Day: January 16, 2011

On Kinney Road, the sun burst in and out of the clouds on the coldest day of the year, as biting winds swept across the winter landscape and the winter pasture. The air was so cold and the wind was so sharp it hurt to breathe when I got out of the car. Maria took a video of me taking photos on her iphone and threatened to put it up on her site. Maybe she’ll forget.

It’s the kind of cold that seems to change the atmosphere a bit. The donkeys rushed into the barn for the night – no coaxing – and the dogs rushed out onto the sparking snow and rushed back in. The sky was piercingly bright and blue, and then in the afternoon, the wind began cutting across the pastures, pushing snow across the roads. Tonight is pipe-freezing weather, and the heat has to stay on. Tomorrow, a new day, a new car.

Winter sky, Kinney Road.

It’s -8 on my barn thermometer. We put the donkeys in the barn, closed it up to keep the wind out. The barn cats aren’t leaving their hay bales.

Tomorrow, breakfast with a friend, trading in my Tacoma truck for a smaller, greener SUV. Not a farmer’s truck, that era is passing. I don’t haul many hay bales around.

We are planning for the library tour:

Next Sunday, the 23: Pember Library, Granville, 2 p.m.

Monday, the 24th. Community library, Cobleskill, N.Y. Evening.

Tuesday, the 25th. Public library, Salisbury, Conn. Evening.

Wednesday, the 26th. Free Library of Northampson, Richboro, Pa. Evening.

Thursday, the 27th, 7 p.m. Rochambeau Branch, Hope Street, Providence, R.I. Evening.

Friday, the 28th, 2 p.m. Osterville Library, Cape Cod.

Friday, the 28th, 7 p.m., Scituate Library, Scituate, Mass.

Saturday, the 29th, 2 p.m. Edgartown Library, Martha’s Vineyard.

I am touring on behalf of our embattled libraries. We need them and they deserve our support. Maria is going to sketch the library visits and turn some of the sketches into her artistic potholders. Very neat idea.

I will be talking about my work and ideas, and about libraries. I don’t speak as a dog lover, or trainer, or to rescue or celebrate dogs, but as a writer exploring the emotional geography between people and pets. Great turf for a writer to think about. And to talk about. I’m looking forward to hitting the road again, on behalf of libraries, and also “Rose In A Storm.” And my next book on grieving for pets, “Going Home: Finding Peace When Animals Die,” out in October. My first kid’s book, “Meet The Dogs of Bedlam Farm” is out in late April. Going to be a wild year. My agents says this will be a great year for me. I’m open to that.

Bird’s nest, fallen onto the road

Do Not Be Ashamed

“You will be walking some night

in the comfortable dark of your yard,

and suddenly a great light will shine round about you,

and behind you

will be a wall you never saw before.

It will be clear to you suddenly that you were about to escape,

and that you are guilty: you misread the complex instructions,

you are not a member,

ou lost your card or never had one.

And you will know that they have been there all along.

their eyes on your letters and books,

their hands in your pockets, their ears wired to your bed.

Though you have done nothing shameful,

they will want you to be ashamed.

They will want you to kneel and weep

and say you should have been like them.

And once you say you are ashamed,

reading the page they hold out to you,

then such light as you have made in your history will leave you.

They will no longer need to pursue you.

You will pursue them,

begging forgiveness.

They will not forgive you.

There is no power against them.

It is only candor that is aloof from them, only an inward clarity, unashamed,

that they cannot reach.

Be ready.

When their light has picked you out

and their questions are asked, say to them:

“I am not ashamed.” A sure horizon will come around you.

The heron wll begin his evening flight from the hilltop.”

– Wendell Berry, “I Am Not Ashamed.”

There is a flat area near Ft. Edward called, appropriately enough, the flats. It is a wonderful place to capture the winter sky.