RhinebeckFarm.com

We had a glorious, if steamy, Fourth of July.

We had visits from Zeb and from the Scherrs.  Zeb got along famously with Daisy.

Max took it easy.

And Arlo was a good sport even though Daisy charged him.

On Saturday, Jen’s dad visited.  He parleyed with Sarah over some guacamole.

We continue to see lots of herons.

This is a Great Spangled Fritillary, photographed before I mowed down most of the milkweed.

I think this is a Little Glassywing.

A Widow Skimmer.  We have lots of these.

This is not an asterisk — it’s a Halloween Pennant, on some timothy.

To bring things back into the mammalian world, here’s one more of Daisy. She’s getting big!

Sarah spent the week at pony camp at Southlands, where she made some good friends.

We’ve had guests the last two weekends.  Here is Sarah last weekend with Marin, ten, who is also horse-focused.

This weekend, Sarah was reunited with Will Harris, with whom she once toured Storm King.

Daisy is thriving.  She is more or less house-trained, and can chase a tennis ball as if born to do so.

The barn swallows also are thriving, although we seem to have a lot of mosquitoes this year.  Jen’s theories are that (a) the barn swallows are feasting on the 17-year locusts, and can’t be bothered to eat mosquitoes, and (b) the late cold snaps this winter and fall have made it a difficult season for the dragonflies, who also enjoy eating mosquitoes.  Anyway, it’s buggy.

Jen planted some fancy lilies, a few of which were not felled by the lawn mower.

This pileated woodpecker attacked the maple tree outside our kitchen window.

Here’s a Blue Dasher, whom I’m sure is doing his part to control the mosquito population.

We went for a walk yesterday and spotted this salamander or newt or eft.  (Actually, it was already spotted.)  I think it’s maybe a Red Eft, which someday will be a Red-Spotted Newt.  I’ve never seen one at the farm before.

Here’s one more of our photogenic dog Daisy.  I took her to the vet last week and learned that she weighs nearly 22 pounds.  She’s growing fast and is a great friend to us all!

Daisy spent her first weekend at the farm, enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells.

She has learned how to sit, stay, and lie down.

She can even do all three at once.

And, of course, she can fetch.

It wasn’t all about Daisy (although it was mostly about Daisy).  On Saturday we made ice cream from the strawberries in Sarah’s patch in the garden.

And on Sunday we saw this Scarlet Tanager.

We picked up our puppy this morning.

The peonies are in high bloom.

And the cicadas are out in force, acting like seventeen year-olds.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend.  On Friday, before heading up for the farm, we visited our prospective puppy Daisy and her litter-mates (and mother and grandmother) in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.  We’re only about two weeks away from dog ownership, and Sarah could not be more excited.

This morning, Sarah marched in the Memorial Day parade in beautiful downtown Rhinebeck.

Jen’s parents visited for the weekend.

But perhaps you’re here for the bird photos?

Here is one we’d not seen before: a rose-breasted grosbeak.

And here is our old friend, the bluebird.

After lunch today we walked down to the swamp to look in on the herons.

Back at the pond, this mallard seems very recently to have hatched seven ducklings.  Sarah was in aww.

One of Jen’s peonies bloomed to herald Mothers Day.

We started the day in traditional style, with breakfast in bed: broccoli and cheddar omelet, locally sourced bacon, fruit, toast, and coffee.  Sarah made duct tape roses, and a pinwheel for the garden.

On Saturday after soccer practice, Sarah and I stopped by the Phantom Gardener for some Mothers Day gifts: left to right, a blue butterfly bush, a pink dogwood tree, and a lilac.

Sunday afternoon, while Jen gardened, I looked in on our large population of herons.  I counted seven, each in a different nest.

Here’s an oriole.  We hear them frequently but they’re hard to spot.

I think this is some kind of sparrow?  Please feel free to identify it in the comments.

We saw this coyote on Saturday and Sunday, drinking at the pond.  She seems to have some pups somewhere – maybe in the hedgerow.  We are giving each other a wide berth.

On Saturday our neighbor Richard Murray lent me his Gravely zero-turn mower, which has a 27 horsepower engine and a 60″ deck.  It’s like a go-kart with a whirring blade.  I had great fun with it, and even (completely intentionally) carved this monogram into the path to the pond.

The crystal-clear weather continued on Sunday.  Sarah and I took the kayak out for a spin on the pond, Jen organized her gardens, and this hawk looked for lunch.

The columbine is starting to bloom.

It is unmistakably springtime.  The barn swallows have returned.

The daffodils are blooming.

The tulips — at least those few that are regularly Bobexed, to avoid the predations of the deer — are blooming.

And even our peach trees are blooming.  They were Jen’s Mothers’ Day present last year.

On Sunday we had such spectacular weather that even Sarah did not object strenuously to a walk.  We found these white dryas in the woods.

Here’s the team returning home.  If you expand the picture, you might be able to see the tulip shown above, to the right of the bright red rake at the bottom of the stairs.  It occupies only a pixel or so.

In non-floral news, Sarah has more or less mastered the cartwheel.

Sarah dug her golf clubs out of the back of the hall closet and drove a few balls into the pasture.

Springtime brings Ring-necked Ducks to the pond.  This year we have an odd menage of three males and a female.

On Saturday, Jen and I took a walk and counted nine herons’ nests in the swamp.  Only two of them were occupied, but somebody had to build them.  The herons seem to be thriving.