Sunlight on a tree trunk, moss

  My cold has driven me to bed, gulping Nyquill and tea and tissues. I haven’t had a cold in awhile, and I am tired. So I’m going to sleep it off, clutching my cell phone and a book on China by the brilliant journalist James Fallows. Maria is threatening to bring me tea. Surrounded by dogs and books. Not so bad. Time to reflect on my many shortcomings and do better. The good news: I am loving my first short story.

 Out and onsale.

  How happy I am to tell you that Mary Kellogg’s wonderful new book “Whistling Woman” is now out and available at some local bookstores and online, from the Troy Bookmakers.
  The book includes an introduction and photographs by me, and is a collection of new poems from this wonderful, loving and extraordinarily gifted person. Her first book of poems, “My Place On Earth,” is still selling well, but this volume is a great leap forward. It is lovely, elegaic, defiant. Mary Kellogg is living her life, and she pays no  more attention to the expectations and limitations of others than I do. Less, I think. The poems are funny, sad, touching and always, inspiring. You can meet Mary and get signed copies of her book Saturday at the Battenkill Book Store in Cambridge, N.Y. (noon). Or you can get it online.
  I think you will love it as much as I do. Maria edited this volume, as she did the first. For all of us a labor of love, and a proud publication of Bedlam Farm Books. We are a community of encouragement, and Mary embodies everything we hope to accomplish.
  Mary has been writing poetry since she was eleven, but never showed her poetry to anyone until she showed some poems to me a few year ago. I am so glad she did.

  Lenore focues on the simpler things of life, and she believes that life is good and filled with promise. If you loo at her, you will smile. That is her power.

  My dogs are forbidden to come onto the sofas in the farmhouse. So, you may wonder, why do I have so many photos of them there, especially on cold days. I’ll have to get back to you on that.
  Maria calls Izzy the “Prince” because he has a certain air of entitlement. I wouldn’t say my dogs are spoiled, just treated courteously. ):

  December 2, 2009 – Sunny, cool.
 
  Frieda, marketing director of yesnoquilts, is shown above overseeing the latest batch of potholders shipping out to America. Maria is no longer taking orders for Christmas, but she is getting plenty of orders for January and beyond. She has a lot of new ideas for belts, potholders, quilts, etc.
  The potholders are changing almost daily.
 I have a wicked cold, and am trying to see if you can write a short story while drooling, hacking and wheezing. I think so. Got to tell your story every day.
  I watched the President talk last night, and I thought hell might be being locked in a room with those yammering pundits, squeaking like chipmunks the second he finished speaking. Couldn’t turn the TV off fast enough and get out of the room. How did the Republic ever survive before we had so many people telling us what we should think and believe?
  Thinking about Christmas. Going to get a  tree Friday. Saturday, I’ll be at Battenkill Books with Izzy and Maria and Mary Kellogg at noon to celebrate the book store renovation and new building on Main Street. Books, food, dogs, ASA calendars, (no potholders) and poetry, Mary’s new book “Whistling Woman” is in, and she will sign it and read from it. Melissa Batalin and the Troy Bookmakers did a neat job with this book, and not only includes Mary’s new poems, but a bunch of my photos. Thanks to Melissa and to Maria for editing it so skillfully. Bedlam Farm is part of a community of encouragement, and when you see a book like this, you know we are doing our job. Mary is a wonderfully talented poet, and I love and apprreciate here. Come by Saturday and do the same.
  Other events. Thursday, Dec. 17, 4 to 8 p.m., we will all be at Red Fox Books in Glens Falls. Then the “Whistling Woman” tour goes to the Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, Vt., at 1 p.m. December 19. Maria and Mary will be there. So will Izzy.
   Thanks to those many people who drove all that way to see us and buy ASA calendars Saturday at Gardenworks. Nice afternoon.