Izzy loves to lie in the shade of the garden, the oldest garden on the farm, more than 120 years
old. Anne Dambrowski, the gardener, has constructed this shade garden so that the dogs can lie in it, and the flowers survive around them. The dogs never seem to crush the flowers or dig up the bulbs. Izzy’s gentle spirit seems to settle there, and he is almost always in the same place, out of the sun, waiting for me.

   I took Frieda out to sit with me behind the Studio Barn, and I was also going to do a photo still life of one of Maria’s many little flower-filled jars. This one was very simple and very beautiful. Frieda loves to sit with me, as I take photos, as does Lenore (the border collies aren’t into sitting around so much). She got into the spirit of the thing. Frieda can be mellow as well as regal.

  Lenore is a profoundly loving creature, as I told Gretchen Pinkel, her breeder, at dinner the other night. She lightens up life around her. She kept love alive for me when I needed it, she befriended Frieda, brings to the farm a focus of affection and warmth that is powerful and contagious. She is my photographer’s assistant. When I go out to take pictures, she sits and watches me, never wandering off or taking her eyes of me. I think she knows what lenses I use.
  Whenever I look up, she is there, taking me in.