Book Cover Photo?

Amid my other writing projects (oh yeah, and I'm trying to paint all our fences before the weather turns cold), I'm making the final edits of my book of essays about living in the country. The working title is So Much Sky.

My son Graham took the photo above of our Katahdin ewe and Haflinger Sam standing together in our barnyard one evening. It's a really awesome (and oddly bizarre) composition. As it's fairly difficult (okay, impossible!) to pose livestock (especially multiple species), getting a shot like this is pure luck. The sun rays shooting out of the clouds are a bonus. We have amazing sunsets at the farm, but this one is especially celestial.

My friend Sundie is designing the book cover using this photo. It's a horizontal photo that needs to go on a vertical book cover. I hope it works out.

Maximus Grazing

Maximus, my son Graham's African spurred tortoise, is changing his address for the winter. During the summer he hangs out in our greenhouse, eating tomatoes and greens from the the garden. During the winter, he has less glamorous digs indoors in a large aluminum stock tank with a heat lamp that provides sunshine. Today, October 10, it's bizarrely warm outside (84 degrees F.), so Doug set Maximus out on the lawn so he could stretch his legs, graze on a little grass and enjoy the big, wide-open world. Our Jack Russell terrier Archer couldn't take his eyes off Maximus on the lawn, but was too intimidated to venture closer than a sniff.