Day: October 11, 2016

Mary Kellogg is a special person to us, there is no one  like her in our past, our present, or our future. Maria and I were very much alone when we met, we had no families around us or close to us. Mary is an angel who came to us to show us the way back.

Her light is always upon us.

Mary has always been family to us, from the first.

When we met Mary, we came together to produce our first creative project, it was called “Art Harvest,” and it featured the work of four artists who were coming out with their art, one was Maria, one was Mary. I was a third, with my photographs.

Mary Kellogg brought Maria and I together, we published her first book of poetry, My Place On Earth. Her book included the first photos I had ever published outside of my blog, they were brownish and grim. Maria edited the book, put it together, and I remember her bursting into tears and telling me she could never do it, and I told her she could, and she did.

Maria was 80 when I met her, she is 86 now, still talk and proud, but slowing. She comes to every one of our Open Houses to read her beautiful poems, she has published three books, we are hoping for a fourth.

Her poems are elegiac, evoking independence, memory, love and meaning.

When I fell in love with Maria, the first person I called was Mary, I wanted her approval, I wanted her to know. “Oh, my,” she said, “how wonderful. She’s such a good girl, she will keep you in line.” Mary was so happy for us we drew the strength to be happy for ourselves.

Helen Golden, a friend from New Jersey who graces us with her presence at our Open Houses, took this photo. It shows the two of us standing behind Mary just before shee got up to read her poems. She needs assistance getting up from the chair, and then sitting down, but she asked to stand alone when she read her poetry. “I can stand up, you know,” she said, her blue eyes a bit ablaze.

Mary lives on a 30-acre farm on the top of a winding road, she lost her husband Dick some years okay. She loves being alone, she loves being surrounded by her family. She loves  her small farmhouse, her gardens. Her beloved cat died a few months ago, she is mulling getting another. I hope she does. Mary means so much to us and Helen’s very beautiful photograph captures our feelings for one another.

She and Maria are especially close, they loved one another from the very first.

This is a circle of love, of life. Mary symbolizes everything we care about and stand for – love, faith, courage, independence, encouragement, creativity, a life fulfilled. She is the most radiant spirit, and this cellphone photo captures our circle of love. You can, in fact, reach out and touch it.

I’m happy to share the good news that my publisher and I reached an agreement this morning – after a couple of months of tough negotiations – for them to buy my 30th book, “Lessons From Bedlam Farm,” to be published in the Spring of 2018. (My next book, “Talking To Animals,” will be published in May of 2017.)

They told

Publishing has changed radically since the Great Recession, and I accepted a smaller amount than I have received for a number of years.  Hardcover books are not going away, they are holding their own, but sales for mid-list authors like me (between the big best sellers and the small literary books) are way down, and will probably stay way down.

I am happy with the final number, it also includes some incentives and bonuses – if “Talking To Animals” does well, I will get get more money. If it doesn’t, I’m probably toast – that is the Darwinian law of publishing, and rather than bitch and moan about the new world, I embrace it and accept it.

I won’t get the new camera I wanted, but I might squeeze a new lens out of it all. Acceptance is a powerful spiritual ideal, it prepares us for every part of life, including death.

I am very fortunate to have book contracts to fuss over, and as much as I value my blog, I also love being a book author. That is something I wanted to be my whole life, and the fact that I am still doing it and am still being offered book contracts is a miracle to me. I will never complain about it.

The book will be a mix of E.B. White And James Harriott, I will chronicle the lessons of the farm, month by month, focusing on the animals and what they teach me and also observing rural life and the life of the farm. My editor has asked if I could take some black and white photographs to go with each chapter. I sure can.

As always Maria has supported the book part of my life, she never focuses on the money, always on the larger purpose and meaning. She anchors me and demands that I fulfill the best parts of me.

When E.B. White left New York City for his farm in Maine, he meant to life the country up as it struggled through World War II. I hope to life people up as we all work to adapt to a divided country, and hope it can come together.  You will not be reading about that in my book, we are a Peaceable Kingdom here, life is not perfect, but it is rich in love, hope and change.

The farm has, in many ways, been my mother, it teaches me how to life and accept life. So I am very happy today, Maria is taking me out to dinner to celebrate my book deal and her very successful art show at the Open House. Tomorrow we both rise very early as I head to New York City and help Emma and her new daughter Robin make some phone calls for Hillary Clinton.

My job is not on the phone, but in the background, I will show Robin a slice of her new world. I feel light and easy about my new book, I can’t wait to start writing it next week.

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If you wish to pre-order Talking To Animals,  you do so  here, this is Battenkill Bookstore site, I will sign and personalize any book purchased there, and we are searching for incentives -tote bags, notecards, postcards – to send back with your book. The bookstore takes Paypal as well as major credit cards. They are especially nice, and you can also call them at 518 677-2515.

The first leggings appeared on Maria this morning, the first morning of a serious frost. Leggings are a major sign of impending winter here, Maria is an elf in the summer, running about barefoot and bare-legged. I love the leggings, another place for art to appear around here.

There is something magical about being in the forest, early in the morning, when the sun rises, and the first light streaks through the canopy like a magic wand and touches some trees or leaves. This is especially beautiful at this time of year, when many of the leaves have fallen, and a few, blessed by the sun, hand on, waiting for the deep frost.

This morning, we were walking in the woods when I saw these leaves suddenly brighten, as if a spotlight had been turned upon them. And then I saw the spotlight, it was almost as if the scene had been staged by a gifted producer. And I suppose it was. The first light is special to me, not only because I am a photographer, but because i is so clear and beautiful and promising. It is the best way to begin a day.

Forgive me, I don’t usually put up photos of the private parts of people or animals, but doing our chores this morning, we noticed that Griselle’s udder had dropped dramatically, a common sign of impending birth.

I asked the people who had the Romneys and asked us to take them if they had been with any intact rams. Griselle and the other Romney’s were all on a farm for months with Samson, an intact Romney ram.  He was the one who banged Red around when we pulled the sheep out of there.

Good Lord, I told Maria, it is very likely that all four are pregnant. A dropping udder with protruding nipples is an important sign of impending birth. We may have to scramble to get ready.

Nobody else’s udder has dropped, and this wasn’t visible with all of the long wool hanging off of Griselle before the shearing. But it is a sign of things to come, and you can wager that some, if not all the lambs will start popping out the day Maria steps on the plane for Calcutta in February.

Griselle might be a lot sooner than that. I’m calling the Granville Large Veterinary Animal Service today to ask that a vet come by to do an exam, including an ultrasound,  to see if we can figure out if Griselle is really pregnant, and if so, how close she is. It seems to me I swore off of all this two years ago when we last lambed, but I have a hunch we are doing it again. I gave all of our lambing stuff away. I suppose there is such a thing as fate, and it will guide us to where we need to go.

This is the lesson of life on the farm: you are really in control of absolutely nothing.