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Mother’s Day began with breakfast in bed for Jen.  Sarah presented the collage she has been working on, which features pictures of animals and their offspring.

Sarah had a particularly special weekend because her babysitter, Lauren, visited.  She watched Sarah play lots of soccer and went for a ride in the rowboat.

If Sarah looks a little odd in the picture, it’s because after soccer she went to Apple Blossom Day in Red Hook, where she was face-painted as a dog.

It’s probably a little early in the Spring to start gardening, but on Saturday afternoon we visited the Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens to see what they had.  Sarah seemed skeptical.

She prefers the simpler flowers.

We do have some fancier flora blooming, such as these Allium.

On Sunday, these tire-kicking bluebirds attended our open house, but they have not moved in.

We took a walk this morning.  Here are Jen and Sarah resting in front of the swamp.

A Red Admiral enjoyed the lilacs on Saturday.  They are just starting to bloom.  Unfortunately, the temperature on Saturday night plunged to 23 degrees, and it is forecast to do so again tonight.

We have a bumper crop of herons this spring — there are at least four nests in the swamp.  Here is one heron coming in for a landing.

The bullfrogs will not be happy!

On Saturday, Sarah had some friends over after soccer practice.  We went fishing after lunch.  Here is Sophie catching the afternoon’s only fish — a largemouth bass.

In bloom: Bleeding Hearts

Columbine

Dogwood

Also on Saturday, we (and by “we” I mean Chuck) installed the 12-unit purple martin house that Julie gave us.  Although some bluebirds were checking it out as soon as it was up, no one has yet moved in.  The barn swallows arrived on Wednesday, but their housing needs are already well met.

The grass is greening nicely, but doing so without us this weekend as we are stuck in the city.

We took Friday off.  Sarah dyed some eggs, and on Saturday we brought them back to New York to celebrate Passover.  Today we had an Easter egg hunt in Central Park.

We woke up Saturday morning to find about an inch of snow, which lasted most of the day.

We’d been away for two weeks, so it was a bit disappointing to find all the early spring flowers — including these hyacinths — blanketed by snow.

Sarah wisely spent most of the day indoors.

By Sunday, though, the snow was gone.  The hyacinths seem to have survived.

We had a nice walk, on which we found many signs of spring.

A lone Ring-necked Duck steamed across the pond Saturday evening, letting us know that spring is on the way.

The robins have been around since the beginning of February — about a month earlier than usual.

These snowdrops grew underneath the bench in front of the cottage.  Whenever we move the bench, we find some new flower that we’ve never seen because of the rapacious deer.

Here’s a crocus that bloomed today.  Jen planted them even though the deer eat them like jelly beans.

Another sure sign of spring: Sarah on her swing.

We were stuck in NY this weekend.  On Saturday I took Sarah to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She asked whether this woman was looking at her cell phone.

I’m afraid we have only this PondCam™ image from this afternoon, since I left the camera battery recharging in the kitchen.

What you would have seen is pictures of some of the robins from the large flock that has been thriving by the house since early February.  You might also have seen, peaking out of the ground (until the deer get them), daffodils, lilies and other spring flowers that we ought not to be seeing just yet.