The September Open House was wonderful for us, many hundreds of people, donkey visitations, herding demos, talks and readings, art and lots of connections. One of the nicest was the members of the Open Group At Bedlam Farm, a group of more than 500 people who have formed a wonderful creative arts group on a part of my Facebook Page. More than a score of people traveled from different parts of the country to see the farm and meet one another in person, and this group has become a very real community. Really, it brought a lot of people to tears to see how hard the members of the group worked to come and meet one another, how far they came, how happy they were to see each other.
I’ve fantasized about a real digital community online for years and to see this one take such deep and creative hold is inspiring and very, very affirming. Jeff Anderson ran a digital slide show of the group’s work for those who could come and those who couldn’t.
Beyond that, the Open House feel wonderful, uplifting and engaging. Maria sold about 30 potholders, all of her pillows, most of her scarves, I sold five photos, Maria has really figured out how to sell them now. Marilyn Brooks sold two of her enchanting landscapes, Jane McMillen sold a slew of pincushions and Maria’s sister Fran sold nearly a dozen of her mini-gardens and Kim Gifford sold a bunch of her notecards.
Red did four different herding demonstrations, there were eight or nine visits to the donkeys, Red, Lenore and Pearl greeted the crowds (and the Labs ate a lot of apples off the ground.) Maria and I are as exhausted as we are happy, the four hours was jam packed every single second, we are grateful for our friends Jack and Kim Macmillan, who helped us organize the art sales and handle the crowds and parking. I don’t have an exact number of people, I think it was between six and seven hundred people. The mayor of Cambridge came by to thank us for bringing visitors to the town, that was very cool.
The day had the greatest feeling to it, the donkeys basked in all their attention,and I love bringing attention to them, donkeys are in danger of being forgotten. We thanked everybody for coming, everybody thanked us for letting them come, and lucky we feel to have a place to live that brings so much pleasure to people. We will do it again next year, in June and September. I’ll write more about it tomorrow, frankly I’m just a bit worn.