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On Saturday, we visited the Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens to buy a few plants for the garden.

We got the essentials: peppers (bell and poblano); lettuce (oak leaf, red sails, and red romaine); arugula; peas (snow and sugar-snap); soybeans; broccoli; strawberries (everbearing, Junebearing and all-star); herbs (green and purple basil, Italian parsley, and lemon verbena); flowers (coneflowers in pink and white, some kind of giant pink impatiens that Sarah picked out, disco red marigolds (another Sarah selection), foxglove (strawberry), and poppies in crimson, orange, and oxblood).

And, of course, we got tomatoes: Brandywine (in red, yellow, and black); Black Krim; Green Zebra; Cherokee Purple; Speckled Roman Paste; Pineapple Hawaiian; Jet Set; Sungold; and Juliet (an elongated cherry grape).

While there, Sarah was at least as interested in the fauna as in the flora.  Here she is with a large, yet-to-be-identified polyphemus moth, a type of giant silk moth.

And here she is trying to summon the carp.

Back at home, Jen continued work on her secret garden, with the help of her new lawn mower.

She finished her planting there with a flourish: a yellow peony.

Meanwhile, our house painting project spiraled out of control as the planned replacement of the Bilco door turned into the unplanned replacement of the sides that hold up that door.

It was a major project by our painter and jack of all trades Chuck (right) and his father in law Frank (left).

Fortunately, Chuck brought two of his five bull mastiffs (Dexter (left) and Draxis (right)), which thrilled Sarah.