RhinebeckFarm.com

We had plenty of sunshine this weekend, enjoyed by what we can only hope is a large proportion of our pond’s turtles.

The squirrels — all of whom are as fat as house cats — checked out the new growth.

The birds also seemed to enjoy the fine spring weather.  Here is a mourning dove.

And, while the early bird may get the worm, he also may have to defend it.

In a cloudier moment, two herons flew over the pond.

The flowers, of course, also thrive in the sunshine.  Jen planted lots of daffodils in the fall, and they are coming up all over.

Bravely, she also planted tulips, which she keeps from the deer through the liberal application of Bobbex.

Saturday was Sarah’s first day on the softball team.  She showed impressive form, and, sticking with it, got her first hit.

There were more signs of spring this weekend, including this robin.  Today also marked the return of the barn swallows.  Since 2007, the barn swallows have arrived as early as April 22 and as late as April 28 — an impressively tight range.

A less fortunate sign of spring is this capacious front door that Herman, the muskrat, has dug for himself.

I am taking matters into my own hands.  But somehow I doubt that Herman is particularly nervous.

We were saddened to hear this weekend of the death of Herb Schwartz, a great friend of my parents, here pictured with the wooden Indian in front of the Rhinebeck Smoke Shop.

Some deer seem to have made it through the winter.

This heron stopped by the pond, although, by taking its picture, I scared off scaups, mallards and, less regrettably, Canada geese.

Sarah was mostly too cool for scootering.

But she was willing to help her mom clear out the old berry canes, making room for this year’s crop.

Sarah and her friend Michaela played with sticks before heading out to Kids’ Night Out at Bard.

Herman the muskrat prowled about, looking for material for his lodge.

He is far more photogenic in the water than out of it.

A mallard sits pondside, watching the sun set.

We returned to the farm after a month away to find many harbingers of spring.

Uncharacteristically negligent deer left us a single crocus, which is enjoying a visit from a bee.

We had a visit from some scaups, as well as a pair of mallards (not pictured).

We found wild hyacinths …

… and a bluebird, harbinging like a pro.

Even though we had to do a little spring cleaning …

… it was great to be out of doors.

We saw this fellow on Monday while we were kayaking on Commodore Creek, off Tarpon Bay, Florida.

We should be back at the farm next weekend!

Last year, we were surveying the damage from one of our annual 30-year ice storms.

This year, however, we are leaving for Florida.  Sarah is very excited — she woke me up at 5:30 this morning to ask why it was still dark.

It looks like we’ll have pretty good weather!

Sadly, we again have only a PondCam™ image to post, as we are stuck in New York.  There isn’t much obvious change from last week, so perhaps we’re not missing anything important.

Equally sad is the fact that Sarah has to do her piano homework on a mid-1980’s Casiotone.

Most of the snow has melted up at the farm, according to this PondCam™ image taken this afternoon.

We haven’t seen the lawn first-hand, however, as we spent the weekend in our nation’s capital.

Among other excitements, Sarah was a semi-finalist in the paper airplane throwing contest at the National Air & Space Museum.

We gave the pasta press another workout Saturday night, making fusilli.  Sarah was in charge of cutting the pasta when it reached the proper length.

On Sunday, Sarah went bowling at Ro-Lin Lanes in Red Hook.  They offer not only bowling, but also what they describe as a “Full Size Redemption Arcade” — essentially, a casino.