the winter when the deciduous bushes around it lose their leaves. I was looking for a large evergreen shrub that is very tolerant of shade. This seems to be the thing. It is a beautiful 5 x 5 foot bush with dark green foliage and well budded. It has begun to bloom this week. Many white and lightly pink-tinged blossoms. Lovely.

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Herb garden

This is my herb garden. Its right outside my kitchen - down the steps and across the patio. I don't know why it looks so scraggly this year. Lots of spaces. Tiny plants. I think I'll have to do better mulching over the winter. I seem to lose alot. Maybe its a cold spot. Here's the list of what's in there now: parsley, a little cilantro, rosemary, 3 kinds of thyme, 2 oreganos, sage, 3 mints, garlic chives, basil, tarragon. I also stuck in some vegetables to fill space: celery and jalapeno peppers. In the back, there are daylilies, the ubiquitous violets, 2 grape vines, a rose, yew, and a climbing hydrangea.

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Milkweed pods

Seed pods beginning to form on the milkweed.

Three sisters

I am looking forward to my sister's upcoming visit and put together these photos in its honor. Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta), rose (Rosa rugosa) and daisy fleabane (Erigeron annuus). (Maybe someday I'll post a picture titled "one brother"?)

Backyard wildlife

This is about as exotic as the wildlife gets in my suburban backyard. This little guy was watching me weeding.

Butterfly Milkweed

I saw this bright orange flower from across the soggy field and made my way over to photograph it. Its butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), a native member of the Milkweed family. Its brighter and shorter (2 ft) than common milkweed and does not produce seed pods. I have not seen this flower before and had some trouble selecting only one picture. How about four... I would like to find one of these plants for my garden.

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July 12, 2006

We're having another stretch of rainy weather. Some good thunderstorms, too. Our walk today was drizzly. The drops hung on the grasses. While photographing the wet grass, I caught a photo of a funny-looking, big-eyed fly - almost in focus.

March of the Mushrooms

This is my front lawn! Its sending up little umbrellas!

Full Moon

The Farmers' Almanac says last night's full moon is called the Full Buck Moon (July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur), or the Full Thunder Moon (thunderstorms are most frequent during this time), or the Full Hay Moon.

July 10, 2006

We went out to the country for a walk yesterday. This is Callahan State Park in Framingham, Massachusetts. Some nice corn fields, lots of big open grass fields. Swallows swooping and warblers singing "wichety, wichety, wichety". Its a great area for dogs to run and play. I don't often get a chance to look out across such wide open areas.

Grasses

Its mid-summer now. Grasses are beautiful in the fields. Skippy has great fun bounding through them. They are thigh-high and Skippy jumps like a rabbit to get through.

July 8, 2006

The backyard fish pond - Skippy's swimming hole.

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Meyer's lemon

My Meyer's lemon tree is pretty scraggly looking. It gets to go outside in the summer, but it has to survive the long New England winters indoors. I don't really want to keep giving it a bigger pot, though it needs one. Its a semi-bonsia lemon tree, but makes great fruit. I just picked a lemon to celebrate the 4th of July. Here's my favorite Meyer's lemon recipe: Chill martini glasses and Tangueray gin in freezer. Add a small amount of crushed ice to glasses. Add two lemon slices, two drops dry vermouth and a good amount of chilled gin. Stir. Enjoy!