June in Vermont

Below are excerpts from Ellen’s journal. She has kept her Walden Hill Journal going since we moved from Illinois. We hope you enjoy reading them for a vicarious experience of Vermont.

June 2, 2006 We planted potatoes and chard today. It’s not the right phase of the moon for potatoes but it was way too wet during the third quarter moon in May and too late if I wait for the same in June. The spuds are underground at this point anyway so they won’t see the waxing moon. We’re getting some mowing in too. It’ll be nice when the grass and the back flies slow down a bit. Our road has been humming with large dump trucks carting away huge slabs of the mountain atop Gore Road. Neighbors have begun to build and have excavated a sizable chunk of the hill for their basement foundation. In French, the word for basement is “cave” which seems very apropos in this case.

June 4, 2006 It’s been a red bird weekend, a welcome splash of color in the dreary rain. Yesterday while back-roading along the very full Ottaqueehcee River, we had a close-up view of a magnificent pileated woodpecker. It’s a rare treat to see this often elusive bird. At home we’ve been seeing a rose-breasted grosbeak, flickers with their dominant red spot on top, ruby throated humming birds and purple finches. A lone bluebird added a bit of variety, perching on our woodpile but also was part of the reddish theme with his bit of orange underneath. Then of course there are multitudes of robin redbreast. The first of the irises are just opening. At least the flowers are thriving in all this rain.

June 6, 2006 Every bit of sunshine needs to be used to its fullest advantage since the sun is a rare commodity these days. I finished planting tomatoes today, put in 16 basil plants, 2 hills of zucchini and two of delicata squash. The rest of the day was spent weeding another bit of the perennial gardens. I was accompanied by a continual swarm of blackflies. My trusty bug shirt allows me to work outside despite an allergic reaction to these little demons. An occasional pest finds a bit of exposed skin but for the most part I’m covered.

Last year’s journal marks July 23rd as the day I was finally able to venture outside without the bug baffler. So it looks like I’ll have at least another 6 weeks of blackfly season to slug through. Nights continue to be deliciously cool. The thermometer recorded a low of 48° last night. No wonder tomatoes take so long to ripen up here. Lilacs are fading visually but their heavy perfume lingers on. One lone lady’s slipper orchid is in bloom in our lower woods.

June 9, 2006 The best the weatherman could do on the morning “Eye on the Sky” was: “Hey, it’s not raining as much!”. It doesn’t look like sunshine is in the forecast for the entire weekend. The one plus in all this continuing rain is that the flowers are in profuse bloom. Large magenta rhododendron are about a week ahead of flowering as are irises and yellow lilies. Pink phlox, blue bachelor button, yellow euphorbia and white as well as delicate pink lily of the valley are all in flower. Trees are in full leaf now; osier bushes polka-dotting the field with their miniature dogwood blossoms. It’s been staying on the cool side which is much more comfortable for me in my bug netting attire. The rain has made the gardens easier to weed as well. The vegetable garden could use some sunshine, but for now it’ll have to make do with a very thorough soaking. Unfortunately the woodpile is getting the same.

June 11, 2006 The sun made a very weak attempt to cast a little light on this very dreary morning. Must be my brief birthday gift from Mother Nature. That’s certainly the least she could do on such a wintery day. Temperature is only 45° with gusting winds. Instead of the lull of the peepers last night, we had a roaring March wind. Readings from the Danville School weather station reported gusts of up to 25 mph which easily translate to 30 plus up here. My poor garden is taking a beating. On the bright side is the garden of tall slender irises becoming fuller each day despite the cold and lack of sun. It’s a treat to watch the hummingbirds hover above the purple blossoms, dipping their long beaks in for a drop of nectar.

June 16, 2006 It’s a breezy 70° morning with full sunshine. A fairly large woodpecker is drumming in the distance, the bass quality of his tapping hinting at the largeness of the cavity he’s excavating. A large maple limb recently toppled in our lower woods where a pileated woodpecker had drilled out quite a large series of holes, ultimately weakening the tree. Yellow lilies have taken over “scenter” stage from the now past lilacs. Iris bloom with a shocking but beautiful contrast next to the clumps of yellow lilies. Lupine both purple and pink grow in drooping spires and red and black poppies nod in the wind. Our rhododendron continues to bloom, the fullest we can remember. It’s protected enough by the house that last week’s heavy winds and rain didn’t seem to disturb its profuse blossoms. Our vegetable garden, especially the tomatoes, are still attempting to recover from Mother Nature’s heavy beating. I may need to do some replanting there. The first luscious VT strawberries are here.

June 18, 2006 High of 90° with a low of 55° today. The humid evening is cooling off a bit with the thermometer showing 74°. It’s finally warmed up enough for the fireflies to begin their nocturnal flickering. We spent some time in the woods today clearing our trail from all the blow downs and scattered debris from the heavy winds and rains earlier this month. Pileated woodpeckers continue drilling massive holes, especially in some of the larger beech trees. Looks like they are helping select our future stove wood. I had a bit of an evening cool down on the swing and noticed a very large snake skin in the nearby flower bed. It must be a very impressive reptile that outgrew and discarded such a long and wide skin. I’ll have to keep that in mind when I’m weeding around those rocks.

June 21, 2006 Summer has officially arrived with the solstice occurring at 8:26 this morning. It’s an absolutely perfect day. We saw a low of 48° early before sunrise and have reached 77°, twelve hours later. We awoke to a clear, rain-washed blue sky with puffs of clouds forming from the rising mist. Dew lay heavy on the grass with colorful, prismatic reflections in the directional morning light. The sun has reached its northernmost point and will begin an initially imperceptible journey south, stealing snatches of daylight along the way. Yesterday’s powerful thunderstorms took away our hot, hazy and humid weather and left a cool, crystal clear day behind.

June 24, 2006 Took a pre-lunch stroll down Walden Hill Road and enjoyed the wildflower-studded Monet fields. Orange and yellow hawkweed, delicate white daisies, purple clover and early asters as well as dainty shiny yellow buttercups all in great profusion, danced among the tall green grass. Moose tracks by the Bailey’s were the only signs of wildlife. Melodious robins and thunking frogs serenaded our walk.

June 26, 2006 The garden is getting a good soaking this morning after a weekend of low 80’s and beautiful sunshine. Flower heads are drooping in the moisture. I’ve hesitated removing spent blossoms since the goldfinches enjoy picking out the seeds. The birds are so light that they can easily perch on top of a bachelor button flower and pick out the thistle-like seeds. We took advantage of a beautiful day on Sunday to drive down to 4 Corners Farm in Bradford for their annual strawberry festival and barbecue. The view from the farm stand overlooking the CT River Valley with a cloud-shrouded Mt. Moosilauke was quite spectacular. Eating barbecued chicken and sumptuous, generous portions of strawberry shortcake while drinking in the view on a mild sunny day was just the ticket for a lazy Sunday afternoon. One of the firemen in charge of the barbecue was asked to speak and he gave a typical, succinct VT presentation. It went something like: “Thank you. I’ll be very brief and and I’m almost done!”. We got home in time for me to work off some of the excess calories mowing the lawn before heading down to the Danville Green for a concert with the town band. For a finale to a fine summer day, we watched the firefly show. The field was aglitter with long, slow-motion ribbons of light, floating among the constant flickering.

June 27, 2006 We’ve had a wicked wild windy day, very unusual for summer unless of course, remnants of a hurricane blow up this way. We did however, gain a reprieve from the relentless rain that made yesterday a total wash out. South Danville reported 4 1/2 inches of rainfall. Our damp basement and garage are more reminiscent of a spring thaw. A rather confused painted turtle came through our very wet field, discovered my well tilled garden, dug a nice burrow and deposited her eggs.

We discovered her when I went to check on my squash plants and unfortunately disturbed her by our amazed and constant gazing. I’m afraid we were a bit too close because she wandered off into the protection of the high grass before covering the nest. We watched from indoors but didn’t see her reappear. However when I returned to the garden an hour later to cover the eggs, she had already done so. I smoothed a little more of the excavated dirt over the nest and marked it with several small twigs so as not to disturb it while tending the garden. So among the mounds of squash, we’ll hopefully sprout a few painted turtles.

June 30, 2006 After heavy thunderstorms last night, we’re seeing a mixture of sun, clouds, thunder and of course more rain and even hail. The combined total rainfall from May & June stands at 22 inches which is half of the average annual total for the state. No wonder we had a turtle “swimming” up the field to nest in the garden. I read up more on painted turtles and learned the following: the female looks for nesting sites in the late afternoon (ours was about 6:00), nesting is often associated with a soaking rainstorm during the day (YES), the turtle seeks open areas that get lots of sunlight (like I do for my vegetable garden). The only puzzlement is that the painted turtle is less likely to travel long distances from water to deposit her eggs.