Still can’t get to my photos. Plotting my writing future. A year ago, the farm was for sale and I was looking to move, simplify my life. That did and didn’t work. I got the farm under control, reduced the number of animals, and left a place that was peaceful, beautiful and with the right number of animals to know and care for.

I was on fire to do something different, try fiction and I am grateful that I did. I have a short story collection coming out, a grieving book, and am meeting soon with my editors to talk about my future. Publishing has changed a lot since we last had this conversation, and I’m looking forward to it. I don’t intend to give up fiction, which I love, but the farm has evolved in ways that call to me as a writer. You are always learning on a farm, always changing, not only with the animals, but in your own life.

Maria is here, and that is different and Frieda is here and that is different, and I have the nicest and most reliable people to work with and make sure the farm runs properly. I can see returning to some Bedlam Farm books, it a name that is well known now – a “brand” some people would say. There is no dearth of things to photograph (although I can’t access my photos now, my disc is stuck in the computer and I’m having some software issues. Will call Apple when they open up.)

I am fortunate to have this opportunity to think about what I want to write. I am intrigued with the farm, with barn cats, but mostly, with dogs and exploring some of my ideas about them – where they bring us, how they open us up, what we learn from them, how we talk to them. In the next week I’ll throw these thoughts out on the blog, where I have always put them. That’s how it works for me. The blog is a living memoir for me.