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.