Stonewell Farm 9am June 29th 2019

Because this evening's weather forecast is for damaging thunderstorms, the series of photos this week are from today (Sat)

The early Hemerocallis (left) are blooming and the Hosta buds are up, but have yet to open.

Two of our ducks, Mayo (female) and Sir Francis (male) are busy controlling the insect population.  (Why Sir Francis? Answer at the end of this post.)

If the thunderstorm arrives, the poppy petals (center) will be washed away. Hopefully the Astilbe flowers directly behind the poppies will survive, along with the white Hydrangea (background) and the Rudbeckia (foreground)

The Red Fairy rose (right of center) is one of the later flowering roses, along with the better known Pink Fairy.

 Behind the pear tree and down the fruit garden border (see below) more Hemerocallis are coming into bloom.

The Philadelphus is almost past flowering. I altered the angle on this photo to show the drift of poppies beyond the apple tree.

 

I have re-wrapped the bamboo tripod with woody grape vine, in preparation for the Ipomoea alba (Moonflower) which are growing, and will soon be looking for a support to climb upon.

 This is what I would call a colour clash.

 Why grow so many poppies? (see end of post)

 

A slightly different angle to show Michelle's favourite Lychnis coronaria. (bottom center)

A couple of steps back to show the flowering Stewartia.

Once again from inside the border. The red flowered Rosa Excelsa ( Last week I incorrectly named it Excelsior) is joined by the pink Rosa 'Dorothy Perkins' I hope they persist until Hydrangea 'Annabelle' is fully opened.

The old, stone well is nearly concealed beneath the abundant and lush growth of another Rosa Excelsa, a true rambler rose, which we have to cut back every year.

Rosa 'Dorothy Perkins' here framed by the pizza oven and Picea pungens, and to the right and behind the Picea,

four Rosa 'Dorothy Perkins' and a Rosa 'New Dawn' cover the garage wall.

Mayo and her seven dwarfs.

The name for a male duck is a drake. 

Sir Francis Drake

and, the reason we have so many poppies,

especially so close to our beehives?

Honey.

Bees, bees and more bees

Once again our strong hive swarmed and this time rather than settling low to the ground as the first swarm did, they went high into this oak tree, here seen through my binoculars.

I threw a weighted rope over the highest branch I could reach and hoisted a box (circled blue) with swarm lure inside, but it was a good 15 ft below the swarm (circled blue) and I went indoors for lunch without much hope of success.

After lunch, I fully expected the swarm to have flown to pastures new.

What I did not expect was the new pasture would be our garden fence, 

Easily within reach for recapture.

I held a cardboard box below the swarm and shook the fence,

Then I emptied the box into the hive. 

This was a substantial swarm and it took considerable time for the swarm to follow the queen into the hive.

But eventually the bees left the fence

 and are now safely back in a new hive.

Now we have the original hive (center R) which is still very strong, the early Spring split (center L) The first swarm (Left) and the second swarm (Right)