Of Monarchs and Milkweed

The second generation of Monarch caterpillars have hatched and are now eating their way through the milkweed plants on the northwest corner of our farm.  We love having the Monarch butterflies visiting the flowers every year and so too we welcome the caterpillars.  There is little that is more fascinating than the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.  We'll be keeping an eye out for the chrysalises and try to get some photos of those as well.  The farm is a splendid place for a naturalist, there's so much to look at and so many discoveries to make.

Daisies, again

...only this time, they really ARE the flowers.

There's just something about daisy chains that epitomize summertime... making one should definitely be on your agenda. :-)

Daisy

No--not the flowers this time!

We had the opportunity to photograph Daisy, a lovely Guernsey/Jersey cow, a few days ago. With such a beautiful face as hers, we felt that she deserved a place on the blog. Who wouldn't want to look into her sweet eyes each morning? We actually photographed Daisy as a calf, so it was a treat to photograph her again, all grown up. It was a moo-ving experience. :-)

New Corgi book!

Have you seen the cover of the new edition of "Welsh Corgis: Pembroke and Cardigan, Pet Owner's Manual" (Barron's Educational Series, 2010)? Dan's photos appear on the front cover, inside front cover, inside back cover, and multiple times inside. Cover girl is the ever-famous Myferdog of Fox Hill. :-)

Garden Quotes

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." -Aristotle

"The best is yet to be." -Robert Browning

"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." -Francis Bacon

Summer Greetings from Myf

Greetings from Myffie the Corgi, who is looking pretty spiffy at eleven years old. She was outside supervising as we worked in the garden; she's positive that no one can work effectively without her assistance. :-)

New in the Garden: Velvet Red heirloom tomatoes

We've planted a wide variety of heirloom tomato seedlings again this year, but this is our first experience with the "Velvet Red" variety. It truly stands out from the others with its frosty foliage, and adds a lovely touch to the garden. Stay tuned for updates once we begin sampling the fruit later in the summer!

Monday Greetings

I love this picture, and couldn't resist sharing it. Is there a prettier color than robin's egg blue?

The sun peeked out for a while today and we were able to make some more progress in the garden: things are coming along well and the beans are well on their way--should be officially "sprouted" tomorrow.

'Bean' There, Done That (aka: the beans are planted!)

We're slightly behind in our posts, but we wanted to be sure to post the photos from last week's Bean Planting Day on Fox Hill Farm.

According to our best estimates, we put in about 600 heirloom bean seeds. The bulk of these were Empress, as you probably could have guessed if you've frequented our blog in previous springs. :-) Empress is our hands-down favorite in the heirloom bean world, and so we devote the majority of our bean space to that variety. Here they are:


But in the interests of diversity--and never let it be said that we shy away from diversifying our heirloom beans!--we also planted two other heirloom bush bean varieties. Here is Bountiful:

and here is Dragon Tongue, which is an interesting name for an interesting-looking bean:

Now for the interminable wait until we can harvest these delightful and delectable beans!

Lilacs and their friends :-)

"When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd,

And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night."

-Walt Whitman