First Day of Summer, Vermont Edition

After supper tonight, I went out to sit on the deck. A ruby-throated hummingbird visited each and every flower of my (Japanese Iris? Anybody know what these are?)
I knew I should have hunted up that hummingbird feeder...

I went inside and grabbed my camera to capture the day.

First off, we have new residents chez Mango.This is Stiffler. (Yeah, that Stiffler. Madman named him. Perfect.) And that white streak is the wire from the cage, caught on camera. I'm a knitter, not a photographer...)
And the girls. The one whose face you can see is tentatively named Clover (my suggestion, subject to change if something better occurs) and the other one might be Jane. (Yes, Jane Doe. Madman again...)
And before you get too far into the "Ooooooo, Bunnieeeez!" mode, these are (vegetarians, avert your eyes) meat rabbits. They are our breeding stock, so we are giving them names, but their children will be referred to as "Hassenffeffer" and "Fricassee."
They are also little fertilizer factories. Rabbit poop is a wonderful addition to our gardening arsenal. It doesn't have to be composted before being added to the soil, so we can sprinkle it freely around our plants without fear of "burning" them. Yay, poop!

On the chicken front, the meat birds have been moved out to the broiler coop. (This is the prototype of an ice shanty that Madman and his brother designed and built a couple of years ago. It works equally well as a temporary chicken coop.)
Since all they do is eat and poop and knock over their waterer, it was time for them to get out of the living room. The Buff Orpingtons and Rhode Island Reds are much more polite, much smaller, and certainly less smelly, so they'll be allowed to stay inside for a bit longer.

Here's our new favorite lupine - it's a mystery where it came from, since we've only put red and white ones into this particular bed. Love the fabulous two-tone colors. Who knew pink and yellow would look so good together?


And you may have noticed some new whimmydiddles in my sidebar. It's all Cookie's fault. She caught me in an under-caffeinated condition. Before I knew what I was doing, I'd signed up for Summer of Socks. And then, in a fit of total madness, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece, as well. (Clearly, I can't be trusted with the Internet until after the second cup of coffee...)
I'm a proud member of Team Crankypants. Though I'm pretty sure I'll serve mostly as a Cranky Cheerleader (you know, giving people the raspberry and flipping them off), I thought I'd try to spin this:
Eight ounces of gorgeous Merino I got at NH S&W. I want laceweight. I tried a couple of weeks ago, and it kicked my ass. For Tour de Fleece, I'm going to kick it's ass...

And, just for the record, the sheep are still afraid of the camera...
*sigh*