About

Me In My Garden

Welcome to my blog StCloudMN a community montage

I’m a 62 year old business owner, single mother of two grown boys, have too many animals, live in a hovel on a lake, passionate about gardening and mosaics and I am  known as a bit eccentric.  I’m the oldest daughter of a well known St. Cloud business owner, my mother died when I was 12,  I was sent off to boarding school, flunked out of college, a bit rebellious, hated living here so 40 years ago I left for an extended time of roaming the world in hippie style.   Reluctantly in 1984 divorced, with two children, a chronic illness, no income and not much in the way of higher education I returned to St. Cloud. What was a girl to do?

Sons Daniel & Shelvin

I was welcomed home with a visit from Ruth Leigh, owner of Newcomer Service. During our visit she heard my story and a few days later called saying she was retiring and would I like to buy Newcomer Service? It was perfect I could run the business from home, nurse my illness as needed and most importantly have a source of income. So in 1985 I bought the business – now what?

Newcomer Service is about developing relationships between new residents, businesses and the community. I work primarily with locally owned businesses, community leaders and organizations. It didn’t take long before realizing the passion and dedication these people had for what they were doing and in making this a great place to live. I discovered a community montage. Hundreds of pieces interwoven making up that fabric of who we are as a community and where we are going. I’ve dreamed of a place where these stories could be told. Thanks to the internet I’m going to pursue my dream.

I love being in my garden

I am not a writer, occasionally punctuation will be out of place, the grammar may not always be correct and I am sure I will have some blunders along the way but I am going to move ahead with StCloudMN, a community montage and I hope you will share in my journey.

"Never Lose Sight Of The Fact That Just Living Is Fun"