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Jen has been hard at work in the Secret Garden, which is currently awash in peonies. She has been planting some of her vast collection of dahlia tubers, which requires extensive excavation of rocks and roots. We look forward beautiful dahlias later in the summer.

The roses also seem to be doing well.

It would have been more topical on this Memorial Day to post a picture of the poppies blooming outside the mud room door, but here instead are the peonies in the front yard, all coming in at once. Sadly, the Memorial Day parade was canceled due to inclement weather — which turned out to be, at most, a sporadic light drizzle.

Sarah brought some to brunch at the Kaimal/Lawsons, where we might otherwise have watched the parade.

Jen received her customary breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day, despite having no daughter — really a sine qua non, in our case — in view. Sarah returns from Colgate this weekend, and she will be with us all summer.

The Ring-necked Ducks remain on the pond as we make the long transition into spring. There is still a bit of snow on the ground from last week’s squall, making it feel as if we have a long way to go. Other weekend events included an earthquake Friday and Daisy’s eleventh birthday Saturday.

Here are our steadfast avian harbingers the Ring-necked Ducks, on the pond at the start of March to signify the coming spring. They are camera-shy, and I scared them off, but they are back again this morning.

We are once again engaging in our great passion, replacing the roofs on various outbuildings. This will be our fourth, following, in order of appearance, pump house, barn, and cottage.

It must be getting close to Sarah’s birthday …

Daisy enjoyed what has become an unusual event: a foot of snow. She remains pretty energetic at ten years old.

Once again George Cole has met one of our hitherto undetected needs in the form of this late 19th century Tiffany & Co. sardine fork. We are slowly building our collection of obscure silver.

Jen has been hard at work digging up the dahlias so they can survive the winter in our basement. The dahlia tubers aren’t just going to divide themselves.

We had a mostly happy Thanksgiving, although we were very sorry not to have Julie and Stacey with us. They stayed home out of concern for Rinda’s health.

It was wonderful to have Sarah back with us for the week. She was in high spirits throughout.

Lew was in good form, tucking into a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.

Jen served five kinds of pie, including my personal favorite, the labor-intensive yet delicious hickory nut pie.

Lewis sampled one of the three kinds of cranberry sauce on offer.

Eric and Geoff, now our neighbors in Clinton Corners, enjoyed vegetarian fare. Is that a piece of turkey on Geoff’s plate? Who can say?

Lewis washed a truly amazing quantity of dishes, for which he was designated a Hero of the People.