Friday at the Rodale Institute

I guess the title gives it all away. =) On Friday, I went with my friends, Anne and Jane, to the Rodale Institute for "Field Day".

It was very educational, but not very hands-on. We rode around behind some tractors, and listened to some speakers talk about their projects.

I loved the rice paddy:

And the hydroponics:

This geodome was neat, but not being used for anything:

We got to pet some animals.

And look at the beehives. (But we didn't get to pet any.) This is a hybrid hive, the bottom being a divided top-bar hive, with a Langstroth hive on top for honey collection. It can hold up to 3 colonies of bees. I'd suggest that they use smaller honey supers on top, since they're going to be very heavy when they're full!

It was an interesting day, but very, very hot!

Catching up, July Edition

On Sunday, we went to the mall to get a case for the girls new phone. It was bright and sunny when we walked in, and humid, hot and wet when we walked out. Then, we watched another storm coming in.

You could watch the edge of the storm rolling in. Blue skies on the left, new storm on the right. This may become my new background picture. =)

The showers passed, and we went picking wine berries around town. Sorry I don't have any pictures, my hands were full! Also, it rained again, so I'm glad I didn't take my camera out of the car!

 Too bad there are other plants out there! Poor Girl picked up a rash. It's not poison ivy, but I don't know what it is. It seems to be getting better now.

This week, I noticed that the plums are blushing! They're still pretty small, I have to look up how big these are going to get before it's time to pick them. They're about the size of a ping-pong ball.

The new plants all went in, since it feels like fall today and I had to keep moving to keep warm! Look at that, the butterfly bush works as advertised!

 Last night, we went to see Garrison Keillor at the Ives Center. It's the second time for us, and he's still entertaining. We love Fred Newman and his sound effects!

As evening started, there was a rainbow to add to the show... I don't know how they did it. 0_o

Then this morning, my new grapes arrived! One is a "Crimson" and the other is an unknown green, champagne-type grape.

They have to soak for a day or so. In my lovely vintage glass vases...

Whew! Now, we're all caught up!

Saturday at Annes and Home Again

So of course, I spent the night at Anne's. Because we just hadn't gotten into enough trouble yet!
We spent Saturday morning at Martin Viette. The visit was so much better than their website!

I loved this green-roofed shed, it looked healthier and happier than the one we saw at Rodale. (Which I didn't mention in my post about Rodale, because it looked like crap.)

These are adorable garden whimsey, that I wish I could make, but they look too involved for me. All those nails in all those little sticks? I see total frustration there. So, I'll just enjoy the pictures.

This is the shed that I want in my yard. I think I need a new yard to put it in though.

Anne in the background, Black Knight Butterfly Bush in the foreground. I bought this puppy. =) And the tiny touch of crocosmia lucifer in the lower right? Yeah, I bought some of that too. Also, a yellow crocosmia, whose name I've forgotten.

Grown-up-sized garden whimsey. Don't you want a giant apple to curl up in? At ten thousand dollars per apple, this is something else we left behind. =(

These chairs were painted for charity, which I'm sure was totally worthy, but we didn't buy them anyway. Just more pretty pictures to look at.

This little bell thing is neat, and, if I can find my childhood brass bell collection, is something I would try to make... I think I actually have my box of bells here in the basement, remind me to take a look for it.

 Sunday we went to the concert-on-the-green. I brought the two dogs that I'm sitting for, Shadow and Wilbur.

They really were good dogs, for the most part!

Not a pet, but it hung out over our heads for most of the performance...

 A local character. I don't know who he is yet, but every Sunday, he puts his chair waaaay up front, in the middle of the field that the kids play in, and just watches the show. =)

And we came home to this guy on the door. Any ideas what kind of moth this is?

Last Week...

Sunday evening we went to the Concert on the Green.

It was so much fun, we're going again tonight. =)

During the week, I played in the garden.

I moved the potato bags, and brought more blueberries over. Picked blueberries, raspberries, and a few onions. =)

And I spent a day with the bees. I started at Nancy's, the hives look more active than last time.

 Left side, making babies.

Right side, found the queen! Look closely, she's spotted not striped. 0_O Odd.

Off to the Walkers... Sorry about the blurriness, this was the best shot. Queen Virginia seems to have gotten the paint off of her back, but not her wing. Looks kinda odd, but she was easy to spot.

She's doing a great job! Just look:

Packed with larvae, yay!

I didn't see Queen Bunny, but there's plenty of capped brood.

Wait, what's this? A queen cell? Oh, dear.

This one is in the middle of the frame instead of on the bottom edge. That means it's a succession cell, instead of a swarm cell. Are we looking at Queen Bunny II?