On a farm with animals manure is an elemental part of life. And there is a lot of it, especially with a pony and donkeys. Every morning, we shovel it out of the barn and either scatter it over the pasture to fertilize it or build a pile for use in our gardens (or my friend Scott’s, he takes a huge pile of year-old manure for the Pompanuck gardens, he collects it in his old truck).

Often at this time of year, we come out in the mist, we do the manure-removal as soon as the animals start to eat. I love the image of Maria coming out of the mist with her rake, I can see the colors of the landscape beginning to emerge through the mist in the sunlight.

To me, there is beauty and light everywhere, if we open our eyes to it.