Glorious October

October, sort of the opposite of March, comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion. This year, early October brought lots of Monarch butterflies. This one was in the pasture, near the compost pile:

 And a number of them swarmed the New England Asters in the front yard:

 Monarchs don't hold still often, and usually close their wings when they do, so I was excited to get some nice photos of them on the Asters:

 And the new, baby roses put out a last burst of flowers. This one was the Emily Carr:

And the Morden Sunrise:

 The Rugosa roses on the side of the house also continued to bloom:

 The giant sunflowers were almost finished blooming and their seed was now feeding the wild birds, but a few tiny miniature sunflowers continued to bloom at their feet:

 Perhaps the last vase of flowers to go to church this year consisted of some small sunflowers, three kinds of roses (Morden Sunrise, Emily Carr and a Morden Blush bud), one Delphinium, New England Asters and a branch of dark red leaves from the Ninebark bush:

And the local scenery took on the look of October with roadside displays of pumpkins for sale:

 Red Sumac and purple New England Asters along the road:

 I stopped at a bridge over the St. Regis River to take this photo:

 Then I walked out toward the middle of the bridge to get more of the river in the picture. October in the north country is a wonderful time of year:

The End Of Summer

The Red Poll cattle are looking happy and healthy:

 Little Ruby has not yet had her ear tattoos but she seems to know I'm a suspicious character so she hides behind her mother, Scarlett:

 And Scarlett usually hustles her away when I get too close:

 Blue and Remy are doing fine, but their Box Elder tree will drop its poisonous seeds any day now, and I will have to lock the horses in the barn until I get the seeds all cleaned up:

I walked into the barn one morning and found the two boys together in the hay, head to head and looking cute. It's apparent how attached they are to each other in spite of their quibbling and mischief:

 The sunflowers are almost finished. I've cut the tops out of many of them and others are going to seed already:

 Another photo of a Monarch butterfly in the Frans Hals Daylilies. It's ironic that the only place I can get a photo of a Monarch is on flowers of the same color:

 The littlest sunflowers, barely 6" tall:

I put the fantail pigeons on Craigslist, offering to sell 20 out of 43 of them. Alas, I've had no response, even after cutting the price in half:

 I took three vases of flowers to church, possibly the last of the season. This vase contained three colors of fragrant roses (orange, dark red and magenta), smallish sunflowers and red Mountain Maple leaves from the side of the road:

Blue and white wild Asters plus Birch leaves, all from the side of the road:

 Various colors of sunflowers plus red Mountain Maple leaves and Cattails from the side of the road:

Everything's Coming Up Flowers!

The Iris finished blooming a long time ago, and then the yellow Asiatic Lilies began to bloom. When they were through, the orange Asiatic Lilies bloomed - and then the red lilies took over - along with the Blue Sea Holly:

 The red lilies are taller than the orange, which are taller than the yellow. Perhaps that's why they bloomed in the order they did:

 They made a spectacular display:

 And the Blue Sea Holly is putting on quite a show:

The pink Yarrow was the first to bloom, but then the red also began to bloom:

 And my new Heliopsis is also blooming (with purple Veronica on one side of it and Chives on the other side):

 The Lupine seedlings (on the left) are still babies, but the new Gloriosa Daisy is spectacular:

 And then the Cherry Rose Sunflowers began to bloom:

I planted six assorted Yarrow plants, but I seemed to be getting multiple colors out of each pot I planted. I think the nursery scattered seed in the pots and I actually got more than one plant, therefore more than one color, in each pot. At any rate, they look like they may become one of the best, most reliable, most hardy flowers on the property:

 Some more cut flowers I took to church - This one included red and orange Asiatic Lilies, Gloriosa Daisies and white (wild) Bouncing Bet:

 A second vase included old fashioned roses, pink and red Yarrow, and white (wild) Bouncing Bet:

Summer On The Farm

There are ten little bantam hens now, seven Barred Rocks and three Easter Eggers. They aren't laying many eggs, but there are still more than I can use:

A pair of fantail pigeons successfully hatched two babies in their cubbyhole nest:

The babies were doing well for several days:

And then one morning, I found one dead and the other missing. I'm afraid this is a common occurrence and I've become accustomed to dealing with it:

I'm glad to say, however, that there are some successful nests in which parents raise healthy babies to help make up for the sad losses. These two are so close to adulthood that I feel confident they'll make it now:

They are growing rapidly and don't mind being held:

Flowers have been blooming in abundance and I collected two colors of roses and three colors of lilies into one vase to bring to church on Sunday:

I also collected an armload of Elderberry blossoms and put them in a vase, then stuck a couple of Ninebark branches in for color variety. Alas, by the time I arrived at church, the Elderberry stems had wilted so badly that I had to dump them in the weeds by the church parking lot. I know now that Elderberries, like Oriental Poppies, should not be used as cut flowers:

A new color of Asiatic Lilies, planted just this year, have been blooming copiously:

You may remember the photo of baby apricots in a previous post. There is now only one marble-sized apricot left and I don't expect it to last. But at least I now know that the tree can produce fruit:

The always productive plum tree is producing nice looking plums, but the other plum tree has lost its fruit:

I planted a whole row of seeds in an area where other seeds didn't take. I now have lots of baby Lupines emerging. They're awfully close together, but I think I'll leave them alone and let nature take its course:

Summer's Beauty Around The Farm

On days like this, I am reminded how blessed I am to live in such a scenic, friendly place:

The Rugosa Roses put on an impressive show just outside the dogs' yard. That's Seamus inside the fence, watching me:

The bigger Ninebark bloomed nicely this year, though clearly the colorful leaves are the main attraction. The small Ninebark is still struggling:

The old fashioned rose bloomed well also, even though there are plenty of dead branches from last year's fungus infection:

And the Mock Orange was downright spectacular:

The fantail pigeons seem happy and comfortable. Only one baby has lived long enough to leave the nest. That's it at the bottom of the photo. It looks like he or she will make it to maturity:

Several pigeon couples are still tending to their eggs:

Not all the eggs hatch, though, and not all the babies live:

Is this a dead chicken? No, it's Blondie taking a dust bath. Such dust baths are a favorite with chickens and since they can no longer get outside, they tend to such activities indoors:

All eleven hens are doing well and producing eggs, which I hard boil and feed to the dogs:

They have a number of nest boxes but all prefer this one. It is the biggest and highest, which apparently appeals to them:

One Sunday I cut some Iris, Mock Orange and Ninebark flowers to take to church. When I got home again, I put the vase on the kitchen counter where, amazingly, the cats never knocked it over: