Since this is July, the month in which we celebrate the birth of our country, I thought I would offer a tribute to my favorite Founding Father. Many of you know that I am fascinated with Thomas Jefferson (and remain thoroughly convinced that we are somehow related, our mutual relative no doubt having been cast out of the family for some noble act of non-conformism like multi-racial marriage. ha!) While I share many of Jefferson's political views, I most strongly share his fervor for gardening and affection for home and hearth. I admit too, that like Jefferson, I am an idealist. With Walnut Grove, I am doing much what Jefferson did with Monticello--attempting to create a uniquely personal oasis where my aesthetic and ethical values can merge. It seems only fitting, then, that Jefferson's spirit infuse my little utopia: A Twinleaf wildflower ("Jeffersonia diphylla"), a gift from Lance, grows in the woods near the house; bright green peas ramble in the garden in early spring (the English pea was reportedly Jefferson's favorite vegetable); and an occasional deer grazes in the lower meadow at dusk (Jefferson stocked the woods around Monticello with deer for a "picturesque" effect). And next time you visit, you may even see Lance prancing about in britches and silk stockings!
P.S. Lest I seem a too loyal subscriber to the popular WASPM (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Male) version of history, I would like to say that Abigail Adams perhaps out-shined all of the revolutionary generation. She would have made an excellent president.
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