Day: April 18, 2013

Minnie went to sleep on her chair and the gray hen didn’t disturb her but hopped up onto the armrest. Flo does not sleep with chickens, nor do they try and jump up with her.

Before I became a photographer, I paid little attention to the exterior light and love of the world. Now I see it everywhere, all the time. In a sense, I am as much a photographer in my mind as a writer, a shocking evolution for me. They are two parts of the same thing, a creative expression, each telling a story. I am putting together an e-book, Love And Light From Bedlam Farm and that be about my photos, the ones that touch the love and light in us hopefully.

It takes a long time to claim a new home, perhaps even longer to claim a new farm. Looking at this photo, I see how the landscape has changed at our farm in just six months. Red is lying where Rocky’s old collapsed barn used to sit. The ground was thick with tall weeds and brush. The large pile of tires sat off to his right. A large pile of wood glass and then manure was just behind the sheep feeder. The barn addition to the left did not exist, Ben built it in October.

Florence Walrath’s spirit was very strong on the farm, she had lived there for 80 years, was a strong and charismatic personality. Her spirit is fading now. And Rocky, the pony who lived in this pasture alone for 15 years is gone, Red seems the dominant spirit now, along with the sheep and the donkeys. Bit by bit, we are claiming our home. We are planting trees and bushes, cleaning up the landscape as we can afford to, tilling a garden this week, planting flowers. Florence’s curtains and carpets are gone, we have added two wood stoves. We are planning to know and explore the beautiful woods behind the house.

Our landscape is new, it speaks to the farm becoming ours. And this was such a big reason for our move from Bedlam Farm. That was my place, not our place, filled with my stories, my ghosts. This landscape is ours, Maria’s and mine, we are building it together, as we hoped.