Bedlam Farm is our Peaceable Kingdom, a reflection of the life we love and hope others can share. This is a vision of life on earth, of people being gentle, kind, and compassionate. We know it’s a pipe dream in many ways, but we strongly believe in and live it, partly thanks to our animals.

We live to do good, and our blogs exist to do good where possible. Animals are a big part of it; they teach us to be merciful and kind. This is hopefully reflected in my photographs. Here are three – Fate at Sleep, Bud Getting His Daily Hug, and one of our sheep grazing in the rain.

Fate is like one of those beautiful statues I saw yesterday at the Clark Museum. Something is stirring and iconic about how she rests, she is so full of movement and energy.

Each photo means something special to me and also to Maria. I hope you can relate to them and enjoy them. This is how the world should be and could be. We are waiting for a leader to emerge from the mist. We can be working on being a kind and gentle nation. He or she will come.

Bud, our only rescue dog at the moment, is a tough guy, our most brutal dog in many ways, and the dog who has suffered the most at the hands of cruel and heartless humans. Every morning, he jumps up next to me or in my lap for his morning hug and kisses on the nose. I’m not sure how this ritual came about, but he never forgets to do it, and I never forget to respond.

I’m not really into kissing dogs on their nose, but doing it daily with the Little King is a great pleasure. Once I do it, he goes about his business – trying to find things outside to hunt and kill. Bud suffered so much and has come so far. He is a minor hero of mine.

The sheep are closer to Maria than me; they saw me with herding dogs too often for us to be close. But I love to see them grazing in the grass; we only wait for Ted Emerson to recover from his tractor mishap and come brushing. In the meantime, the sheep are happily grazing in the still-green grass. In a week or two, they will eat hay from the barn.

Bud photo by Maria Wulf.