Flowers and Goats

This somewhat cloudy view from the front door this morning shows the fog we had last night, and the rabbit that has been visiting the gardens daily.  Lilly has been stalking this rabbit! 

Here is was eating sunflower seeds and other seeds early this morning, along with the wild birds.  The vivid purple flowers in the foreground are in a box on the deck railing, and are volunteers for the fourth year in a row! 

Kody was up early, too, and bounced out to the big rock pile that Hayleigh and Chris made for them last week.  How they love to jump on it! 

Kaycee was not far behind him.  You can see how their little horns are growing now. 

They are much bigger than their Aunt Abby.  

They are also starting to eat more and drink less, and I am stretching out their bottles. 

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They want to be OUT every time I open the gate, but are still too little to be out unsupervised. 

The pasture has too much high grass where predators can lurk, watching.  I do let Lilly in the pasture in the morning, and this morning, she smelled something near the goat pen, her ruff went up, and she ran off, nose to the ground, following it.  She was down in the high grass for a long, long time. 

We do try to get them out several times a day so that they can run and stretch their little legs. 

This is the hollyhock in the north bed. 

I had totally, totally forgotten it was black!

Closeup of the blooms. 

I had several other hollyhocks, which are biennials, but lost them last year.  

This east-facing bed has just become TOO overrun with aggressive flowers.  I'm going to have to dig and separate this fall, to bring it back to order... and put some good compost in it.  Kathy next door will get the divisions since she wants to increase her perennials.  That's a volunteer sunflower in the front, which I just went ahead and left.  The giant buddleia in the middle... is getting really giant! 

Mondarda "Jacob Cline".... just beautiful.

It's doing so well, but I watered it faithfully in the drought.  It has really rewarded me. 

I love the bright butterfly weed, asclepias tuberosa... it's the first time I've grown it.  Except for the yellow varieties slight desire to lay down, it's lovely. 

It's fun to look back a year ago to see what was blooming... the purple monarda was already blooming... but has not yet, this year.  They were baking in triple digit temps.

And in the south bed, there was a beautiful hydrangea, and a lovely sweetspire bush blooming, but I lost both of those in the drought.  The sunflowers were going gangbusters, but grew SO well that we pulled out the volunteers this year.  

And these two beauties were in our pasture, eating away.  They came when Renee and Brian came to take the llamas home with them.  Aren't they lovely?  They were two Hackney pony mares... and though we wanted another pony, these two were pretty spirited.  They have gone on to a  friend of ours, and are still being worked with, now, a year later. 

It's fun to look back a year later to see how things have changed, and things have stayed the same. 

Here's our dear old boy this morning, keeping me company as I type.  

What a wonderful dog this has been, our Ranger.  Found in the countryside, starving and hurt, he has known only this place his last eight years.  Protector and companion, he is old and arthiritic, but aren't we all.... and the fact that he wants to be by me in the mornings means everything to me. 

For all of you who commented about the families who bought chickens from us last week... they were decent people, and the father who spoke to Keith spoke from the heart.  We felt so sorry for them on one hand... cast out from the country of their birth, but also glad to have them here in the United States with us... because they are the sort of people who built this country up from the wilderness, not to be scorned and belittled, but encouraged for their hard work and steadfastness. 

Off my soapbox, and out to the henyard!