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Daisy awaits our return from a walk.

We had despaired of having any hay this year, given how rainy it’s been — but lo, here is some late October hay.

A pair of bluebirds presided over the tedder.

The round bales are handsome in the afternoon sun.

The frost has held off, so we’ve been able to harvest plenty of peppers with which to make hot sauce. In the background you can see a colander full of Bogmere Pippins, gathered by Jen. They are tasty, if perhaps unsightly.

In less cheery news, marauding deer laid waste to our new donut peach tree, seen in the foreground. I don’t think it’s coming back from this.

We are enjoying the last of the summer tomatoes — which also are the best of the summer tomatoes — as well as the various unsightly apples yielded up by our superannuated fruit trees. We even got a few from our nano-orchard, our first domestically produced Macouns. They make the apples in this colander look like something from Harry & David, so they are likely destined for a pie.

The pigeons, now a flock of perhaps fifteen, seem unhappy after being evicted from the barn. We chased them out and closed the barn doors after the barn swallows left, on August 30, to head south. We plan to overwinter with the aggrieved pigeons.

August is a month for celebrations, since it has both Jen’s and my birthday as well as the always enjoyable five-day period in between in which she is the older woman. We celebrated a visit from Julie and Stacey, as well as Sarah’s last weekend before returning to Colgate, with a Bo Ssam feast on the sun porch. We used the Weber kettle charcoal briquette fuse technique, to great effect.

Earlier in the week, Jen received birthday gifts, as well as good wishes from Daisy.

Jen, reigning marmalade champion, has decided not to defend her title this year at the Dutchess County Fair. That does not mean, however, that she won’t be making a big batch of peach-lemon marmalade.

Daisy was thrilled to have long walks both Saturday and Sunday. She was patient while Jen and I gathered blackberries, she found a deer carcass on both walks, and today she entered every available body of water, no matter how shallow or fetid.

Sarah also spent the weekend in the field, attending HITS Saugerties, the Hudson Valley’s premier equestrian competition. HITS, I learned today, is an acronym for Horse Shows In the Sun. (It seems like it’s missing an S, but what do I know.) Sarah and Sully, seen here sailing over a jump, had a strong campaign.

While at HITS Jen and I encountered this rather large Snapping Turtle. I’m glad we don’t have anything like that in our pond.

Mid-summer brings John Harris and his boys, seen here with their dog Milo traversing the Fallsburg Creek while hunting for wineberries. The berries were pressed into service — literally — in wineberry-lemon sorbet.

On Sunday we took advantage of the spectacular weather to take a 10-mile hike to the top of Overlook Mountain and then to Echo Lake, in the Catskills.

On the way up we stopped to tour the picturesque ruins of the Overlook Mountain House.

Atop Overlook Mountain we saw three Timber Rattlesnakes, including this friendly pair.

This weekend we had a visit from babysitter emeritus Lauren Ballback, who stopped with her dog Hamilton on her way from Brooklyn to Maine. Jen gave Lauren a tour of the secret garden, which is looking quite spiffy these days.

It was great to see Lauren with Sarah again. Daisy also enjoyed visiting with Hamilton.

Today Jen and I took a walk. Jen sampled the wineberries, which are now coming in.

While out we were visited by a family of Pileated Woodpeckers, who flew across a hayfield to take turns hammering away at this dead elm tree.