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The good news is that spring must be around the corner.  Here is as early a pair of mallards as we’ve seen.  The bad news, of course, is that they are being menaced by Canada geese, which are also back in town.  Daisy has been keeping the geese in check.

On Saturday, Sarah participated in a Cupcake Wars-themed birthday party for her friends Anna and Lucy.  The theme was “Strange Spring.”  Each team interpreted “strange” in a rather dark fashion, creating macabre cupcakes (e.g., one was called Rest in Peeps).

Today Sarah returned to her Breyer horse photography project.

Sarah organized her Breyer horses outside so she could take action photographs of them.

Here’s one of her shots.

We combatted an icy Presidents’ Day weekend with frequent use of the Dutch oven: vegetarian chili on Saturday, and cassoulet on Sunday.

New York City may have had a record-breaking blizzard on Saturday, but not a single snowflake fell on the farm.  Sarah had five friends over to celebrate her birthday.  Pasta, cake, movies, and air hockey for all.

Daisy offered to drive us home on Sunday.

We arrived home early enough so that Sarah could go sledding in Central Park.

It’s at last gotten cold enough to have a little ice on the pond.  We had a relaxing MLK weekend.  We drove up Saturday morning in time for Sarah’s first indoor soccer practice with the Dutch Elite Soccer Academy in Milan.  On Saturday night, Jen and I ordered a pizza and watched The Big Short, while Sarah had a sleepover at Anna’s house.

On Sunday we made the mother of all lasagnas.

Jen spent a rainy day working on a jigsaw puzzle.

It really came down!  Daisy was concerned when I stuck my head out the door to take this brief video.

The rain left as quickly as it came, though, and as the sun set we had our customary beautiful light.

We had a lovely Christmas vacation at the farm, with highly variable weather (often unseasonably warm, as above, but it also snowed) and lots of visitors (Lew, Rinda, and Lewis, for Christmas; Erica and Geoff, for New Years; Lauren (Sarah’s babysitter-for-life), and her dog, Hamilton, for the weekend after New Year; and a drive-by Saturday lunch with the Dizes).

Sarah vamped in front of the tree after making gingerbread houses with her friends Anna and Michaela.

On Christmas morning, Sarah found the vest of her dreams under the tree.

Sarah made presents for everyone.  Mine was a mason jar filled with origami stars — a Jar of Luck.  Here is Jen opening her Memory Box, filled with handicrafts of Sarah’s youth.  It got dusty pretty quickly after that.

My father made a serious bid to win Christmas with this air hockey table (shown after assembly).

We did lots and lots of cooking.  Here are Jen and Lauren making a phyllo covered mixed vegetable throw pillow.

Happy new year to all!

The Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market operates year round, but I’d never stopped into the Town Hall where it spends the winter.  It looks about as you would expect.

On Saturday night we attended the Sinterklaas Parade, the centerpiece of Rhinebeck’s annual crypto-Christian holiday celebration.   Some more images are below.

Sunday was foggy.

Soon it will be Thanksgiving, which means it will be time for Hickory Nut Pie.

We will have to take them on the road, as we’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Scottsdale, Arizona.

I suppose people have traveled farther.

Now that the leaves are down, you can see all sorts of interesting things up in the trees, including this large wasps’ nest in our back yard maple tree.

The Ravens played a very competitive game against the Mahopac Force today.  The Force edged them out 5-0.  I tried to get Sarah fired up by telling her that Mahopac was an Indian word meaning “horse beaters,” but I don’t think she believed me.