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Sarah woke up early Saturday morning and let us know that we had a pair of swans in the pond.  The duck between them doesn’t seem too happy about it, but they are quite picturesque and we are glad to have them.  They stuck around all weekend.

I looked it up online, and swans, it turns out, are a valuable amenity.  $2,700/pair, delivered.

The real reason Sarah was up early Saturday morning was because she had her first riding show of the season, at Welwyn Stables.  Here she is aboard Owen.

They won a blue ribbon!

We spent Friday night in New York to see a play (Tom Stoppard’s “Travesties”), and drove up to the farm Saturday morning in time for Sarah’s riding lesson.  We had a lovely sunset Saturday evening, as we made rigatoni in the stand mixer.

Today, as April entered its second week, it snowed just a little bit.

We don’t offer many pictures of the trip up to the farm, which is usually taken at night.  This weekend we sat out a Friday night storm and drove up in the morning.

Our evergreens fared poorly in the high winds.

Today we left blue skies competing with glowering clouds.  Between Sarah’s exams and spring break, we probably won’t be back until next month.

I suppose it’s a sign of the coming spring, but I was not happy to find two Canada geese on the pond Saturday.  For their part, they probably weren’t too happy about the curling and hockey results at the Olympics.

Daisy relaxed after to helping to shoo the geese.

Daisy thinks every year is the year of the dog, and she’s probably right.  Still, there was an extra spring in her step this weekend.

We celebrated the Chinese new year with a dumpling feast, taking full advantage of Sarah’s (and Jen’s) Montessori-derived fine motor skills.

We also had a turnip cake, courtesy of Sue Meng’s mother.  It came out much better than our prior efforts.

Here is Que (pronounced queue, or perhaps Q), a curmudgeonly quarter horse Sarah has been riding lately.  Sarah says he’s nice when being ridden but mean otherwise.

While Jen was in Boston, Sarah and I had a quiet weekend at the farm with Daisy, making soup and waiting for something to walk out of the pond (respectively).

Somehow, improbably, Sarah turned 14 on Saturday.  She celebrated with dinner at Aroi (Rhinebeck’s Thai restaurant) with the Lawson twins, followed by a movie and a sleepover.  Jen made a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for the occasion.

Earlier on Saturday, Daisy and Ringo surmounted Burger Hill and mauled each other.

Here is Jen’s beautiful picture of a sliver of moon above a lovely Saturday evening sunset.

I remained inside, stymied trying to make turnip cakes, a dim sum treat Sarah has enjoyed at the Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street in New York.  Sadly, despite having assembled a long list of ingredients (including dried black mushrooms, Chinese sausage, daikon, and dried shrimp), I could not get the cake to cohere enough for slicing (the cake is first steamed, then sliced for frying).  We ordered a pizza.

We spent an extremely chilly weekend at the farm.  I devoted most of Saturday morning to digging out our car.  We had below zero temperatures both mornings when we woke up.  While this was cold enough to justify canceling Sarah’s riding lesson on Saturday, it not dissuade our Daisy.

Sarah had her braces removed on Friday.  Her perfect teeth are now tended only by a retainer.

Daisy is an all-weather dog.