Mountain of My Dreams
Long Mountain Nursery came to life in the late 1970’s in Sandra and Richard Antony’s suburban backyard. At the time, both had good-paying jobs with the Federal Government, wonderful friends and neighbors, and a comfortable three-bedroom house they had painstaking restored. Life was good.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, however, the couple had decided they needed to make some big changes. In fact, they had all but decided to abandon their comfortable lifestyle and seek a simpler, more peaceful existence for themselves and their future children on a small slice of paradise located in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains.
In the spring of 1981, the couple began constructing their Virginia nursery; at that point, their lives became anything but simple. In 1996, Richard began compiling some of the many adventures and misadventures they’d experienced along the less travel road. The project quickly got out of hand turned into a 3-volume, 1000-page story. Hooked on story preservation, Richard is currently hard at work on volume 4.
Readers all seem to agree that Mountain of My Dreams is endearing, poignant, funny, sad, and absolutely memorable. If the thought of venturing off the well-traveled road has ever crossed your mind, you might want to read their story before doing anything rash. On the other hand, it might just convince you to take the plunge.
With serious misgivings, the couple closed down down their wholesale growing operation in May 2008 after raising more than one-quarter million azaleas.
