Flower Hill Farm Families of Butterflies from 2014 — There were many butterflies in the gardens of Flower Hill Farm in 2014 but there were varied species missing too. I missed each butterfly like a dear friend who moves away and will not be around to share the apple blossoms or champagne lunches. For now, I celebrate the butterflies that made it and were on wing within our gardens last season. The showy swallowtails always stir the currents with their large wings and are easily noted around … [Read more...] about Butterflies in the Gardens
White-tailed Deer ~ Doe and Fawn
The gardens at Flower Hill Farm Retreat hold much more than just plants, shrubs and trees. Every day when I walk out into the gardens I never know what surprises await me. On June 4th I was walking down into the south field to check the Tree Swallow house when I heard a familiar yet strange sound. Looking towards the now overgrown rock garden area I saw a tiny fawn trying to stand. In a matter of minutes the little White-tailed Deer fawn was stepping out of the protection of the overgrowth … [Read more...] about White-tailed Deer ~ Doe and Fawn
Hot Colors of Cool August Butterflies and a Bestiary of Birds
What is normal or average anymore? It seems that days are spread out more like a delicately hand-stitched quilt laying loosely across a large bed . . . not in triangles or squares but in free-form patterns that hardly relate to one another except in hues. Vivid colors, with a play of values, fills the eyes and dreams of those that slip beneath basted layers of wrinkled cloth . . . pieces torn and recombined.Such are our New England August days, once felt to be the warmest of the summer. Somehow … [Read more...] about Hot Colors of Cool August Butterflies and a Bestiary of Birds
Hot Colors of Cool August Butterflies and a Bestiary of Birds
What is normal or average anymore? It seems that days are spread out more like a delicately hand-stitched quilt laying loosely across a large bed . . . not in triangles or squares but in free-form patterns that hardly relate to one another except in hues. Vivid colors, with a play of values, fills the eyes and dreams of those that slip beneath basted layers of wrinkled cloth . . . pieces torn and recombined.Such are our New England August days, once felt to be the warmest of the summer. … [Read more...] about Hot Colors of Cool August Butterflies and a Bestiary of Birds
Recalling Landscape Tapestries of Summer Twenty-Twelve
While many are shoveling out from deep blankets of snow-drifts, I would like to escape our white wintry hillside by recalling landscape tapestries of summer twenty-twelve. Storms of blossoms unfurl throughout the spring and summer here at Flower Hill Farm attracting pollinators, birds and other beasts to our gardens, fields and forest. It is this living tapestry of color, texture, fragrance and sounds that inspired me to create this blog four years ago . . . February 6, … [Read more...] about Recalling Landscape Tapestries of Summer Twenty-Twelve
