Happy Thanksgiving to your family from ours.

As we move into the quiet months of landscaping and gardening (are there really any quiet months?), we are reminded of the blessings, the gifts and opportunities of connection and gratitude with each other - in our families, our friendship circles, our community.

Thank you, dear customers and clients. Thank you, browsers and shoppers, teachers and students and vendors. You have all touched our lives in very real and meaningful ways.

Thank you to Eligia, our nursery manager who has stepped up to managing the nursery business and providing professional and knowledgeable service to you, our customers. Thank you Mike and Cody for your great work along side Allan in the landscaping division of the Vision family.

Thank you Olympic Peninsula Community and Setting. I love where we live. I love it! Currently, I am in Sumner having a wheelchair lift installed into my van so that I can keep my dad mobile. This is a nice little community and the folks here are super friendly. But, as I crossed the Hood Canal Bridge while is was barely light outside, the familiar deep gratitude for where I live filled me from the inside out.

I feel particularly fortunate to have met, connected with and learned from the professionals and lay people in the caregiver world that is a huge foundation of quality of life here on the Peninsula for our elders and others in need, who have dementia / Alzheimer’s, physical limitations and/or daily care needs. As I navigate the very personal world of caregiving for my dad and his wife, my dad's dementia is much further along, I am continual reminded of the grace, compassion and presence that is available to me (to all of us) all the time.

We are blessed enough to have family around our table this Thanksgiving. Enjoying time together, sharing a banquet and after dishes - board games (remember those?) As the needs of others often surpass our own, remember to practice Self-Care. Do something you truly enjoy, every single day. That can be as simple as knitting two rows, taking a bath, talking to a distance friend or family member, leafing through a magazine or as my husband Allan enjoys - an episode of Gold Rush.

Little things add up to big things. Love yourself fully and unconditionally will allow loving others just as they are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Claire