Rose, the book tour border collie I drag around the country each year, staring at a plate with a flower in it. Don’t quite know where it came from.

  Maria and I took our winnings from Saratoga (she won four races in a row, not bad for a first-time better, and I won three bets, including one on “Awesome Maria,” – (thanks, SaratogaDot) and we went to the Panda Garden in Manchester, Vt., one of our favorite restaurants. She paid.
  Got this fortune: “Never fear! The end of something marks the start of something new.”
 Makes sense to me.

  Thinking of my sheep, who are settling in at Darryl Kuehne’s farm, having babies, grazing. We will visit them shortly.
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  Notes. As some of you know, Bedlam Farm is up for sale and we are looking for a New Bedlam Farm. Ginny Tremblay of Alan Brown Realty in Greenwich, N.Y. is handling the sale (I am not, for all of our sakes).
  On August 8, Maria and I will be at the Poultney Crafts Fair showing quilts and photos. It’s really in East Poultney. On August 21, “Soul Of A Dog” book tour kicks off at the Northshire Bookstore. Later that week, I will be reading from the book at the Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, N.Y., courtesy of Red Fox Books (details on the “Book Tour/Events) tag up top.
  On Labor Day, we are organizing an “Art and Soul” fest at Gardenworks, Salem, N.Y. (518 854 3250). I will be  reading from “Soul”, and a bunch of artists will be showing their stuff: poems by Mary Kellogg, art by Ray Smith and Christopher Smith, quilts by Maria Heinrich, photography by Corinna Aldrich. Izzy and Lenore will be greeters. In September I will be heading for Portland and Seattle, among other places, and Boston. Also the Monson, Mass. Library, the “best little library ever.”

  Lenore sitting with Frieda, being trained on her gentle leader. Maria and I went to Saratoga today and we won four out of five bets – she scored 100 percent on her bets, the first time she’s ever bet. I bet $20 on “Awesome Maria” in the seventh race and she placed. Great time. We are taking our winnings to Manchester, Vt. to buy some dinner. I think Maria has the bug.