Day: January 20, 2012

I took my award-winning dog for a walk this afternoon to celebrate her loving spirit, and the affect it has had on me, my life and the other animals here. Lenore is, in many ways, the spirit of the farm, and her gentle acceptance and affection suffuses the place and touches everything. This is the tone I have always wished to set for the farm, and for the New Bedlam Farm, once we get there.

This morning, it was announced that “Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm” was chosen by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center of the University Of Wisconsin as a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book – as one of the best written children’s books of 2011. I think this is the first award I’ve ever won in my life. Lenore deserves it, along with my editor.  Lenore got a hamburger today. The book is the story of how she helped bring all of the disparate Bedlam Farm dogs together. Maybe she ought to go to Congress.

I was invited to go to the awards ceremony in Madison, Wisconsin on March 3 and I accepted. Maria may come along, if she can take a break from her Studio. We celebrated in two ways. Maria took me out to a fancy dinner, and I took a long, cold walk with Lenore. Photo album on Facebook.

Barns are not aging piles of rotting wood to me, pushed aside, blown away or bulldozed by time and circumstance. They are cathedrals to me, spiritual places. I was married in this barn, and sit there often to meditate, look up at the sacred cobwebs. There are all kinds of ghosts and spirits in this barn. The townspeople say a despondent Civil War Soldier hung himself in the silo here. Bats and mice live in this barn, and the barn cats dance their enchanted dance in the barn, chasing mice and spiders and rats in the moonlight.

There are marks, stains, memories everywhere – cows, pigs, sheep fed, housed, slaughtered, so much work, history, sweat, so much witnessed and experienced by so many fathers, mothers, daughters and sons. When I came to the farm, this barn was toppling over into the road, the fate of so many barns, and I spent all of my money setting it straight, and the other three barns too. I couldn’t afford to do that now, but now that I think about it, I couldn’t afford to do it then. I always knew that I couldn’t afford not to do it? My dream and wish is this: long after I have gone that barn will be standing, a cathedral, it’s silent bells pealing their beautiful sounds, far out over the pastures and into the woods.

This is a cathedral to me, a place of timeless dignity and meaning.

A bone chilling night in Bedlam. We put the donkeys in the barn, and this morning, set out in sub-zero weather to do the morning barn chores. It was crisp, beautiful, the kind of morning that makes me love the farm. The donkeys seemed happy to get out in the cold and Simon, as always, follows me around on my morning chores. Took a video, come and see:

I’m excited to report that “Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm” has just been chosen by the University of Wisconsin as a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book – one of the best children’s picture books – for 2011. “Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm” is my first children’s book (the second, “Lenore Finds A Friend” will be out in September of this year). The Zolotow award is a big deal and it means a lot to me. The stars of the book are the Bedlam Farm dogs – Lenore, Rose, Frieda and Izzy – but especially Lenore, whose great big heart and generous nature have touched a lot of hearts beyond the farm. If you don’t think love is the most powerful force in the human or animal world, wait until you meet Lenore.

I thought it might be simple to write a children’s book, but that is not so. It’s very challenging. I have so many ideas for more kid’s books I can’t even keep track of them.

“Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm” is a celebration of my photographs as well and a wonderful use of them. The message is relevant, I think – if animals can learn to live together, why not humans? So I am now an award-winning children’s book author, and one of the members of the awards committee generously wrote to me to say that she was very impressed by the transition I am making to children’s books. Means a lot. I have to also thank Sally Doherty of Henry Holt Books For Young Readers whose diligent and skilled editing brought the book into focus. And Jennifer Doerr, former publicity director of Holt, who worked so hard along with me to get the book on the New York Times Bestseller List.

If I can, I would love to go to Madison in March for the awards ceremony. Thanks also to you good readers for supporting the idea of this book and the book itself so enthusiastically. Can’t wait to do it again this Fall.