“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both” . . . is the first line of one of our favorite poems. I’m pretty sure I wrote it at the start of a travel journal that I gave Kim on our wedding day. And that first line is almost always applicable to life. We are always faced with diverging roads and often wish that we could pick both paths.

I was reminded of this poem last week when we traveled to Gainesville to get Abby a new violin. Or at least we thought we were going to Gainesville. The shop we were going to is called Gainesville Violins, and we were heading there on the recommendation of Abby’s violin teacher. I think Kim and I both assumed that it would be in Gainesville proper, and we figured we’d be able to check out the shop and then show Abby around our old college town a little bit. But then we realized that the directions took us quite a ways outside of Gainesville.

As we took a turn onto Highway 27, we realized we were heading right towards Mayo, Florida. That’s the little town that Great-Grandma Kerby was from and our most recent visit there was for her funeral back in February. And here is the crazy thing. As we traveled that road in February, we were talking about Abby needing a new violin soon. We passed this little sign on the side of the road that said “Violins: Sales and Rentals,” and I distinctly remember saying to Kim, “Look, we can just hop off the side of the road here and get Abby a new violin.” Little did we know that was exactly where our directions were taking us. As we came up on the turnoff, we were still thinking that we would find a storefront or a cluster of shops. Nope. It was just a turnoff onto a dirt road, through a green wood. We drove right past it the first time, thinking that can’t be it. But sure enough it was. We u-turned and headed down the road and around to a house on a little bit of farmland. Chickens greeted us, making a mess out of the home’s landscape. And when we entered the shop’s main room, we were surrounded by walls of violins, violas, and cellos.

And then the real fun began. Abby and I took turns playing from a group of violins that were her size, and the three of us tried to pick out exactly which one sounded the best. It took a little time, but we made a choice and Abby is very happy with her new violin. It is a gorgeous color and has a unique wood grain that really makes it stand out. The name of the violin is “Panis Angelica” or Bread of Angels.

I couldn’t leave the shop without trying a few of the full-sized violins that were on the wall. There were some beautiful ones for sure! The one I am playing in the picture is a French violin that was way out of my price range. (I’ll admit I was a little nervous taking it off of its hook.) The sound from it was gorgeous, and I enjoyed playing through a few songs on it.

Since I’m not joining an orchestra anytime soon, I should probably stick to my day job and tell you what’s going on this week at the nursery. Saturday, March 30, 2019 is the Rose Seminar. If anyone has told you that roses are too finicky for Florida, they haven’t attended this seminar. I’ll make sure you know just how to plant, prune, and care for your roses to get beautiful bouquets throughout the year; see the info here too: Growing Roses in Florida – Kerby’s Nursery. Hope to see you in the garden, it looks like another weekend of perfect gardening weather.