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Jen’s garden is producing more tomatoes than we can comfortably eat, but we are doing our best to keep up, with tomato salads, tomato tarts, BLTs, bagels with cream cheese and tomatoes — you name it.  Jen is even working on a tomato jam.

We had a bat mitzvah-shortened weekend in the country, but on Sunday Sarah found some time to hang out with BFFs Anna and Daisy.

We had many threatening clouds but ultimately a beautiful weekend.

Jen’s gardens are at maximum production.  We have more flowers than vases, and more tomatoes than we can eat.

Sarah’s friend from school, Ainsley, spent the weekend with us.  On Sunday, Sarah led a jam tasting.

Now she has her first full week of seventh grade.

We had beautiful weather for Labor Day weekend at the farm.

Jen’s parents and sister visited.

We ate many tomato salads.

Sarah won lots of points playing Boggle against her aunt, the English professor.

And Daisy did what Daisy does best.

On Saturday we went to the Dutchess County Fair.  It was Sarah’s second visit, having gone on Wednesday.  She would have been perfectly happy to attend all six days of the fair.  Sarah is a particular fan of the rides, including the above-pictured Hamster Dance.

She also bungee-jumped.

And, of course, she faced off against her dad in bumper cars, in the tradition from time immemorial.

For me, the best part of the fair (other than the 4-H milkshakes) is the animals.  We saw these piglets and their patient or weary mom.

We saw the always expressive goats.

And we saw beautiful flowers, such as this dahlia.

The culinary arts tent was somewhat less gratifying.   No one entered a better non-pectin jam, or marmalade, than Jen.

But the East German judges did not award a blue ribbon in non-pectin jam, or a blue or red ribbon in marmalade.  Anyone who has sampled either of Jen’s entries would find these results to be outrageous.

Back at the farm on Sunday, this heron was anything but nonplussed by Daisy’s barking at it.

We had a somewhat more restful vacation last week.  It started with a huge thunderstorm Saturday night, which knocked out power for eleven hours and also knocked down Jen’s rhubarb patch.

Jen rebounded by making rhu-berry jam.  She held a tasting to select entries for the Dutchess County Fair.

We climbed the Stissing Mountain fire tower.

Even Sarah made it to the top.

We celebrated our fiftieth birthdays.

Sarah is nearly as tall as her grandfather.

We spent a week at the farm, with enjoyable activities occasionally punctuating conference calls and document review.  Here’s the view from the fire tower at Ferncliff Forest, which Jen and I surmounted after lunch at Grieg Farm, where we got on the outside of a couple of very good BLTs.

The aforementioned fire tower.   The key is not to look down, or out, but rather to gaze unfixedly into the middle distance.

We had our annual visit from John Harris and his boys, whom we dragged on a hike.

We saw this red-tailed hawk.

Sarah spent the afternoons in a dance class at the Rhinebeck Performing Arts Center.  On Friday they gave a terrific performance for the parents, with six numbers tracing the history of Broadway dancing.

Sarah returned from camp, got a haircut and her ears pierced, and now looks 25.  It’s nice to have her home!  She starts pony camp at Southlands on Monday.

On Saturday Sarah had a sleepover with her friends Anna and Lucy.  Jen and I had dinner with Ivan and Elizabeth at The Corner, Brice Marsden’s restaurant in Tivoli, followed by a performance at Bard College by the Wynton Marsalis Octet (preceded, to our surprise and delight, by four different student jazz ensembles).  None of this kept Jen from staying up late and making blackberry jam.

Last weekend was our 16th anniversary.  We celebrated with dinner at Le Petit Bistro, the French restaurant in downtown Rhinebeck which, for whatever reason, we had never before visited.  On Saturday we took a picnic lunch to Mills Mansion in Staatsburg, just south of Rhinebeck, where we were married.

Here’s the view from the lawn where we had the ceremony and reception, in a monsoon.

Back at home, Jen did what she does this time of year: make jam.

We celebrated Independence Day with a long weekend at the farm.

While Jen gardened, I spent some quality time on the tractor.

We watched Chuck and company build a new mud room porch.

We marveled at the bizarre fungi growing on our trees.

And we spotted a bunny or two.

I guess this is more appropriate for Mother’s Day than for Father’s Day, but this red-eared slider dug a hole for her eggs right in front of the door to Jen’s garden.