I believe Frieda hunted for her food during the time she roamed the Adirondacks, before she was caught by an animal control officer she eluded for a year. Walking on the path, she often goes into a four-leg stance, erect and focus. She used to run off and vanish for hours after that, but she is usually on a leash and when offleash she is closely watched and very responsive to commands. She is ever-alert to any movement in the forest.
Maria and I were driving back from Granville and we saw the sun change and the sky turned hazy, and felt the air turn, and I got out of the car and my eyes teared and froze to my cheeks, and my fingers and ached and could barely push the shutter but I am so glad I did because you can almost feed the winter landscape, the displaced sun, the world turning blue. It’s – 15 now.
Route 30, Hebron, sunset
A powerful, numbing kind of cold swept in late yesterday afternoon and it seemed that the world had changed a bit, the sun a hazy yellow as it sank over the mountains. We fed the barn cats and got the donkeys into the barn and it hurt just to take a breath. No walk today. The air dried out my voice and eyes and fingers and it seemed that the composition of the earth changed a bit. The animals gather into themselves and are very still. They accept trouble, and wait it out. They conserve energy.
The Arctic Library Tour kicked off at the beautiful and strange Pember Library in Granville, N.Y., and my friend the poet Mary Kellogg graced the talk with some poems from her wonderful book “Whistling Woman.” To be honest, I didn’t expect many people as a bone-chilling cold friend sent temperatures below zero by 2 p.m. Some of these hardy people drove hours to meet me and Maria and to support libraries. We had an amazing question and answer session that ran from libraries to dogs to “Rose In A Storm” to grieving for pets to animals and society to the movie of “A Dog Year” to issues involving farming and animal rights. It was a wonderful crowd with great questions, an a reminder to me of why I love libraries and enjoy speaking at them. We ended up with a standing room only crowd.
We sold a bunch of notecards to benefit family farms. I do not miss having a dog. I stay focused and so does the audience.
We are heading to Cobleskill, N.Y, Monday and then to the Scoville Library in Salisbury, Conn., and the Free Library of Northampton, Richboro, Pa. on Wednesday. There are many confusing and somewhat hysterical reports of a major storm roaring up the coast on Wednesday, but I think we’ll just ignore that for now, and see how far we get in the new Toyota. If it gets bad, we’ll hole up in a motel and read books on our respective I-pad and Kindle. I really loved the event at Granville. The people were great, and the energy was powerful, and it reminded me again how much libraries are worth fighting for, especially in the winter. The farm is well covered. Ben and Chris and Kevin are on the case if it snows or gets icy or anything freezes.
We’ll get as far as we can get. Libraries speak to the best of us.
I’m thinking more about still lifes. I love this old pot we found behind the Big Barn. Put it to use on the wood stove as the Bedlam Farm humidifier.
