Amy and Raven visited our farm Friday afternoon; it was great to see them, both are true animal lovers, and our donkeys and dogs got a lot of loving and attention. When Covid came, people stopped visiting the farm, which has always been a lively place with lots of visitors and friends. We loved our Open Houses, but they were too much work.

After Covid came, all that stopped, and it sometimes felt empty. We missed having friends come so did the dogs and the donkeys. People are beginning to come out, and we’ve seen more friends this week than we have in a couple of years.

Covid was a bigger deal than I even imagined. And I realized yesterday how wonderful it was for me to sit down and talk with people.

My recent bout with Covid left me feeling isolated and disconnected. That changed yesterday. Amy knows my medical condition well, I told her I still had some Covid symptoms, and she said it was no problem. I was healthy and getting better.

 

Amy is a nurse practitioner and my primary care physician. Raven is her teenage daughter, a bookworm, online gamer,  individualist, and animal scholar. She is special.

Both are friends. Amy and I have good boundaries.

When she’s here, she doesn’t come as a health care practitioner but as a friend, and I don’t ask her doctor-patient questions. It’s great to talk with Raven; she is that rare adolescent who enjoys thoughtful conversations with older people.

Amy is a treasure, a wonderful healer, and a wonderful friend. She has faith in my health. She brought a basket of gifts. We needed a visit like that yesterday; we were both worn out and drained from our Covid month.

The visit was a tonic, and more visits from friends are in the works. We’re ready.

The farm is coming back to life; I can feel it.

Raven is impressive. We invited her to spend time on the farm, she loves animals so much, and they all responded to her, even the picky and standoffish donkeys.

She and Amy regularly visit farms to be around animals and study them.

Fate was in dog heaven; she spent much of the afternoon in one lap or another. She loves people and is happy to be cuddled. The sometimes snobbish donkeys knew a good thing when they saw one and bumped against Raven all afternoon, demanding attention. And eating from a big bag of carrots.

I loved watching Maria and Raven and Amy talking; they connected. I love being around strong women.

At one point, Amy went off to stack some wood, and Maria and Raven sat out on the lawn, feeding chickens and talking about animals, two subjects dear to both of them.

It was one of the most beautiful things to see, and I pulled back to watch and take photos. I didn’t want to interrupt these beautiful connections taking place on the farm.

 

 

This is Bedlam Farm at its best, where people can sometimes come and see the healing power of animals and sit with us and talk. It’s great that this is happening again. My Covid symptoms disappeared this morning, as they have a habit of doing; Amy says I am ready to be out in the world, I just need to remember to rest.

Maria and I had the most excellent time yesterday. Raven is an extraordinary teenager, happy to talk to adults, and her knowledge of animals and animal life is impressive.

Maria often tells me that she would have made an awful mother, but that is not the truth, as was evident yesterday. Maria is the most nurturing and empathetic human I’ve ever known.

Amy is a wonderful mother, and her relationship with Rave is quite special. It was sweet to have three incredible women sitting and talking with us with us for hours yesterday, brushing donkeys, holding dogs, and talking about animals and life.

 

 

It felt to me – perhaps because of my bout with Covid – like the farm was returning to its original purpose, as a place where we could share our lives with animals. I sense that people are beginning to know and speak with one another again.

I think nothing was sweeter all afternoon than seeing Raven and Maria spend some time with the Imperious Hens when I heard Raven explaining to Maria that hens sometimes vibrate to trick worms into popping up out of the ground (the worms think the vibrations are chicken-eating moles and crawl up to escape and thus become chicken fodder).

Not many people in the world can educate Maria about the behavioral patterns of chickens. I got out of the way and enjoyed the connection; these two became instant friends.

Maria is someone almost anyone could benefit from knowing, but she has a lot to offer the young in many different ways. I can see Raven visiting with the donkeys, stacking wood, shoveling manure, and holding her laptop to the game.

We’d love to have her—what a memorable visit. But she has a busy and full life, she has lots to do.

 

 

Amy and Raven seem especially drawn to Fate, who adores people and attention Lots of border collies are often standoffish with people who don’t bring them to sheep, but Fate is always willing to take a hug from a stranger. She loved these two.

 

 

At the end of the day, Amy joined Maria and Raven, and they sat talking for half an hour or so before they left. I couldn’t join them; I was wearing out (Covid aftermath), and the sun was too intense, and I would have had trouble sitting on the grass with them.

Rather than feel sorry for myself, I remembered that I have a Leica camera that can record the moment’s beauty and meaning. If I can’t do it, I can capture it.

 

 

The other day, someone posted a message on my blog suggesting I was odd. Duh. I am stranger than he might have imagined. Is it weird to love being in the company of warm, kind, intelligent women who talk so warmly and openly with one another?

I know how comfortable I felt yesterday and uplifted, and I hope they felt the same way. Maria never had kids of her own, so she had no way of grasping at first how special yesterday was.

She called me from the car phone today to say she was thinking about the visit and how she enjoyed it and was beginning to understand what I meant when I told her how special I thought it was.

 

I am grateful for the gift of photography and my ability to capture life’s extraordinary and compelling twists and turns. I told Raven she was welcome to come to be a farm intern any weekend or week next summer. I said she could reach for two days or a month; we had plenty of work for her to do and many animals for her to study and be with.

I have a feeling she’ll say yes. I cut a nice bunch of flowers from my raised beds to give her as a going away present. She actually seemed to really appreciate getting it, and I love giving bouquets to people from my garden.