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We returned to the farm after a month away to find many harbingers of spring. Uncharacteristically negligent deer left us a single crocus, which is enjoying a visit from a bee. We had a visit from some scaups, as well as a pair of mallards (not pictured). We found wild hyacinths … … and a […]

Sarah spent a busy weekend preparing for Thanksgiving, although she did take a little time out to complete her piano homework. Not everyone is excited about Thanksgiving.

Sarah and Jen are already thinking ahead to next spring, planting bulbs that they got from Aunt Julie’s chorus fundraiser. Here is a red-bellied woodpecker, which spent most of the day at the feeder. And below, some of our last remaining leaves.

We climbed Burger Hill this afternoon.  It wasn’t particularly cold, but Sarah  is nevertheless wearing her new earmuffs, which she got at the Sheep & Wool festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.  She and Jen attended both Saturday and today.  Sarah still has a touch of poison ivy from apple-picking last weekend. Here’s a squirrel […]

We had beautiful, cool, clear days this weekend.  Here’s the sun rising this morning over the pond. Later this morning, Sarah and her friend Max went apple picking.   They went all the way into the trees to get them. Here are a couple of pictures  from last weekend: Sarah, out for a walk … […]

This weekend we attended the 165th Dutchess County Fair.  It’s not just about sampling local delicacies, such as fried dough, funnel cake and elephant ears.  We met plenty of animals, from the soulful goats… … to the handsome, prize-winning roosters… … to the miffed-looking, ribbonless roosters. There were many, many piglets. Sarah even learned how to make non-dairy […]

We had a great summer vacation, mostly at the farm.  We started off last week with a canoe trip in the Adirondacks, on Follensby Clear Pond.  Here is Sarah preparing to launch the Sarah K.  Sarah got the full camping experience, including a campfire dinner (hot dogs, corn on the cob and s’mores) and plenty […]

It was a two-hammock kind of weekend.  Sarah (in the far one), thinks that “hammock” is an intransitive verb.  She says, “Let’s go hammocking!”  — and so we do. We didn’t spend the whole weekend suspended from trees, though.  Jen tended her garden. And I did plenty of mowing, while birds of prey circled overhead. […]

Here is a robin, surveying his domain during a rare sunny moment this weekend.  The T-ball championship game and picnic were rained out on Saturday, but are now scheduled for next Saturday.  Next weekend should also bring us plenty of black raspberries: the first ones were ripe this weekend, about a week before last year. […]

It’s nice to have a splash of color on a dreary day. Atop the left pilaster you can see the nest of the phoebe — which Sarah, confusing her fashionable Upper West Side children’s names, sometimes calls a gwyneth.