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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.

We had another unseasonably warm weekend, but some of us still chose to pursue the pleasures found indoors.

We spent a lazy Sunday morning reading.  Jen is getting ahead of Sarah by reading Harry Potter IV, while Sarah is working her way through a series she got at the Starr Library book sale.

We made ravioli Saturday night.  It’s a team effort: Jen makes the pasta, I make the sauce, and we collaborate on fillings.  In this way we can have thirds, all the while complimenting each other’s cooking skill.