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    Flowers and home décor are a natural extension of hospitality, to me.  In high school, we learned a bit about floral arranging.  We paired up and each team was to pick fresh flowers at home and bring them to school. With our teammates, we would do an arrangement and the older high school girls would judge and choose a winner.  I gathered intentionally and carefully the evening before.... planning the arrangement as I picked.  In the rush of catching the bus the next morning, I forgot the flowers!  Arriving empty-handed at school and explaining that to my teammate was challenging.  The wise teacher decided after everyone else did their arrangements, we could have the leftover flowers and make our arrangement.  We did.  Judges were called in....and we won first place!! Not sure how the rest of the class felt about that.

     As a young girl, I remember rushing through the field, gathering daffodils in my clasped hand... lured on by the yellow blossoms waving in the early spring breeze. I added one more and one more and one more... until my fingers no longer met around the large bundle of stems.  Often, in my gathering, I wandered a long way from where I had started without realizing it. The flowers brought me much joy and I felt like I was returning with a trophy as I retraced my steps back to where I’d begun.

     Years came and went but my love for cooking and hospitality stayed. Whatever stage of life I found myself in, from that of a single woman on her own, to a wife, and beyond, I continue to find contentment in cooking and having company.

     Looking back, the opening of a flower shop (1996) and later the Flower Cart Café (2004), was a given.  Eventually, the Jaxie Brown B&B was added to my list in 2012.  I see these business ventures as a natural extension of who I was, who I am, and whom I was meant to be.  Like the gathering of daffodils, I've wandered far from that little girl eating Christmas candy on tiny plates with her mother. I am anxious to see how far my steps go....in the pursuit of one more and one more and one more adventure. 

Come eat at the Flower Cart or stay in the B&B.  I've been in training for a long time, to serve you well.