A Little Garden Talk

OK, so here's a little example of how a pebble thrown into a pond creates ongoing ripples.... over ten years ago, my friend, Becky, from an herb group I belonged to at the time, loaned me a few small  periodicals named GreenPrints, which featured a nice mix of gardening stories and illustrations. She said something to the effect of, "Linda, I think you could do drawings for this magazine."

Thanks to Becky's encouragement,  I submitted a story and some quick sketches about taking piano lessons, which were agonizing to me when I was very young because I didn't practice. Every week,  I sat on Mr. Hurlburt's piano bench, plodding through my lesson book, squirming, watching the hands on his cuckoo clock move ever so slowly. Even though I was an unpromising student, I perked up on the rare occasions he would offer to give me a tour of his lovely gardens, complete with stone arches, fifty varieties of lilies, double petunias started from tiny, tiny seeds...it was truly an enchanted kingdom or so it seemed to a very young girl who believed in the magic of gardens. Perhaps I failed to become a proficient pianist, but the seeds of garden appreciation were planted, and continued to flourish ever since! Anyway, the editor of GreenPrints accepted my story but rejected my hasty sketches. My revision was much better, and I've been lucky enough to be in every issue since then, and even in GreenPrints' eletters, too. Becky was right- GreenPrints and I were a great match.

Earlier this year, Katrina Nicke, president of Walt Nicke's Garden Talk, saw my illustrations in GreenPrints, and contacted me, through the help of Pat Stone, GreenPrint's editor. I'm so pleased to have had the chance to illustrate the cover of Garden Talk's Spring 2012 catalog. My daughter, Rachel, is shown on the cover, playing with one of our porch cats. (Rachel's grown up, now, about to graduate with a degree in Art Ed from New Paltz this coming Sunday). Katrina even liked my note card and calendar designs enough to feature them in the catalog as well. I've learned that Walt Nicke's Garden Talk catalog is one of the oldest garden supply catalog companies in America, started over 40 years ago in the Hudson Valley region of New York state. As I chatted with Marilyn, one of my quilting friends, she realized she taught art with Katrina's mother, many years ago. What a small world!  Somehow, it seems, we are all connected!






So, I guess I'm trying to say, "Thank you, Becky" for pointing me in the right direction. One never knows  the extent of a kind gesture, a chance remark, or a few words of encouragement...planted in fertile soil.

And speaking of plants, I highly recommend Becky and Ed's excellent gardening blog, titled "Plants and Stones"!  It's how I start my day.