Welcoming Summer: A Fort Hill Walk

It was these clouds that drew me to Fort Hill.

I was already on my way to Eastham, as banking was scheduled as part of yesterday morning's activities, since I've not yet gotten my sh*t together about direct deposit. I'm a little wary of giving control of my money to computers, truth be told, and so for now, I'm still making weekly trips back that way.

Even more honestly, I miss living in Eastham. It's a terrific little town I've lived in on and off for much of the last ten years, and I've explored it in the car, on my bicycle and on foot. It's as much home to me as anywhere. A place that's familiar to me, where I am comfortable. I haven't really explored Harwich much yet, though hopefully the summer will bring such opportunities. But I like being in Eastham and so I suspect the weekly banking trips are my way to keep going back.

And it's that time of year when - work commitments allowing - it's easy enough to be let oneself be distracted from the beaten path.

I spotted the cloud when it was still just one large puffy mass, as I drove east on Route 6. It was just hitting the breezes off the ocean as it drifted across the outer beach and as I drove, I could see it splitting into four distinct chimneys. I wish I'd pulled over to take a photo then, as it was quite a sight.

I wanted a nice open spot to do so, though, and so I decided a detour to Fort Hill was just what I needed. Plus, I wanted to see if the lupines were blooming.

Fort Hill sits just above Nauset Marsh, which is protected from the Atlantic's surf by the barrier of the Outer Beach. There's a small parking lot on the hilltop, which is a wonderful place to sit and look in all directions.

It's also one of my favorite spots in Eastham for star-gazing, something I used to do often on the way home from late-night work shifts. There are no streetlights, which makes it ideal for meteor shower viewings and spying ships passing the Cape far out to sea late at night. On the right summer occasions, it can offer a view of distant fireworks displays.

If I were an early riser, I imagine it'd be perfect for sunrise, too.

There's a series of nature trails in the area, the first of which slopes down from the parking area to Doane Rock, a great boulder which sits on the shore of the marsh and offers more views along the shoreline.

Standing atop the rock, it's easy to imagine one of the area's native population doing the same while scouting the area in the days before Europeans arrived.

On the hillside that slopes down toward the marsh and Orleans town cove, it's a wild jumble of green, hosting an assortment of twining vines, yarrow, wild roses (many of those tiny white ones I've mentioned so much of late), milkweed, buttercups and also, a great stand of lupines.

I missed the height of the show this year, sort of on purpose, since I wanted to be sure I was able to collect a little seed. I did find a few still in bloom, but they were fairly far off the path.

Leaving the path really needs to be a careful business, as this is one of those areas Mother Nature protects with one of her fiercest defenders, those dreaded Leaves of Three, poison ivy.

I was well-clad, though, and have no interest in a another of those episodes, so caution was high.

Not only did I get a great photo, but also snapped off a small stalk of fully-formed seedpods. I'll hang it to dry and hopefully have seed to plant later this summer.

Further along the path, these pink rose blossoms drew me in with their brilliant happy colors and sweet fragrance.

You never know what you'll see at Fort Hill, from a wildlife standpoint. Gulls are a regular sight, of course, and rabbits. But I have also surprised in my headlights, when arriving for some of those star-gazing sessions, owls and foxes, and other occasions, spied herons in the waters of the marsh.

Today's sighting was this red-winged blackbird, who perched in a dead treetop just above the rock. There were other people wandering around the rock today, so I didn't climb it. Nor was I able to stay and explore as long as I might have liked.

The path near the rock offers some great views of it's own, both into the green marsh itself and of the mighty Atlantic Ocean beyond. (By the way, Atlantic, Robin says "hey, how's everything?".)

Lingering to enjoy the views meant being able to inhale more of that rose-scented air, which I did for a few minutes, until the cloud of cologne accompanying a newly-arrived clump of out-of-place tourists overpowered nature's roses and I knew it was time to move along to the rest of my day.


But not before capturing a few more shots of this special place to bring along with me. Look at that cloud - it thinks it's a whale or a mermaid.

May Winds Down

As the revels of the Merrie Monthe begin to wind down, there's still plenty going on in the garden. For example, that iris in front of the house turns out to look like this!

Delightful, hmmm?

There's plenty of promise for the future, too, as just about every plant begins climbing toward the sky. A few of them now have visible flower stalks rising, like this clump of foxglove.

These are buds of an early yellow daylily, that's popped up out of clump of thistle, clover and coreopsis. Looks like we'll have a blossom to greet June pretty early on.

There's also this rudbeckia to look forward to. If I'm not mistaken, this might be the one with the rusty orange flowers. It might actually be closer to the coneflower family, in fact. But it is always a crowd-pleaser. There's a bunch of stalks coming up there.


Two different clumps of lychnis are also beginning to send stalks up in the air.

I guess that proves I'm a garden geek, when I can see those very first leaves that are just different enough from the basal leaves for me to recognize what's going on...and to get a little thrill from the sight of it.

Speaking of sights to see, I was drawn out of our yard and down the street this morning, as I realized that the wisteria which seemed so blue the other day has clearly "purpled up" after a couple of days in the sunshine.

Their scent really smacked me across the face as I got closer. It's sort of rich and sweet, a little dusty and cloying perhaps, activated no doubt by the sun's warmth. It almost gives you the impression that it means to draw you in to some sweet doom(or at least serious entanglement, knowing the enthusiasm with which wisteria winds...), like the Witch's poison poppies outside the Emerald City.

Oh, but what a way to go.

Today's weather really was terrific here, with bright sunshine that brought us up nearly to 70 degrees. Of course there's still a breeze, which keeps things comfortable...even if it does make flower photography a little more of a challenge.


Yesterday, I made a visit to the nursery and decided to try out a bottle of this "Liquid Fence", which is meant to be an all-natural deterrent to bunnies and deer. And I expect it may do quite nicely...since it's more than a little rank.

No surprise there, as the primary ingredient is "putrefacted egg solids". Supposedly the scent fades upon drying...but remains strong enough on some level to keep the Nibblers away. I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I couldn't be more pleased with the Easter cactus, which is blooming very nicely inside. I had long expected the flowers would be the same or very similar to those of the Christmas cactus, just at a different time of year. But I'm really enjoying how different these are...and the color!!

Let The Sun Shine...

Just when I was thinking three would be all there was this summer, a fourth lily has burst out of the ground. It's really amazing how quickly these things emerge--just the other day, I was weeding this section of the bed and didn't feel a thing under there...now suddenly it's over an inch out of the ground. How I love the lilies.

So that plant in the lower left hand side is that butterfly plant I wrote of the other day. Now that it's just a little bit larger, I think I can confidently identify this one. Looks like it will be a nice clump of stems, as well.

To celebrate the newest lilies arrival, I figured I'd check in on how the others are progressing. The light was just a little strong and the angle of my camera less than perfect, which is why this photo's a little overexposed...but still, you can see that these two, which emerged together are doing nicely, probably about eight inches tall.

Down below, you can see the oriental "Casa Blanca" lily has already reached the lower rail of the fence. And, I'd like to point out how nicely the rose canes are responding to being trained along the fence. Oh, and while I'm being prideful...to the right is one of those early sunflower seedlings, looking pretty strong and growing well, also sort of over-exposed.

The late afternoon sun reflects real nice off the sunroom windows and gave me some nice surround lighting for this photo of Em as we sat together when I got home from work.


All along the front border, the dianthus plants are setting buds. A few are even revealing what color they'll be.

There's quite a collection of them spread around out there, so I'm looking forward to them all starting to bloom together.

On another front, the creeping phlox near these blue pansies has renewed its efforts at blooming, following the nibbling that occurred a few weeks ago. Great color contrasts, eh?


This flying insect was battering itself against the side of the house under the porch light this evening. So far, it's the only bug buzzing around out there. I've uploaded a few different shots of it at BugGuide.net for identification, and I'll update with that information when it's available.

EDIT (5/30/08): This is an Ichneumon Wasp. There are 3100 species of them in North America(60,000 worldwide), so its hard to say anything too specific about this particular one. The larvae feed on a great variety of hosts, though most species attack only a few types of hosts; some ichneumons attack spiders. Most are internal parasites of the immature stages of the host. Many Ichneumons are of value in the control of noxious insects.

Ichneumon, wasn't that Jerry Seinfeld's neighbor?

Rhododendrons on Display

You might remember me mentioning the Cape Cod chapter of the American Rhodo dendron Society last month, when we hosted their annual dinner meeting at work.

The members of the society have created and tend a wonderful display garden on the hillside of the Snow Library Green on the corner of Main Street and Route 6A in Orleans. This afternoon, believing there wasn't much to see in the garden at home(more on that later), I stopped to wander through some of the rhododendrons currently in bloom.

I've yet to track down a map of the plantings, so I can't really tell you much about these different varieties...but I sure can show them to you!




I'm not even sure that alien- looking plant above is a rhodo dendron.

It may just be a nice companion plant in the location, like an array of hostas and pulmonaria and other nearby plants in the garden.

Interesting, though, isn't it?



It's entirely possible that the sub concious theme of this post is how little I know sometimes.

Rhodos aren't my area of expertise, and sadly, neither are trees, though I long to know them all intimately and am always pleased to meet a new one.

I was a bit star-struck by this particular tree, growing outside the library, but it's an unknown to me. Can anyone introduce me to this species? It sure is a show-stopper!

Busy Day

Today was a fantastic day. At first, it was hard for me to tear myself away from the Weather Channel, I was so fascinated with hearing that our forecast was to consist of "plentiful sunshine." Oh, did it ever.

Too much sunshine, in fact, for me to stay inside, with so much on the docket to accomplish today. The first order of business was to finish digging in the garden bed around the lamp post and the clematis vine there.

As I worked the soil free of the grass roots, plenty else came free as well, all the stones and bits of organic material and all the residents, as well, like this catepillar.

And, holy crap! Look at this giant worm. I couldn't believe the size of it, but fortunately thought to lay down my hand fork beside it for comparison. Now there's a worm you want to keep happy...


I had that section finished by around 11 a.m. or so and then turned over the bed where I'd laid out all the seaweed and salt hay a week or so ago.

The last thing I did before breaking for lunch was to test out the soaker hose. I'm always fascinated by the way the water beads up out of the hose. A side benefit of this was that the hose was full of water as it lay out in the noontime sun while I lunched, so it was more pliable for the afternoon install.

The pink azalea by the front door is starting to open today. Beautiful, huh?

The lunch break included a trip to the store, as I needed to pick up a few things for the afternoon projects: twine and pushpins to make some trellacing to help the morning glories find their way up the fence, some plastic knifes to mark where the soaker hose would be buried and a few other things, as well as a tuna sub from the Harwich Subway, where the world's angriest man was making sandwiches.

The soaker hose installation went well, and I wove a path through the garden, burying it about an inch under the soil surface. I tried to arrange it so that it would water the plants who'll benefit most.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quite long enough to cover the whole garden, so I'll still have some hand watering to do in certain areas. But I've also got a lot of seeds to plant which will thrive in drier areas, so it should all work out to the good.

Once that was in place, I built up a series of mounds in the area around the birdbath, which will be the home for the Three Sisters garden. Step one is complete now, with the corn planted in the center of the flattened mound. Once those sprout, I'll plant the beans, and then a week after that, the squash.

Next I made some trellaces on a few of the fence posts and got the older vines planted and trained onto the bottom of the strings. I have a feeling they'll take right off and start climbing up the posts by summer.

Meanwhile, as I dug in the hose, I also moved a few plants into the new bed near the lamp post.

That opened up space for the tomatoes I'll be planting tomorrow. And I was able to get my garden sign into the ground, as well. Also into that bed went the two canna lily plants I've been harboring in pots inside this winter.

I finished up with all I'd planned to do today just as Owen was getting home from work around 4 p.m. Whew...what a long and productive day. My forearms and face may've gotten a little more sun exposure than necessary, but I think I'll sleep especially well this evening, knowing all I've accomplished.


Perhaps the best part of the day was having everything done early enough that I was able to steal a few peaceful moments to sit in the sun on the back porch and do a little reading.

I seem to have a lot on my mind lately, since I find myself re-reading paragraphs as I get into the first chapter of this new book. Fortunately, they are great paragraphs. And what about that beautiful bookmark, hmmm? Thank you, Patrick!!

Here's the northern flicker on the lawn outside the front door this evening.

Whatta Day...

Heading into work this foggy morning, I saw yet another sign of spring, as this road sweeper appeared out of the mist. It was a delightful ride, as the sun began to poke through the thinning clouds overhead.

Accepting the fact that the hungry bunnies are enjoying the crocuses in the home garden (and honestly, how can I blame them for taking advantage of a new thing...it's like I opened a restaurant just for them. I'll try additional protections and also a little faith that they'll find things to nibble elsewhere as the season unfolds.), I knew I'd need to find other ways to celebrate the Festival of St. Crocii...and there's a front yard in Brewster which had caught my eye recently. By the time I arrived there, the sun was growing stronger...and there was a wonderful show of crocuses, with a few daffodils and glory of the snow thrown in as a bonus.



Man, a spread like that is every bulb gardener's dream, huh? Something about a great colony of bulbs like this just makes my heart sing! (Wild things, I think I love you...)


The work day was seasoned with a variety of great responses to the 100 List, which was fun (if you haven't read it yet, just scroll on down)...and a steadily rising temperature only sweetened the pot!

First it was 55, incomparably delightful in its own right. And then 58...and then 63, 64...back down to 63 again...and finally, a high of 65 right around dinnertime! Woo freaking hoo!!

Above left is a pair of the crocuses which have someone gone uneaten, and aren't they lovely. And I leave you with some glorious late afternoon sun on one of my favorite pansies.