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Saturday, August 2, 2008

The End of an Era


Sigh. Sob. Reminisce.

After almost a decade of loving work, care,
and enjoyment, Poet's Garden is closing its gates.
Today is the final day the gardens and shop
will be open to the general public.


So much planning, dreaming, scheming, working,
and creative investing went into this venture.
It started with Shannon and me,
putting our collective dreams and hopes into a basket.
Shannon is the entrepreneur of the family.
I'm the dreamer of the family.
Dad was on board. He loves dreams.
Mom was a bit of a tougher sell, but she signed on.
Holly had a three-year-old and a one-year-old.
She volunteered to be the cheering section.

The husbands signed on by default when they
married into the family.
The poor guys worked their tails off
to build our shops.

The buildings in progress, we headed to the Seattle gift show.
And never looked back.

Shannon, Mom, and I made a terrific team. Not everyone can work with their family and remain friends. We grew inseparable. Holly joined us as often as possible.

Our dream wouldn't have been complete without the epitome (to us) of success. A feature in Victoria magazine. After a decade of inspiration through its pages, we gave inspiration to others.

Along came boy #1. I worked as often as I could with Levi. And along came boy #2. I was doing well to shower in the morning. And along came boy #3. They asked me to stay home. Grin.

And so, Mom and Shan have manned (womanned?) the store on their own the last few years while I watched from the sidelines.

The boys have had an amazing opportunity to be 'home' among a family business. They've chatted with the customers. They've enjoyed the gardens. They've loved visiting Bambi and Aunt Shan during business hours.

And now when they visit, it will still be Poet's Garden, but it will be our Poet's Garden. We will be transforming the shops into living and creative spaces. You never know....you just might catch a glimpse here at Mt. Hope or at Poet's Garden Girl.

Farewell, friends!

14 comments:

Skeller said...

Such a beautiful place! Clearly a LOT of love went into creating such a haven, a paradise, a little bit of heaven on earth. I look forward to seeing what it becomes next...

Anonymous said...

Oh, ... dirty word (as my grandma would say.) All my teen years I heard of Poet's Garden. It was something I was told I would appreciate as an adult. I became an adult, moved away, waited five and a half years, came back, am reconnecting with where I grew up and now... sigh, you tell me Poet's Garden is no more. I just found your site a few weeks ago. I am so surprised to find you are connected to this place I had heard of for so long. And now...

Elise said...

Looks like a beautiful place. One I would have loved to visit.
Elise

Renee said...

It looks so amazing! My husband has a cousin that lives in Oregon. He just asks us to come out there so that my husband can teach him to fly fish. I asked my husband (he lived in Washington for a while in high school), if he had heard of your store. He laughed. (He is a man, an outdoorsy, absent minded professor of a man, after all.) I was hoping to shop there some day!! Oh well...

Unknown said...

ahhh..that makes me sad. I'd been thinking it would be fun to stop by again sometime. It truly was a wonderful place.

sweet momma luv u said...

oh my! I just found your blog and your beautiful store. I would have driven down from WA. We have plans tomorrow though. I am sad to see it will be gone.

Love your blog!

Jody

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful and inspiring corner of Oregon! My daughter and I were just in Corvallis doing the college tour at OSU and we stayed in Albany...if we had only known! It is a long way from Minnesota, but we hope to be out your way again soon...Surprise us with your next entrepreneurial venture! Bonne chance and best wishes!
Sheri in MN

carole said...

The photos are lovely. It must be even more so in person. Congratulations on a beautiful accomplishment and on being willing to let it go, too.

Jen Rouse said...

I'm sad. I loved that store. And I'm sad that I didn't manage to make it out there this month for your sale. I really wanted to...but life gets busy. I'll never drive past the turn-off on Hwy 20 without thinking about it, I am sure.

Heidi said...

Thank you so much everyone!!

Jen~ Aren't you the one who wrote the article in the newspaper about us? What a fun year that was. :)

Anonymous said...

Heidi, this post just almost makes me cry! I love this little store, and I'm so sad I didn't get to go one more time.

I told my husband that now I don't have a good excuse to meet you, and he said, "Sure you do. Tell her you needed a black forest milkshake at Burgerville and just happen to be in the area." :)

Heidi said...

Toblerone~ You don't need a good excuse to meet me. :) All you have to do is email me and let me know that you're going to be in the area. If I'm going to be home (and have a little bit of notice...) you come over visit. I only need about 5 minutes notice to meet you at Burgerville for a milkshake, LOL. Seriously, if you want to get together, just email me and let me know when.

heather said...

Beautuful photos! Oh, it will be missed, but sometimes it is time to move on. You all created a space of beauty and creativity and that will remain, it will just look a bit different now.

The Prudent Homemaker said...

Heidi,

My jaw just dropped reading this.

I decided to read some of your blog archive while my 7-year-old is washing the lunch dishes :)

I looked at that picture and thought, that place looks familiar.

And then I scrollled down, and saw the Victoria magazine refernce, and I thought, that's YOU! YOU!

I had no idea.

I reread my Vicotria magazines all the time. I've started at this garden many times, loving it, taking inspiration from it for my own garden.

How cool to find out that this was yours!