Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

I love watching Maria and Mary Kellogg together, they are both beautiful and strong women, each in their own way, each at different points of life. Maria and Maria became instant friends a decade ago, just as Mary and I did.

Mary was the first person to tell me Maria and I would be a great match, she has always supported me and supported us. When Mary and I became friends, she showed me the poems she had been writing since she was eleven (she had never shown them to anyone) and I loved them and showed them to Maria, she and I had just become friends.

One of our first acts of friendship was to collect some of Mary’s poems and publish them – My Place On Earth. The book has sold several  thousand copies, we never had the money to market it in the way it really deserved. We did publish three more volumes of her work, including the new one This Time Of Life.

We would be thrilled if Mary continued writing poetry, but it doesn’t seem likely, I have to be  honest about it.

Mary has always known where she is in life and accepted it, her love of nature and independence were always stirring to us, in a sense she became a surrogate mother to Maria, someone she could always talk to.

Mary came along when I was at my worst, and her support and love were and are so important to me. I’ve never heard Mary complain about anything, but accepting the reality that she is unlikely to ever return to her farm at age 89 was difficult for me, I can only imagine how it feels to her.

She will accept it with her usual stoicism and bravery. She is planning to come to our Open House. Even though she sometimes struggles with memory problems, she lights up when she sees Maria and the two of them talk openly and honestly and with great feeling to one another.

I am so lucky to have two such amazing women in my life, and if these two women can love me as they do, there must be some good in me.

Audio: There Must Be Some Good In Me

Maria and I went to visit Mary Kellogg at the Holcomb Adult Resident in Granville, N.Y., today, we brought her some copies of her new book of poetry (her fourth) titled This Time Of Life. She was very happy to see this book in print.

Mary is 89 now, and she and her family have decided that this is not a good time for her to return to her beloved farm. It is a painful decision for Mary, who lived on the farm with her husband Bill, and then by herself for nearly 30 years.

Mary was a powerful symbol of independence to us, and she had – has -a Thoreau kind of love of nature, she knew every bug, deer, flower and bird that came anywhere near her farm, and was generous to the squirrels of her hill.

The poems in her book, now https://www.amazon.com/This-Time-Life-Mary-Kellogg/dp/1726431983/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537221562&sr=1-1&keywords=Mary+Kellogg+this+time+of+life&dpID=31CW4JSH9KL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch – continue to explore her favorite themes, accepting life, nature, life on the farm and character. I asked her if she might try to write some more poems for a fifth volume, she said she would try.

I’m going to read from This Time Of Life at our October Open House – Columbus Day Weekend – Saturday and Sunday, 11 to 4. Mary says she will try to be there.

The Open House is getting exciting. Maria’s Belly Dancing group is coming to dance on Sunday, the shearer is coming on Saturday along with a bunch of gifted poets – Amy Herring, Jackie Thorne, Mary, and Carol Gulley.

Plus Maria and eight very talented local artists, the Schoolhouse Studio will be crammed with imaginative and unusual art, many people do their Christmas shopping here that weekend. And Bud, our new Boston Terrier, is coming on September 29, he will be here for the Open House.

It is emotional visiting Mary,  she so misses her life, but she also accepts that it was getting difficult to be living alone. She says the people at the adult home cook wonderful food and take great care of her. She fell and broke her hip a few months ago, it is healing well.

Mary’s spirit is proud and strong, and we very much hope to see her at the Open House. If Mary says she wants to do something, she usually does it.

Ali invited all of who were involved in Sakler Moo’s entry into the prestigious Albany Academy to his house for dinner last night. Ali’s elementary school teacher Caroline, who fought for him to get into the Academy for years was there.

So were about a dozen of Sakler’s friends and his very shy and quiet mother, Lae Pwy.

I had the pleasure of telling her that an anonymous donor has offered to pay her share of Sakler’s tuition – $2,000 a year – for the next three years. Ali has been talking about inviting Maria and I to dinner for a while, it was Sakler’s admittance into the Albany Academy that triggered it.

Lae Pwy struggles at times to understand that is happening around her, but she is thrilled Sakler is getting this chance to learn and grow.

I brought her some flowers, I am struck by her shy dignity. The evening was a chance for all of us together and to some degree, a celebration of Sakler’s admission to the Albany Academy. Maria and I brought home enough food to eat for several days.

Ali’s mother Ibtesam cooked the most wonderful dinner for Maria and I and a dozen or so other people last night. It was a very special night for us, and Ibtesam is a very special person, warm and full of love and hospitality.

I see where Ali got his sweet nature and open heart, she was happy to let me take my photo.

I couldn’t begin to list or even describe the eight or nine courses Ali’s mother Ibtesam cooked for all of us last night, she was upset that she didn’t have more time to make more sweets, but I could barely eat the wonderful food she did prepare.

The best I can do is give you a sense of how much there was, how good it looked, smelled and tasted.