I am learning all the time that I need to expand my definition of what a good photograph is, the best photos are often things I would not normally think of photographing. This morning, we awoke to the arctic wave that has been hitting so much of the country – in most places worse than us – and the wind made it painfully cold, the donkeys would not come out of the pole barn to eat their hay, it hurt to breathe. Maria went out into the pasture to empty the cans of ashes from the wood stoves, and I thought, wow, this is a photo to capture the sense of cold, even desolation out into the pasture. Chores are the master of any farm, they don’t care about the weather, there is no putting them off or avoiding them. I think the core of being on a farm is responsibility, and so we are out there, every morning, every afternoon, the thread of our lives together.

Some tree limbs have blown off the trees in all of the storms and we leave them for the donkeys to gnaw on, it keeps them busy. Seeing Maria out there in her green hoodie, woven jacket and pink boots I thought the photo captured something of her hard work, energy and creativity, even out there. In New York we will sleep late, our fingers and toes will be warm, at least for awhile.

I can close my eyes and picture this scene in just a few weeks, when the pasture will erupt, the donkeys will be out grazing, we will sit on the Adirondack chairs and plot the Dahlia garden, meditate, have coffee and tea. Just a few weeks away.