It's been a great day and I stayed inside as long as I could stand it and finally mid-afternoon went outside to work in the garden again. I was prepared with two kinds of insect repellent, but the darned black flies got me anyway. I got a lot done outside, but I'm paying dearly for it. I've got a bunch of bites, and suspect it won't be a good night for sleeping for me. Lesson learned, though - I should have had things done outside way before this, before the black flies came out.

Our ornamental apple trees are about ready to burst into bloom. Almost everywhere else they are already in full bloom - Hardwick, St. Johnsbury, Danville - but here it's always a little later. Nice to have the season last extra long.

I've had June bugs bumping against the window tonight. No lightning bugs yet, as far as I know, but they'll come soon. Did you know they are becoming scarce in some areas. Scientists believe light pollution could be one cause. Another may be pesticides, and also that their natural habitat, our lawns in the daytime, is being over mowed which disturbs them. They need decaying wood, water and no bright lights to help them recover. Their flashing bodies are part of the mating process, so our habits of pushing back the darkness with our yard lights, headlights, illuminated signs and such tend to confuse the poor things and they aren't able to locate a mate. Their lighting system is said to be the most efficient in the world, and it's called "cold light." The two chemicals that combine to make the lightning bugs light up are used to detect certain diseases, and various other scientific uses. There's an interesting site that tells about them: Fire Flies

I guess today was the last we'll see of much sunshine. The forecast is for showers every day into next week. Daytime temperatures are going to be in the 70s and we can't complain about that, and I expect there will be some sunny moments, but not enough to dry things out much. Pretty soon the farmers are going to want to begin getting hay in and if the trend towards rain continues, things don't look good for their hay crop this year. This could be one of those super-wet summers that make all the farmers and vacationers crazy. And may very likely keep the black fly population going a lot longer than normal . . .