The Ugly Season
We have officially entered ‘ugly season’ on the farm. I can hear some of you saying right now in reference to the opening photo of this blog ‘I think it’s pretty!’. I mean, so do I, but I also find immense beauty in compost piles. And while we (some of us) love to talk about the beauty in the genre of ‘ugly’ that includes compost piles, I still don’t see any of us using those photos as profile pictures or wall framings. Its ok I think to say that this version, this aspect, this season of the natural world is ‘ugly’. It stirs up an endearing feeling in me. And I also say it in a way that revels in the un-photogenic, kinda gross, not-being-sold-as-a-computer-screen-background aspect of the natural seasons. I find it relieving in a world that is obsessed with edited, well-lit, content-worthy photos that often have more to do with an image we want others to have of us taking (or being in) the photo, than they do with the subject matter of the photo itself.
This is the season that we try to hide all of the muck and disorganization of the farm in photos. The snow is melting quickly. As it melts it reveals the hand spade I forgot to get off the ground before that first snow overtook us. All of the detritus of the winter woodcutting and tools that has looked so picturesque against week after week of fresh snow, but now just looks like I handed a 5-year-old a cup of coffee and an axe and told them to do their best. I found an extension cord chewed to bits today emerging from the mud - evidence of a snow-blowing accident during one of those storms that we forgot where every cord and landmark was below the deep white surface…that explains why we lost power that night to the chicken waterers. The ugly season reveals and reminds and I think that’s another reason we don’t photograph it. All of the ways we were working imperfectly to make it through the cold season float to the top.
Photographing it and finding a love for it is such a good lesson though; a good reminder of how we are called to love at all. The practice of loving the ugly season knits my own self back together regarding all the ways I am critical and hard on myself for my ugly sides. It is a reminder that my own self is constantly undergoing cyclical seasons that grow, harvest, and rest. And in that is a necessary unphotogenic side.
It’s the work we are doing here as well in this project. A lot in luxury hosting has worked very, very hard for guests not to see the imperfect or messy aspects of the work. We are actually very interested in exposing it. Our architects are planning a barn that invites guests into the lives of the animals producing their food. The kitchen in the café is being designed as open and facing the dining room, including the dish station – the always hidden room of restaurants even in open kitchens. One of the greenhouses is being suggested as the host stand of the property – wood chips, soil smell and all. Exposing the beauty of the ugly season and allowing the necessary mud to the garden’s verdancy to be seen is a way we hope the work here helps us all in knitting our own selves and stories and messy growth back together a bit.
