Moonlight illuminates the dancers
and the whitewashed concrete birdbath by the standpipe
and coiled green garden hose and the liquid amber gum tree
and the tree nursery under the chicken-wire frame
that keeps out rabbits and deer.
— from “Dancers at the Dawn” in Savage Love
Here is a picture of the birdbath that appears in Savage Love. You can’t see the standpipe, and the tree nursery is gone, but the liquid amber gum is behind the birdbath. I’ve probably said this before: the farm is in southern Ontario, about 20 miles north of Lake Erie just outside a little town called Waterford.
From the garden.
Red dogwood osier
Sign of fall coming.
Hives are brought onto the farm during the growing season.
Field tomatoes, note the wastage, a fact of modern agriculture — many of these are perfectly good tomatoes that can’t be sold in the current market.
Cherry tomatoes
—dg
Green and lovely. Can you airmail me the tomatoes?
Would you like a couple of tons? Or just a small basket?
Whatever’s convenient! 🙂
tobacco all replaced?
No tobacco on the place since the 1990s. We grew ginseng through the first decade of the 2000s. Now it’s all vegetables except for an environmentally virtuous few acres of Prairie grass around the house.
Great pictures, Doug. I always enjoy seeing the Farm appear in the magazine. Do you see yourself and your sons taking over production? A farm would also make a great writers’ retreat … or festival … base camp to launch a revolution … etc.
Sharon, Oddly enough I used to think now and then of some sort of writers’ thingy. You just reminded me. But right now it’s only a pipedream. It was lovely to see you at TINARS.
Such a lovely setting for the bird bath. I’ll take some raspberries, please:) I do miss Ontario in the fall.