Gretel and I are extremely thankful for being able to visit Cliff's gardens, it was amazing. His gardens were beautiful, and his place had a lot of character. Seeing his place gave us a greater sense of who Cliff was. He lived the way I always wanted to live, simple, minimal, and in the mountains. Cliff lived a hard life, but was always smiling and had an infectious laugh. We wanted to be at markets that he was at because they were so much more fun. Even though we were flower growers too and you would think there may be a sense of competition, instead it was something that brought us together and made us closer friends. He was the first farmer to reach out to us when we were fresh into doing the farmer's markets, and the friendship continued to build from there.
I learned a lot about flowers from him, and will continue to learn from Cliff. What is really sad is that his garden will not be tended to like it always has been. I think about seeing it next year with all the perennials holding on as well as they naturally can, over grown with weeds, lost in nature, and wonder what will come of it. His memory will always be a part of what we do and who we are as flower farmers and as people. He will be very dearly missed and this season just won't be the same without him.
I was a long time friend of Cliff's. I spent many a wonderful afternoon painting at his place. The Athens community will miss him more than you can imagine. His memorial was an amazing display, must have been a couple of hundred folk from every walk of life. Thanks so much for speaking about him with love.
ReplyDeleteO'Linda Jansupka
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