SIMPLICITY IS OUR PASSION.
From my earliest years, some of my fondest memories revolve around trips to visit my grandparents who lived in a modest little town in Western Kentucky. They lived a simple life - nothing fancy or frivolous. They worked hard. My grandfather, Daddy Pop, loved to fish. My grandmother, who we called “Mom” enjoyed sewing. Their house was cozy, their yard inauspicious. And it was the most magical place to visit because they made it so.
Daddy Pop had a colorful zinnia bed that I remember as if standing at its edge still. It wasn’t grand, it wasn’t even very big, but he took such pride in it. And he found so much pleasure in it. I am certain that’s where I began to fall in love with the idea of gardening.
Farm Fresh
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Sustainably Grown
Fast forward from those childhood memories to more recently when my Mom and Dad moved in with my family. It had become too much for my Dad to manage as the sole caregiver for my Mom. She was in the last stages of her battle with Parkinson’s Disease, so we invited them in. Those final years were hard - for my Mom - for my Dad - for all of us. But they taught me a lot. Most importantly how significant the simplest of things can be. Her courage in pushing through the pain of what we would consider easy tasks reminded me of my grandparents, her parents, and brought me back to the edge of that zinnia bed.
My Mom would love to sit outside in her wheelchair and look at our back yard - feeling the sun on her face watching the hummingbirds and finches and pointing excitedly at the butterflies. Simply sitting - enjoying a beautiful day. As I would look at her from the garden, she was framed by a row of hydrangeas I had grown from cuttings from my grandparent’s house. The yard and gardens became our sanctuary when weather would permit it.
My Mom is no longer with us. But my Dad is determined to do what he can to carry on her devotion to the simplest of things - and to the garden. He has become one of the driving forces behind Thistle and Finch - as if he is helping to write the next chapter of the family flower legacy.
When I am in the garden, with my hands in the dirt planting bulbs and seeds, even pulling weeds - I am as happy as I can be. Sometimes I catch my Dad watching and I know he is thinking of my Mom, as am I - my Mom, and Mom and Daddy Pop. I am grateful to all of them for teaching me so authentically about the beauty of simplicity.
I want to share that with others - this is really what Thistle and Finch Farm is all about.
