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Jen started the day with her customary Mother’s Day breakfast in bed.  We decided to take a year off from giving her presents that she was required to plant, and instead gave her books to read and write in.  Sarah also made her a polka-dot headband.  Jen spent most of the day planting things anyhow.

On Saturday, we had a visit from Ginger, Bill and Dan Wadsworth.  Ginger is the granddaughter of Clinton G. Abbott, who bought our farm from Isabella Burger in 1915, and who built, among other improvements, our barn.

In this picture you can see Clinton Abbott packing apples (while wearing a necktie).  Ginger’s mother is at far right.

We had threatening weather but took a nice walk with the Wadsworths after lunch.  Ginger is a children’s book author, and she presented Sarah with an inscribed copy of The Sage of Slabsides, her biography of the naturalist John Burrows.

Perhaps in honor of Clinton Abbott, an ornithologist, we saw some excellent birds in the afternoon.  Here’s a Scarlet Tanager.

And here’s an Osprey who came fishing in our pond.  Clinton Abbott was the author of The Home-Life of the Ospreys (London, Witherby & Co., 1911).

We saw a number of Black Swallowtails.

Sarah spotted this Gray Tree Frog, which looks just like a rock.

In the city people wonder why they never see baby pigeons; in the country it’s the same with squirrels.  In both places the reason is the same: it’s because they grow quickly.  Here, though, is an unmistakably young squirrel.

On Saturday we had a sun shower.  Everything is greening up nicely.

Here is one of our tiny handful of surviving tulips.  The deer treat our garden like a buffet at a Las Vegas casino.

Sarah had a busy weekend.  On Saturday she had a riding lesson in the morning and in the afternoon participated in a fish print-making class at Starr Library (they used actual fish!).  On Sunday she used the sewing machine to make a pillow, and also washed her late grandmother’s car for ten bucks.  She did a creditable job, but she couldn’t reach the roof.

Sarah had a happy Easter.

She received her customary Easter basket.

And she enjoyed an egg hunt with her friend Michaela.

Other signs of spring abound.  The Ring-necked Ducks are in residence on the pond, together with a pair of Mallards.

The daffodils are doing their thing, as are the bees.

And, while our Daisy is growing up, sometimes she still looks just like a puppy.

This is one of those things that reminds us that there are powerful forces at work on the farm, which we cannot necessarily control.

On the bright side, according to Wikipedia, snapping turtles prefer shallow ponds (that is, they prefer the part of the pond where we don’t swim), and, while they can be aggressive on land, they are docile in the water.

Daisy is one year old today.  Here she is in Central Park, where she reminded us that she is still very much a puppy (meaning that she jumped on some five year-old kid).

She’s a great dog!

These snowdrops growing in front of the cottage suggest that we may eventually encounter springtime.

Our driveway has been deposited on our lawn, so you can park more or less anywhere now.

On the off chance that the weather will one day improve, I am building a new door for Jen’s garden.  The old one has disintegrated.

While Sarah had a playdate with her friends Anna and Lucy, Daisy had one with their dog, Saffron.

Despite a bit of squabbling over a favored stick, they got along very well.

I was relieved to see this robin today.  It suggests that winter may eventually end.

We had a brief, chilly weekend at the farm.  On Friday, Sarah had a birthday sleepover at her friend Marin’s house in Hastings.  We arrived at the farm Saturday morning to find that very little snow had melted.  Daisy, recovering from a Wednesday spaying, had to stay mostly indoors, even though she seemed to feel fine and would have loved to run around outside.   We (not including Daisy) played board games and lit a smoky inaugural fire in the living room.  On Sunday, Sarah had a riding lesson, and we then returned to New York to see “Beautiful — The Carole King Musical,”  a birthday present for Sarah, who is a big Carole King fan.

We are making the best of a seemingly endless winter through a combination of riding lessons at Southlands (Sarah), swimming at the Bard College pool (Jen and Sarah), soup-making (Bill), and musical-watching (all).  Last weekend we watched The Pirates of Penzance and The King and I; this weekend it was Oklahoma (at least until it got too scary).

We have a lot of snow.  I mean a lot of snow!  Our version of making lemonade is to go snowshoeing.

Daisy came with us.  Although her paws are large, they don’t work quite as well as snowshoes; after a while, we had to turn back while Jen and Sarah continued through the woods.

They made it to the top of the hill.

Daisy did some climbing of her own, reaching the top of the huge piles by the driveway.

She spent hours outside and seems more or less impervious to the cold.