When my friend Kelly reached out to me at the beginning of 2020 about planning out a cutting garden at her house, I was thrilled.

After September’s property disappointment, we have greatly retooled our winter plans - really, all of our plans.

I take the model of perennial plants and even shrubs as the garden’s “backbone” with pockets of annual planting that must be “flipped’ multiple times a year.

We have casually watched the property market in our area for a few years now, but after losing an offer on a 20-acre property, we have been haunting the real estate sites daily.

I narrowed my book list down to a dozen that I’m planning to work through by the end of 2021.

In honor of my 30th birthday, I decided to write a list of 30 things that I’ve learned while starting and running a creative small business this last decade.

The garden is tired, too. I’d like to think that we’re sympatico: two weary travelers, ready for a long winter’s nap.

August 2020, in which the lady ventures back out into the garden and confronts the result of neglecting it for much of the summer.

Maybe someone needs to hear this; I know that it would have helped me to hear it a few years ago, and I’m always encouraged when people share stories of unconventional career and life paths.