Back again in spring, and now Olive is a toddler and I’m 34 years old. Things in this country are complicated, although when it all shakes out maybe it’s not complex at all, rather, the bad guys are in charge and they’re breaking the rules (they’ve broken all the rules) and my nightmares oscillate between shooters and summers that are too hot to breathe and getting hotter, but the days are remarkably sweet. The world is a shaky scaly place but I spend all day with a rosy glow toddler who doesn’t know yet just how bad things are, and I do my best to exist with her, inside her calm and happy realm.
Yesterday, May Day, we spent an unexpected hour or two in the car, driving ten miles an hour down a state highway following an enormous lumbering house on wheels. But when we arrived at the farm that belongs to Abby and McGregor, it felt like paradise unfolded just enough to allow us entry. The toddlers, Olive and her best pal Sawyer (born only three days apart from one another) splashed in the creek and tromped through wildflowers glens, and Olive was so scared of the horse that she trembled in my arms, which is something I’ve never felt her do before. BYE-O NAY NAY she shouted as we stepped out of the pasture.
She’s always enthusiastic about saying goodbye to things that terrify her. (BYE-O, EASTER BUNNY!)
I’d love to go back now and try and cover a bit of where we’ve been since I last wrote. I had to stop writing here when my photography business, Wild & Bright Photography, became full time. There just wasn’t time to do both anymore. And I have to sleep a lot, too. While you may not believe this, on evenings when I’m not shooting late into the evening, I go to bed when Olive goes down at 7pm. So while I love the idea of catching up here after the household has gone to bed, the reality is if I’m not sleeping close to 11 hours a night, the fraught peace accord I’ve temporarily struck with my disease comes ripping down and everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
It’s a tenuous existence, but I manage.
Finally, a reminder to all my Vermont world that I’ll be in New England this summer, end of June and most of July, so if you’ve been dreaming of a Wild & Bright Session, send me a message through my site. I’ll get you in the books.
