I grew up in a small, rural town in Illinois, way out in the country between farmland and forest. I spent a lot of time outside, in the creek in my backyard, surrounded by trees and flowers, herb and vegetable gardens. My grandparents lived on the same land, nearly 200 acres, just right up the road, so I spent much of my childhood with them, helping my grandmother cook, picking asparagus from my grandfather’s huge garden and doing watercolor painting at their kitchen table.
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