Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

Beautiful Morning
29 August

Beautiful Morning, Bedlam Farm, Thursday, August 29, 2004. Calendar Cat, Animal Love, Bright Sun, Donkey Love, Zinnia’s Pal

by Jon Katz

Another beautiful day, another walk around the farm with Maria early in the morning. The peaceable kingdom was all around us. Zip taunted Maria to play, and donkeys royally waited for their brushing and apples,  chewing cud. Zip got to insert himself in the photo above.

 

 

I was resting from a night of grazing.

Zip always tries to get Zinnia to play by snotting her in the nose. Zinnia closes her eyes.

 

Maria is in her garden bed.

Zip at the feeding tub.

 

Our neighbors, the green gardens.

Firewood stacked; one more cord to go.

Daily donkey brush. They love it. In donkey language, this is the way love is shown and felt.

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Maria
28 August

Maria’s Flower And Eye Sketch. She Started It 11 Years Ago, She Finished It While Waiting For Me Eye Surgery

by Jon Katz

Maria likes sketching her surroundings while waiting for me on book tours, at doctor’s offices, and in hospitals during surgeries. She started this sketch in 2011 while waiting for me while I was giving a book talk. She never finished it but decided to take it to the cataract surgery center yesterday, where they fixed up the cloudy lens in my right eye and replaced it with an artificial lens called an intraocular lens, or IOL.

The surgery took about 10 minutes, and I see like a 20-year-old. They’ll work on the other eye in three weeks. I suspect there will be another sketch. This one is also on her blog, fullmoonfiberart.com.

She is forever the artist and has assembled a fantastic collection of what she calls “waiting sketches.”

This one is called “Flower Eye.” I love her sketches and hope she posts more of them on her blog, but this one is my favorite. It will go into her sketchbook, a record of how we live together. It keeps her from being bored and nervous. The sketches are extraordinary.

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Flower Art
28 August

Flower Art, Wednesday, August 28, 2024. Seeing The World In A New And Different Way, Again

by Jon Katz

“Primarily recognized for her paintings of flowers, Georgia O’Keeffe is a pioneer of American art. Her flower paintings were a crucial step in the evolution of her work as a modernist painter. Ever since their inception, they have garnered both praise and disdain from critics who have pondered over the true meaning behind these flowers.”     — The Collector.

Some critics believed O’Keeffe’s flower paintings were a comment on women’s sexuality.

She denied that. For her, they were her commentary on seeing — a magnifying lens for the attention. Painting these close-ups was a way of learning to look,  she insisted, removing the blinders with which we gallop through the world. She said flowers were about slowing down, looking around us,  finding emotion in color, and accepting things as they are.

I’ve always thought of my photography as something inside me that needed to come out. Flowers helped me see the world anew; they do it repeatedly.

I’m tired, and my newly refurbished eyes are tired. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

After my surgery, I went out to explore my new sense of flowers. What follows is my experiment with a new lens and radically improved vision, as well as what I found. I don’t believe my flowers are a commentary on sexuality, nor do I deny that I see flowers as being inherently sexual, constantly making love and showing love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Cambridge Food Pantry
28 August

It’s Getting Colder: We Are Seeking Soup And Salad For The Cambridge Food Pantry’s Families, Inexpensive And Urgently Needed

by Jon Katz

Families turn to Soup and Salad for healthy, warm, and filling dinners in the fall.

The people who come to the food pantry in Cambridge are the same, except these treasured and missed foods are no longer available to them. Today is a soup and salad day, a tradition the pantry is struggling to keep up for people in need.

The scarcity of these items in the food pantry is a stark reality for many families in food distress, forcing them to make hard decisions and often give up the meals that they love and that their children love.

I propose a soup and salad day, a chance to get the foods below back on the pantry shelves as the weather here gets colder and the favorite foods are missing.

These items are popular and affordable, most under $3. It would be a great joy to the pantry if we could fill up those shelves enough for these foods—soup and salads—to last a while.

They are the most popular items when it gets colder and usually last only a few minutes.

Soups cost a little more, but only a little. We can brighten many dinner tables this Fall by making soups and salads available to people who are struggling to feed their families through no fault of their own. These items are all bargain funds from Amazon. Sarah never stops looking for bargains.

 

1. Beef Stew, 15 oz (8 Back), Fully Cooked & Ready To Eat With Fresh Potatoes & Carrots, Gluten Free, 10g Protein, No Preservatives, Perfect For Noodles and  Biscuits, $17.12.

2. Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing, 15 FL oz., $2.67.

3. Swanson White Premium Chunk Canned Chicken Breast in Water, Fully Cooked Chicken 4.5 Oz Can (Pack of 4)

4. Thousand Island Ranch Salad Dressing (16 fl oz  Bottle, $2.98.

5. Campbell’s Chunky Soup, New England Clam Chowder, 16.3 Oz Can, (Case of 8), $15.68.

6. Kraft Classic Ranch Salad Dressing (16 fl. oz Bottle, $2.98.

7. Campbell’s Chunky Soup, Pub-Style Chicken Pot Pie Soup, 16.3 Oz Can (Case of 8), 415.88.

 

All items above are on the Cambridge Food Pantry Wish List; you can browse the list and send these or any other items to the pantry. Sarah says that she is out of just about everything after every Wednesday food offering. More people than ever are seeking help getting food. I want to offer the broadest range of choices for the Army Of Good.

You can shop the list, which is updated constantly, anytime. You can access the list anytime by clicking the green pantry button at the bottom of every blog post. Thank you.  This gives you more choice and flexibility. I love the idea of thinking of the pantry patrons having heart salad and soup dinners the way they used to.

 

 

 

 

 

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Beautiful Day
28 August

New Life To My Eyes, A Miracle All The Way, A Bow To Life

by Jon Katz

What a beautiful day! This morning, I saw Dr. Solomon, who removed the shield from my right eye and tested me.

He wanted to check my eyes after the surgery yesterday. I scored 100 percent on the reading tests, reading microscopic letters one after another for the first time in years, maybe ever. He said the eye had healed beautifully, and I no longer needed to wear glasses at all unless I wanted to. If I read a lot, I might need close-up lenses for reading. I’ll get some.

But the real explosion in my mind came when I went outside and saw the color—in the sky, in stop signs, in parked cars. I have seen the colors in my photos, but not like I saw them this morning. I feel like one of those poor kids in the movies who runs to his parents and yells, “Look, I can see!”

I know I never suffered like the blind do, but losing the color in my eyes was painful and disturbing, or more. I couldn’t imagine the change.

It’s miraculous and exciting. The second operation comes in three weeks. I have a non-prescription glass lens in exchange for the one I don’t need anymore, and I can drive without glasses now, probably for good. I might wear glasses because I like them and am used to them; I have to figure it out.

 

Maria and I were both stunned. The procedure could not have been better or made me happier. It turned my world upside down.

Once again, it is a healthcare procedure that makes me better, happier, and healthier. I’m swamped with work and tech issues today, and I need to send out my pantry help request and get my blog showing up on Facebook, which has been a while since it has been done. I also need to rest my eyes.

Thanks to those who told me this would end or begin this way. I appreciate your support and can’t wait to experiment a bit with my flower photos. Dr. Solomon said he would prefer I take very few pictures for a few days, not in bright light, until next week. I might not last that long, but I will try to take it easy and soak up my gratitude and joy. Thanks again. Many good people are out there, and they are the ones to listen to.

I’ve had several surgeries, and everyone has made me better. More later, I need to sit in the quiet and absorb this.

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