Garden Conservancy's Open Days - Sunday!

I am planning to go to the Garden Conservancy's Open Days in Stockbridge & Lenox, in the Berkshires this Sunday. Sounds amazing. Will post pictures -- check back! (pictured here, Brown Garden - Stockbridge, from Garden Conservancy web site)

Stormy Days

We have had day after day (and night after night) of major thunderstorms and high winds for over 2 weeks now. My garden has been holding up OK...tho I lost 2 huge clumps of shasta daisies in full bloom as they were flattened by rain and wind. I count myself fortunate compared to many others.

Just today I took these pictures of our friends' house, right after the most recent storm blew through. Our son is dog sitting while they are kayaking and island camping for a week -- out of cell range! This is what he found when he went over today! Four big maple trees down! He called and we headed over to see what he was describing. By some miracle, the house was not hit, nor either of the 2 sheds.

The first photo is looking at the back of their house with the trees just a couple of feet from the back wall.


















The second is what should be looking at the path to their back door! You can't even see the entryway!





One big double-trunk tree was blown over and it took out 2 other big trees on it's way down. All 4 trees are intertwined and hung up on each other. I can't imagine how someone will manage to cut it all down without doing damage to the shed on one side or the house on the other side. It will be quite a challenge.






Their poor dog is fine but he must have been terrified during the storm.

Newburyport

Last weekend we hopped in the car and went to Newburyport for the day. I didn't take many pictures but this one of the draw bridge open for the boats caught my eye.

Summer Rest

Today was a beautiful day and to top it off we had a couple of hours with Sarah & Andrew and their son, our godson, George. As you can see, the "boys" decided the shady fire-pit area was a good place to take an afternoon snooze.

Garden Tour --- Yeah!

The Amherst Garden Tour was last Saturday and it went fabulously well. Our place was Stop #4 and we had 176 adults and a couple of children pass thru in the 7 hours. We had worked hard the past few weeks to finish up as much as we could, even hiring a few high school and college students to help haul stone dust and pea stone for the paths and fire pit area out back. The garden fence did get done (!!) and even the fire pit area came together that last day, and tho there were plenty of little details undone (ex- the house was all primed but not all sections had the finish coat) no one seemed to be concerned. Since the garden was billed as "a work in progress" ...and the garden itself looked pretty spiffy, the people seemed delighted. The visitors seemed to like what they saw and were especially amazed at what had been accomplished in the 2 years we have owned the property.
I have about 70 pictures but here are just a few...