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Not every husband would have the thoughtfulness, foresight, and — let’s face it — courage to get his wife a scythe for Christmas. Jen, lucky, tried out her scythe this afternoon. After watching a few instructional videos on YouTube, she cleared phragmites from our volunteer willow next to the pond. Daisy looked on in amazement.

The pond is looking very spiffy this clear Fall Friday, ahead of our trip to visit Sarah for Parents’ Weekend at Colgate. Daisy will be vacationing in Pine Plains.

Jen is her own harbinger of spring, braving a wet, 40 degree day to get the beans started. This weekend we saw Ring-necked Ducks (f/k/a Lesser Scaups) diving in the pond, Herman the bachelor muskrat giving himself a bath nearby, a coyote skulking around the backyard, and a raccoon in the Hoeners’ driveway.

Our decision to stay in New York this weekend appears to have been justified.

Jen corageously determined that the pond was frozen solid, which made sense given the single-digit temperatures we’ve had over the past few days. While it might be a good day for skating, it’s also a good day for a fire.

They are very hard to evict at this point.

Everything is bright green at the farm right now. If you can zoom in, you will see our corkscrew willows at either end of the picture, an unwanted Canada goose at left, our tiny flowering cherry behind the pond, and the shimmering bog beyond.

We are sad to return to New York today after three weeks at the farm. Springtime is all around, well represented by this young cherry tree blooming by the pond. Daffodils are blooming everywhere, and so is our star magnolia (which we refer to as the cameo magnolia because it is very small).

Still, signs of spring abound, including this unusual assortment of ducks (two Mallard males and a female; one Ring-necked Duck). The snowdrops were up, as were a few crocuses. The Canada Geese are returning. And Jen gave Sarah a spring haircut.

Even with two feet of snow forecast in New York, Brearley declared a day of remote learning rather than a proper snow day. Still, Sarah seemed to have a pretty light schedule. She received what are known as “asynchronous” assignments, such as go outside and play with your dog.