We have a woodchuck once again. The den at the corner of three yards seems to have been uninhabited for a few years, but something has been eating my asters, boltonia, and coneflowers, and the other evening I saw him. At least, I hope it's a him--last time it was a VERY BIG mother and there were 11 of them, including several litters that never left home. Haven't had woodchucks since we got together with our neighbors and had them all trapped (the only legal means of control around here). Oh well. He has good taste--my plants are the only natives around, and he obviously loves them. Last night he absolutely leveled a square yard of boltonia. They got too tall last season, and I was intending to pinch them, but not quite so soon . . .

As for the black flies. I never knew that we have them here in NJ, but I've been seeing some small black flies and getting extremely large, extremely itchy bites all around my hairline, just like you get from black flies in the Adirondacks or Maine. Horrible, and it never happened here before. Are there black flies in Bergen County?