Blooming

 Orchard grass early in the day

Everything seems to  be blooming at once here. Virtually all the grasses except timothy, which shows its bristly heads a bit later. Brome is bloom, ditto orchard grass, plus a plethora of minor, weedy grasses everywhere. Orchard is usually about done before the brome shows up, but things are really mixed up this year.

Blackberries, black raspberries, locust trees, wild roses and river bank grapes are all in bloom. The valley smells like a perfume factory gone crazy. Longtime readers might remember how fond I am of the scent of those grape flowers....my favorite in the world.


The cottonwoods are shedding their downy fluff on every breeze. I like the way it drifts like snowflakes only without the cold and wet.


Sadly the hay is really scarce this summer, really, really short and thin, and not just ours either. Liz heard of someone taking off 30-some acres and only getting one dump wagon full and what the boss has been baling has been nice, but seriously lacking in volume. Maybe it will make it up with second cutting.