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Here is America’s favorite harbinger, the robin, looking forward to a glorious spring. It was extremely cold when we arrived Saturday morning, justifying an all-day fire, but it warmed up for the remainder of the long weekend.

This house finch wanted to join us Saturday evening. Who could blame him?

We stayed in New York for a dance rehearsal and to watch the New York City Marathon, but here’s a bluebird checking in on the PondCam.

We enjoyed the Memorial Day Parade — that unchanging, Norman Rockwell exemplar of small-town what have you — from the commodious front porch of the Kaimal/Lawsons, who, sadly, were away tending to Maya’s ailing mother. Here is the view from said porch, including what is possibly the nation’s largest ginkgo tree. For visitors Lew, Rinda, […]

We seem to have a number of foxes in the neighborhood (or at least two).  Here’s one in the front yard. Foxes are nice to see, but I hadn’t seen our large flock of wild turkeys in a while.  I was relieved to see that, for now, they seem to be coexisting with the foxes […]

Jen found an inchworm atop Burger Hill this afternoon.  Daisy was disappointed not to be off leash, but it was a perfect late September day and Burger Hill was teeming with Instagrammers. Our Egret spent much of the weekend standing on the kayak.

Sarah took home no ribbon today from her show at Southlands Foundation.  Owen was scratched after he injured his mouth while balking at a jump in warm-up.   Both are disappointed but we expect a full recovery. We had a visit from a Great Egret this morning — a pond first.

While investigating the secret garden, Jen and I heard a wobbly sound overhead.  It turned out to be our former swans, Frank and Susan, returning for a visit to the pond. We spent much of the weekend harvesting (tomatoes, basil, peppers), cooking (hot sauce, pesto), and eating.

Jen, Sarah and Erica cooled off in the pond on Labor Day. Jen was industrious over the weekend, hanging aluminum pie tins in the garden to scare off the birds that had been eating our tomatoes.  So far, it seems effective, although it’s not clear whether the clanging is worth it.

Our summer vacation was not entirely under blue skies. On the bright side, we had our annual visit by John Harris and his boys, with whom I went hiking in the Catskills.  As you can see, they were awed by Kaaterskill Falls, the highest waterfall in New York — yes, even taller than Niagara Falls. […]