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Winter is not quite done with us yet. We received this scenic dusting overnight, and we are meant to have 13″ of snow on Tuesday.

On Saturday we went for a walk in the woods to look for our resident Barred Owl. We didn’t find the owl, but we did encounter two hikers and their three dogs. After confronting them we realized one was Cricket Lengyel, with whom I overlapped at Colgate and who lives in Rhinebeck. Jen has since patched things up via email.

I’m not sure snowdrops count as harbingers of spring, since, as their name suggests, they appear in winter. The bee at center bottom looks promising however.

Ring-necked Ducks, on the other hand, are reliable harbingers, appearing on the pond for a couple of weeks each early spring. They came early this year.

They were so early, in fact, that they got snowed on this morning.

The Barred Owl is one of those things, like the morels, that have been here the whole time yet took us a long time to see. Not that we never saw the owl – every few years, walking through the woods, we’d startle him and watch him fly off. And we’ve often heard owls at night, both the Barred Owl (“who-cooks-for-you”) and the Great Horned Owl (sonorous hooting along the lines you’d expect). But these days, somehow, we can find the Barred Owl pretty regularly. It’s always a treat to see an owl.

We had our first real snowfall of the season today. It was late in arriving, but very pretty as it came down. Here’s the view this morning from the front door of the cottage.

And here’s the view this afternoon from the back door of the house.

We celebrated the new year in the Kaimal/Lawson’s kitchen. Clockwise are Maya, Jen, Sarah R., Anna, Lucy, Guy, Sophie, and Sarah P. For dinner, Maya made two kormas from her new cookbook, to be published this spring, and we contributed Hopping John. The girls reminisced about the Rhinebeck Fireballs’ epic, Miracle on Ice-caliber victory over the Peekskill Santos. It was a festive evening.

We had a happy Christmas with Jen’s folks.

Sarah’s stocking was brimming, including with this new hat.

Sarah spent many late nights crocheting to create this beautiful blanket for her grandparents.

Jen was a bit less certain about my gift for her, a new scythe, with both grass and brush blades.

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.