Patience on the Wane for Impatiens glandulifera Royal

My patience is not truly thinning for this prolific plant. Impatiens glandulifera's flowers are lovely and offer nectar and pollen in July, August and into September for bees and my favored little jewel friends. It is a beautiful plant in many ways. My seeds came originally from North Hill, where I saw it growing over eight feet tall with thick trunks... not sure what Wayne and Joe were feeding them all those years ago. Here in my wild gardens they do not reach quite that high and their trunks are but a tiny girth. You might have noticed the soft pinky mauve flowers in my landscape photos, for it is everywhere in the gardens. This delicate plant has devised a clever way of spreading its seed and it can cast them out over twenty feet. They must be cousins to jewel weed for it has the same technique along with other similarites. I love to hold the seed pod gently between my fingers and have it release its seeds with a tiny bit of pressure. I have done this countless times but it always startles me and then I have a good laugh! This Impatiens has traveled from its native home in the Himalayans to be in my gardens. Bishops weed has nothing on Impatiens Royal... as it was once called... only this plant is easy to be rid of... should one lose patience with is rather invasive nature.

Garden Details... Honey Bees Aphrodites Sipping Buddleia Nectar Joining Jeweled Hummer Fledgling

Gardeners and farmers create a world that expands and contracts ... giving life ... becoming a habitat... a home... environment for creatures that delight and fight with our efforts. Here are some details of our delights. Butterfly bush is not exclusive but a venue open to birds and bees as well as its namesakes. A lovely gift... after picking one quart and a pint of blueberries... for this weary farmer... wearing a camera... to discover such jewels actively indulging in Buddleia sweets. Young hummers are so free spirited and daring. Over the years several youngsters have sipped flowers I was holding and often they fly right up to my face, as if to question ... 'just what are you?'. The concerned parents that seem never to be far away until very late summer, dive down chasing their young away from what they sense is danger, and give them a good scolding or so it seems to this observer. Youth does not yet have all guards in place ... not yet molded into caution for good and bad.

Sun Rising Misty Morning Walkabout

Early morning mist rises up from the valley... between Flower Hill Farm and Carey Hill, where the Mill River rushes... gushing from all the record rainfalls of the summer. It's song is carried up the hillside, along with the sun which begins to perch atop the crest of Carey Hill. As our planet rotates and wobbles in it's path around our life star, our days here are becoming shorter by minutes. Each new dawn, our sun gives the illusion of moving further south... inching to the right above the peaks of Hemlock and White Pine atop the thickly forested hill. I look out over the expansive landscape, then the large deep sky and sigh for its beauty... before heading into the garden for a walk. I am entering into a habitat... a sacred land where life stirs, while the ghostly mist floats into leafy shrubs and petals, bringing a damp chill into the gardens. Golden shafts of sun slice through thick layers of moist air and warmth will reign this day. There is a dense high pile carpet of wet grass and clover, for I have not mowed in weeks... one reason being all the rain that never seems to end, another is due to the monarch butterflies and the milkweed plants in the paths. If we get a couple of dry days in a row, I can mow, after gathering all the milkweed and checking them for eggs. If there are eggs, I will bring them in and raise the caterpillars, then release the butterflies into the garden. I could give more reasons like I hate the way the grass looks all cut off or the clover is food for the many wild honey bees, but perhaps most importantly... it is not good for our environment. For now, I hope you will join me on a stroll about the garden. No need for you to get soaked, as I will be, when I return to my studio. I could relax a bit in the hammock and perchance to see a hummingbird sipping from the nearby bee balm, if only every surface were not drenched.

First Of August River of Fog Painted Evening Sky

Though I cannot see the River that runs along the road down the hill from my farm, I can hear it and enjoy the stream of fog that often rises up from the rapidly flowing body of water. Sunset and sunrise are the best times to experience the blanket of opaque moisture rising up the hills, and cloud like floating from north to south keeping above the river until it evaporates into the evening or early morning air. At times this cool whiteness obscures the Mount Holyoke Range entirely. These photos were taken last night at sunset.