May at the Farm

May 2024                                                                     Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm                            Getting to April in Virginia
Afton,  Virginia                                       It’s Known as the Rosewood Massacre  

April and May are lovely months at the farm which is why I often return then to spent two months rather than two weeks here.  I also do many of my medical appointments but that’s not as much fun as hiking the property and finding these.

A stand of Mayapple in the woods.  The flower is under the umbrella like leaves but not visible in this picture.

The Tulip Poplar flower.  Pretty clear where the tree gets its name.  Such a beautiful design.  It has also loaded the air with pollen.

Many mushrooms.

Along the drive in front of the house beyond the fence are several stands of Iris.
They are underneath the dogwoods and redbuds

Bluebirds sitting on the fence.  Wish I’d had my good camera.  I have to use a zoom or they will fly away if I get too near and my cell phone zoom is pathetic.

The azalea bushes need trimming so their flowers aren’t all at the top.  I think I can do that in the fall but we put them in when we first bought the house and I don’t want to do anything to hurt them.   Any azalea pruning advice?

The pink one is right by the door and a pair of cardinals had built a nest in it so that I frightened them off of it every time I went in and out.  I hope they were able to hatch their young.

I snuck this picture one time I was going out.  I’m sorry I won’t be around to see them fledge.

The flowers on the peony bush in the yard don’t last long enough for me.  I think they are beautiful.  I want  to plant several more next to this one along the front fence line.  This one has been here since we bought the house in the late 1970’s.  I have no idea how old it may be.  We didn’t add flowers to what was here.  We were too busy growing a HUGE vegetable garden for eating fresh and canning, drying and freezing for the winter.

I wasn’t here for some of the early woodland wildflowers which are coming earlier than in days past.  Things I usually could see in early April were gone now by the time I got here.  But I was in time for the Mountain Laurel.

A favorite hike of mine is through the woods down to the lower field by the stream.  It was beautifully green in May.  It is where I look for some ephemeral wildflowers and where the Mayapple is found.

I share the property with too many deer and  way too many groundhogs.   At one time that also included a pair of coyotes who happily seem to have moved on in the last couple of years so we now have rabbits again.   Since I don’t have a garden, this is fine with me.

One of my favorite neighbors is the black snake.  For years we had a snake we named Sidney living in the back yard under the Paulownia trees.  I had a clothes line strung between the two trees and he would inevitably show up when I went to hang out the clothes.   I was always happy to see him because he kept the mice down.   I hope this is one of his decedents and he will hang around since the mice are back.

I used to see a great many more box turtles as well and was really happy to find this one making his slow way up the driveway which you can see has been repaired after my muddy misadventure..

And of course the turkeys.   This poor gobbler could not get his lady fair to give him the time of day    He fanned that tail and strutted around and looked terribly grand I thought.

Just look at him and she’s got her back turned.

We have always had at least one and often a pair of pileated woodpeckers who love our old and getting older Paulownia Trees.

This one has been working out on my fence.  Not so happy about that.  But he is very striking to look at.

See the drilling he’s been doing.   I guess there must be bugs in my fence boards.

But my very favorite neighbors are the black bears whom I seldom see and when I do it’s just as they are quickly on their way somewhere else and I cannot get a picture.   This picture came from a remote camera on one of the trees at the edge of the field.   Shannon put them out and has sent me several wonderful pictures.

We don’t get much in the way of sunrises here as we are in what is known as a holler.  The sun has been up quite a while before it rises past the tree tops here.  But we do get some nice sunsets over the mountains especially in the winter when they are more visible.  But this one will do nicely.

There are two more highlights of May coming up but they deserve posts of their own.