Monday, June 16, 2014

A few updates from today's activities at Ramsay:

Cipriano, the wizard of waterworks, was on site today completing installation of the new filtration system for the fish pond.  David's stonemason crew  were here beginning the work on the apron of the fish pond.  The old cobblestones are already looking beautiful, newly leveled and true.

David A., the roofer, was here and put the new copper sheathing on the cupola of the Grigg barn.  It looked pretty beautiful, like a new penny, in the afternoon sun!

Connie was here cleaning up flower beds, trimming hedges, and pruning ornamental trees.  She also managed to rescue a raven which had somehow gotten into the aviary with the hens!  The chickens were nowhere to be seen, having taken shelter in their coop, and the raven appeared to be exhausted and panicky from its efforts to escape.  Connie was able to approach the bird quietly and gather it up gently, bringing it out of the aviary and releasing it in the south pasture, where it flew away--happily, we expect.

Connie, pruning back the trees along the parking area and
adjacent to the walkway to the Carriage House.

The raven rescued by Connie, the bird whisperer.

Donnie and Wayne completed all the hay-making today.  The fields are beautiful, with a new crop already coming up beneath the stubble of the first cutting of hay.

Baling in the north pasture on Sunday afternoon.

Baling in the field just north of the main house.

Equipment at rest after a job well done.  West edge of the northwest
field.  Buster and Laddie inspect the machinery and the round bales.

Beautiful summer view of the northwest field, accompanied by the
sweet scent of new hay.

When I took the dogs out around 5, I encountered this slithery guy (or girl), a black racer, perhaps on its way to dinner.  Note how ripply its body is because of the surface upon which it is crawling.  When we came back this way about 20 minutes later, it was nowhere to be seen.

On such a hot and humid day, it's always nice to encounter the cooler pathways around the houses and through the gardens.  The plantings in the very large urn in the center of the ellipse have flourished in their sunny location.  We will be replacing the plantings in the four smaller urns (two near the fish pond and two next to the brick path to the front lawn from the main sidewalk) within the next two days, as the spring plants which were there have not fared so well in the heat.

Among his myriad other tasks today, Stephen mowed the parterre garden, which created this silky smooth carpet of green.

Goodbye for today from Elizabeth, the only hen I can distinguish from the other ones.  She has a more marked white ruff around her neck, and is the largest one, so I call her Elizabeth after Queen Elizabeth I, since portraits of Elizabeth I often portray her with a white ruff as part of her royal raiment. Elizabeth the hen also has to know everything that is going on, inspecting everything; nothing escapes her notice.