Barbara Lewis

Dear Friends and Family,

There have been recent sightings of the Farm Mermaid. And ‘who is she?’ you might ask. Well, our Farm Mermaid is a somewhat secretive creature we discovered some years ago lounging in a chair outside the old barn practicing her horn and enjoying the ever-changing view of Giant Mountain. Since she is never without her horn she must be quite musical (or have a very soft voice).

Yesterday at sunset I saw her down by the pond serenading her fish friends swimming under the fresh ice. Being a mermaid, of course, the pond is her natural habitat.

We often wonder where she came from. Perhaps when the Champlain Sea was an arm of the Atlantic Ocean 13,000 years ago, she became stranded when the salt water retreated.

Today she found a sled on which to perch to keep her tail dry, playing her horn in the late afternoon sun. We think we saw some reindeer friends stopping by later in the evening to tour her around the town while she played!

We will keep a lookout for her and let you know when we see her next. In the meantime we join her in tooting you all a peaceful holiday season – with a special cadenza for the New Year!

Love,

Barbara

Dear Friends and Family,

Looking out at the first ground-whitening snow, I am reminded that my autumn message and pictures have languished on my note pad. I don’t wish to skip the beauty of the most colorful of Adirondack seasons.

The flock of geese that refuge on our pond were perhaps startled by my early morning hunt for images that benefit from this wide angle lens which takes in enough sky and reflection. It requires little movement ashore to cause them concern; they know other wild creatures are about that would happily make a meal.

Taking off or landing either side of the birch-filled promontory, they cause a honking ruckus, using as much runway as the pond can provide. This morning, they came straight towards me, lurching and flapping wildly for lift, then smoothly arching eastward as they gained altitude, off for a morning’s jaunt around the Champlain Valley.

What do birds make of us earthbound creatures? I imagine they must take extreme pleasure in their innate gift, performing ballet in the sky.

Wishing you all the happiness of family, friends and good health in this early wintertime, and a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Stay well!

Love, Barbara

For more information about our feathered friends, see Audubon.

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this email finds you all in good health! My grandson James took this photograph of me atop Whiteface Mountain on one of those picture perfect summer days in the Adirondacks, so perfect that I couldn’t resist turning the photo into a retro- style postcard for you!

I have some wonderful news which reminded me of another portrait which has been a valued keepsake my whole life, one which I call “Window Shopping.”

One of the best things about walking in town is browsing store windows…this pair of shoes, that book, a vase, all the visuals inviting our interest.

The little girl in the photograph above is me, no doubt lost in window shopping reverie somewhere on Cape Cod. My Mother or Father certainly took the photograph and made the print. You’ll recall that I mentioned their Leica camera as one of the only belongings my parents brought out of Germany upon our immigration to the United States. And wherever we lived, my Mom turned one of the bathrooms into a darkroom where she would carefully process the film and develop the prints.

A box of Pond’s Face Cream is visible in the drugstore window. Before everything became so focused on specialty beauty products, women were more likely simply to pick up a jar of Pond’s. But I’m sure it was something else that had caught my attention that day. My summer was beautiful and seemingly endless. Perhaps time passes differently for us at a young age since our experiences are all so brand new and our responsibilities so few?

About new experiences and responsibilities, in the above photo I am in front of the ice cream shop in our small town of Essex where, in addition to ice cream and other goodies, my fine art cards are now available! Rose Kaszuba, proprietor and a fantastic chef, kindly invited me to feature my work at the shop. Rose has beautifully appointed her own store window with all manner of delicious edibles, and the Essex Ice Cream Shop gets a lot of traffic from the Essex, NY to Charlotte, VT Ferry, which docks just around the corner.

So, I find myself once again in front of a store window, this time lingering over my own work! I carefully chose a beautiful wooden stand for the cards and assembled it from the kit. While customers enjoy an ice cream cone with sprinkles, they peruse my custom printed Adirondack Photography art cards.

At 84, I am so happy to be starting my professional photography career, proving that one is never too young to start anything!

Stay well everyone,

Lots of Love,

Barb

Dear Friends,

I was so happy to receive your kind replies to my Family Tree email. To all who wrote, thank you! I hope to entertain you with more thoughts and photos.

Over the years I occasionally would see a flash of orange in the trees around the house. I knew we had Orioles in the area, but never saw this shy bird for more than an instant. This year, I learned of their love for oranges and other citrus fruits, so I started putting halved clementines on the terrace stone wall where I could spy from my kitchen window. Lo, it did not take more than a few hours for a male and female Baltimore Oriole to become regulars. By evening all the orange pulp was gone, leaving only an orange cup.

It is wonderful how the colors of the bird and the food compliment one another. I wonder if Blue Jays like blueberries, Cardinals raspberries and Goldfinches lemons!

Back in time again, this photo is of Sandy as a young lad feeding peanuts to pigeons during a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo. He set up his camera just right, gave it to a friend and got the shot. Seventy years on, he still has the same instincts, and the conversation continues.

Our farm is nirvana for raptors, owls and numerous field birds. Our friend Wendy from Adirondack Wildlife Refuge who rehabilitates injured wildlife has chosen to release birds here when they are again sound. It is immensely gratifying to free them from their crates, hold them while they consider their new surroundings, and await flight. The smaller birds in the trees cause quite a ruckus spreading the word as their territory is invaded.

We plant for hummingbirds, butterflies and bees and hope for the best. City dwellers and country folk, young and old, marvel at how even a little help can make a big difference in repairing the damage we have done to the earth.

Here at the farm, we watch in anguish as the numbers of our feathered friends are on the decline. The swallows previously nesting on our porch have gone. I have not seen a bluebird this year. Six pair of cardinals are down to one. And so it goes. The links below may be of interest and provide you with ideas.

Lastly, please read The Peregrine, by J. A. Baker. Then read it again with and to your children and grandchildren. It may be 50 years old, but it is masterful and ever more relevant today.

Lots of love, and be safe, Barbara

Audubon
Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Dear Friends,

I have always wanted to spend more time taking photographs of places and people that are special to me and sharing them with family and friends, along with my thoughts about the photographs. This is an activity which I have done intermittently over the years, one for which I am now taking a more organized approach. With your permission—please simply click unsubscribe if you’d prefer not to receive—so that the process is more organized on this end, I’ll be sharing regular emails like this, including a photo or two with my thoughts.

I thought this recent photograph might be a nice place to start. Here’s why. There’s a reason for the term “family tree” in genealogy. You are my family and friends, and like all the branches of a tree, we grow and bloom, reaching out in all directions and staying attached. This particular photograph also had the happy accident of a vignette, giving an historical appearance. I am reminded of the oval photographs of my great-great-grandparents from the 1800’s, so carefully made and preserved, which are part of our family photographic collection.

The art and craft of photography has played an essential role in our family for decades. My parents were both dedicated photographers; in fact one of the few things they brought with us from Germany were their Leica cameras. From that trip, here is a photograph of me at 6 months old, in my mother’s arms with my father looking on, taken on the boat coming from Germany to the United States!

For many years, I too, used a Leica M film camera, and have now mostly made the transition to digital. My digital camera seems to know a lot more than I do, so I am learning once again! I’ve updated my photography website, www.farmgirlbarbara.photography, and will be adding more in the soon!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Lots of love, and be safe!

Barbara