Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

Flower Art
15 April

Color Art, As Promised, 10 Photos. A Spring Warm Up, Daffodils, Magnolias, Lisianthus, And The Sun, Etc.

by Jon Katz

I had a busy, beautiful, and happy day. I went to the Dollar Store, which I always refused to go to, and checked out the prices for dog biscuits, towel paper, and tissues. Grow and learn.

The dog biscuits and tissues were good. I’ll be going there regularly; I do most of the shopping. There will be more bargains and fewer Amazon orders in the future. I’m learning how to shop more widely.

I tried the tissues, and they are fine. The box I got cost 1 dollar.

Today, I did a dry flower photo run, and I am grateful to the Army of Good for sending a truckload of juice to the Cambridge Food Pantry. There are four days left until Children’s Food Week.

The Urgent Children’s Food Week is entering its second day; the first was a huge success. Today’s food for the children is Quaker Instant Oatmeal, 4 Flavor Variety Pack, 48 Individual Packets, for $15.99.

For $15.99, you will get badly needed food for 66 families and 180 children. Chicken Noodle Soup will be on the list tomorrow, followed by Cinnamon Life Cereal and Chicken Ramen. We are also looking for Ravioli and Peanut Butter for future backpacks. You can see the entire Food Pantry Wish List here; it’s updated daily.

We put the backpacks together on Thursday; they are designed to go through the weekend and beyond if possible.

The ten photos are below, so please enjoy them. The sun was out for much of the day. Life is good.

The magnolias exploded today on their bush; they’ll be gone in a week.

 

The daffodils seemed to come right out of the sun.

 

It felt like they were jumping up at the sky.

 

Lisnathus, these are going into my garden bed.

 

 

I’m practicing placing the flowers in front of the sun.

The Magnolias looked beautiful on that bush.

 

 

 

White roses, Lianthus, beautiful sisters.

 

The white rose honors St. Terese, purity, and compassion.

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Zip
15 April

Outside Taking Pictures Of Flowers. I Had Company, Zip And The Hens

by Jon Katz

I went onto the porch with my camera and some flowers. I put them in the garden bed for a photo and a Spring warm-up. First, I sat on the porch and had lunch. Zip often joins me and goes to sleep while I work and eat.

I like his company; he likes to sit and watch me work.

The hens came by with their butts up in the air. That means the bugs and worms are coming up for air.

 

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The Cambridge Food Pantry
15 April

Day Two: The Children’s Food Program Is A Hit! Todays Urgent Food, Instant Oatmeal

by Jon Katz

Thanks so much for your rapid response to our Children’s Food Week. As of 3 p.m., Amazon notified Sarah Harrington, Executive Director of the Cambridge Food Pantry, that 33 packages are already on their way to the pantry, arriving tomorrow, two days before we assemble the food backpacks that will go to 66 families and serve 180 children.

(For $15.99, we can each send 48 packets of Quaker Instant Oatmeal, 4 Flavor Pack, Individual Packets, and 48 Count. The oatmeal is on today’s updated Wish List. Sarah took off the fruit juice, so we have enough for this week now. Thank you, thank you.)

The pantry needed more critical food, enough for 188 children this week.

We can keep this going all week and fill out those packs. After today, the food for the week will be Chicken Noodle Soup, Cinnamon Life Cereal, and Chicken Ramen. Ravioli and peanut butter are also on the updated Wish List.

This one week program ends on Friday. Amazon moves fast. If you donate through some other source, the address is Sarah Harrington, 24 E. Main Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

I will try to do it again occasionally, and I bless you for responding. Your small acts of kindness will make many children and their families happy and healthy this week.

This is a critical food for children who need nourishing and healthy breakfasts. We’ve sent much of this instant oatmeal to the refugee children in Albany, and their families rave about it.

In addition to being so healthy, it is simple for the children’s parents to make. Some of them have several jobs.

This campaign is not a lunch program; it’s food for the week, breakfasts, and dinners, especially on weekends. The food pantry does not have all of the requested items, so it often has to substitute hoped-for food in the backpacks assembled Thursday morning.

(Maria and I volunteer to help with that.) This is a beautiful gift to these children and their families; the food on the lists is food they want, love, and need. And it’s increasingly more work to get in a world with slashed government support and an ever-growing need.

It’s hard to describe the joy and relief your contributions bring to these children and their families. Their appreciation is something I can’t capture in a photograph, but it’s a lifeline for them.

We hope to stuff the backpacks (plastic bags) with balanced, nutritious, and much-wanted food this week.

There are a lot of new sign-ups at the food pantry, and their funding keeps getting cut. The excellent food we send goes quickly. I’m thinking of small miracles, not big ones, and I hope to find one on Thursday and for the weekend. There’s time.

Instant Oatmeal is today’s food.

 

 

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Books
15 April

Bedlam Farm Book Sales: Five Books We Love, Four Are $10, One Is $20.

by Jon Katz

Maaria and I have five more books to sell today. This time, they are mostly nonfiction, with one great novel by Tia Williams and a book on dogs that I believe is the best book on the subject ever written.

All the books are $10 each except The Domestic Dog by James Serpell, which is $20.   Shipping is $5 for one and a dollar or two more if you buy more than one.

If you’d like any of these books, you can email Maria at [email protected].  Tell her which book you’d like and how you’d like to pay for it.  She takes checks, PayPal, and Venmo.

You can check her links to the book’s initial publisher notes by going to her website, fullmoonfiberart.com, here.

The first book is what I consider the Bible on domestic dogs—the best one ever. I’ve read it hundreds of times; it has never failed me (or my dogs.).

The author of The Domestic Dog is James Serpell, the most knowledgeable and thought scholar of dogs writing anywhere. The book is in perfect condition (I’ve been using another copy), and it cost $40, so we are charging $20.

Serpell is an Animal Ethics and Welfare Professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He covers just about any question a domestic dog owner might have. He knows what he is talking about, a thoughtful and intelligent voice in a sea of bullshit and emotionalizing.

The second book is the only novel on the list today. It is A Love Song For Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams.

It is a warm, funny, and poignant (and happy)  story about Harlem in its glory days and a brave and creative woman breaking away from an oppressive and suffocating family to live her independent and creative life. Maria loved it a lot (and so did I). The Harlem pages are great; it was almost like being there.

Third Book: When The Trees Say Nothing, by Thomas Merton, one of the great spiritual authors in history. It chronicles Merton’s wonderful writing about spirituality and nature. Maria has quoted it a dozen times, and it helped to bring nature into my life and appreciate it. Merton is a wonderful writer; the book is magical.  He practically invited modern-day meditation.

It’s a small book with great power. Merton’s writing led me on my spiritual path.

Book Number Four: Zadie Smith’s Feel Free, a collection of essays by one of the great essayists and the nature of art. Maria says she is one of the best art writers and general essayists anywhere, and she’s a tough cookie. I agree. I love her fiction writing, White Teeth, and The Autograph Man. She is a brilliant voice, a champion of being free.

Book Five, one of my quirkier loves, Fortune’s Bazaar, The Making of Hong Kong, by Vaudine England, an accomplished journalist who has written about Hong Kong for years, is a nonfiction account of the rise and perhaps fall of Hong Kong. Under Britain, it was one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world but is now choking in the grip of China. If you are fascinated by cities, and especially this fascinating city, you’ll love the book.

It’s one of the most compelling stories of the modern world. We are delighted to see these books going to our readers and blog followers. They deserve it. Maria is doing the work; she gets the money. There are lots more to come.

 

 

 

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