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We have entered the shank of blackcap gathering season. Jen never leaves the house without a Ziplock bag, or possible two.

Jen has been hard at work in the Secret Garden, which is currently awash in peonies. She has been planting some of her vast collection of dahlia tubers, which requires extensive excavation of rocks and roots. We look forward beautiful dahlias later in the summer. The roses also seem to be doing well.

Jen received her customary breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day, despite having no daughter — really a sine qua non, in our case — in view. Sarah returns from Colgate this weekend, and she will be with us all summer.

It must be getting close to Sarah’s birthday …

Once again George Cole has met one of our hitherto undetected needs in the form of this late 19th century Tiffany & Co. sardine fork. We are slowly building our collection of obscure silver. Jen has been hard at work digging up the dahlias so they can survive the winter in our basement. The dahlia […]

We had a mostly happy Thanksgiving, although we were very sorry not to have Julie and Stacey with us. They stayed home out of concern for Rinda’s health. It was wonderful to have Sarah back with us for the week. She was in high spirits throughout. Lew was in good form, tucking into a Thanksgiving […]

Jen, reigning marmalade champion, has decided not to defend her title this year at the Dutchess County Fair. That does not mean, however, that she won’t be making a big batch of peach-lemon marmalade.

This weekend we had a visit from babysitter emeritus Lauren Ballback, who stopped with her dog Hamilton on her way from Brooklyn to Maine. Jen gave Lauren a tour of the secret garden, which is looking quite spiffy these days. It was great to see Lauren with Sarah again. Daisy also enjoyed visiting with Hamilton. […]

We celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary Saturday with a sailboat ride on the Hudson, including a festive boxed dinner from Popeye’s. Hoping for more smooth sailing!

Jen has created a beautiful and orderly home for the peonies in her secret garden using only mulch, a few rocks, and several hours of backbreaking labor under punishing heat and humidity. She used the same formula to create this garden in front of the cottage. On Friday, we returned from drinks at Chris Rosekrans’s […]