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Sarah returned home yesterday for winter break from Colgate, after briefly being snowed in following her last final Friday. Today we were able to snag one of the nine remaining xmas trees at the Phantom Gardener, just in time for the first night of Hanukkah.

Last Saturday we watched the annual Sinterklaas parade from Guy Lawson’s office above Periwinkles in beautiful downtown Rhinebeck. To me, Sinterklaas looks and sounds a lot like Santa Claus, but apparently if you surround this imagery with enough woo-woo puppetry it falls on the right side of the First Amendment.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with assorted Burleighs, Regners, and their allies.

Sarah and I started the day by running in the Ferncliff Forest Turkey Trot. Sarah finished sixth in her age bracket, and I finished seventh in mine, behind first-place finisher Malcolm Gladwell.

We spent the next nine hours in the kitchen. This year’s turkey, a heritage breed from Northwind Farm, was prepared using Helen Rosner’s cold-oven technique. It was labor-intensive but resulted in a handsome bird.

Sarah brought her race-day intensity into the kitchen.

Erica and Geoff contributed vegetarian fare.

Geoff also made many pies.

Sadly, we had no hickory nut pie this year — but we did have apple, peach, pumpkin, squash, blueberry, and pecan, resulting in a > 1:2 pie/person ratio.

There was plenty of time for visiting.

Lew was in fine spirits.

Lewis brought MaryAnn to meet the family. She was great company, and we hope she was not frightened off.

Daisy remained hopeful throughout the holiday. As usual, her patience was rewarded with various treats.

This fir was seemed like it was near death, but in truth it looked pretty healthy as it fell.

Just a week or so ago they took down the fir next to the house. It was definitely dead. We continue to try to plant more than we lose.

The trees near the barn have a distinctly late-autumn look.

On Saturday we traveled to Saratoga to watch Sarah’s debut races with the Colgate crew team. She rowed in the stroke position in the Women’s Frosh/Novice Four and Eight shells, with her team finishing in the top half of each race. As you can see from her smile, it was a successful maiden voyage.

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.

Today we attended the Sheep & Wool Festival at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, perhaps the nation’s foremost gathering of ladies who like to knit. Among the offerings are skeins of yarn, wool socks, and lamb skewers.

Also today was the Landsman Kill Trail Association’s Fall Hunter Pace, which drew about 120 riders. Here you can see a couple of them behind our three willows, which we have named Location, Location, and Location.

Storms roll in; storms roll out. Trees fall down, in whole or in part.

Sometimes trees simply die and must be cut down before they fall on the house, as was the case with the fir tree near the end of our driveway.

However, in our ongoing effort to remain net neutral-to-positive, treewise, we planted a few this fall, including this redbud.

We also planted a couple of maples and this copper beech, which no doubt will be majestic by the time Sarah is in late middle age.

The river birch is said to like water. We’ll see about that: the last tree we planted anywhere nearby drowned.

Here is a distant view of one of the maples, which has a big screening job to do when it grows up.

Yesterday, when I called Herbie Stickle to ask whether he would get around to making hay this season, he asked whether I was in Rhinebeck. I told him I was in New York. “Too bad,” replied Herbie, “If you came outside we could say hello!” He had taken the call from one of our hayfields. I was immensely relieved. I would have an awful lot of mowing to do otherwise.

Saturday update: haymaking in progress.

Sarah says that square bales are like single-serve, while round bales are more like a buffet.

The Dutchess County Fair offers not only chances at glory, but also cash prizes.