Sarah was my husband’s grandmother. She lived with her husband, Carl Sr. in a story book stone cottage, one of two quarried locally near Charlottesville. A red Dutch door, slate roof, casement windows, built in book shelves and a fireplace were welcoming and cozy. A generous window seat on the stair landing overlooked the compact backyard where she grew these peonies and dried them for arrangements at Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello and Farmington Country Club. We lived in this fantasy with our three small children, and I brought a plant with me. It became a garden that I can see out the studio window.
