What’s In A Name?

My friend, Ralph, who is doing some business design work for me asked: What does Heron & Crow Gardens mean? Where did the name come from? Good question! Here’s the answer:

My husband and I have known each other since we were 5 & 6 years old. We met at a magical summer camp run by mutual friends of each of our parents’. All of these parental types, ours and the ones who ran Camp, went to Pomona together in the 50’s. For 10 years we took care of animals, went on camping trips, ran barefoot in the dark on root-tangled trails at velocities known only to the young, learned the value of treating others kindly, were taught to appreciate stars away from metropolitan lights, swam and canoed on a warm shallow bay and came to know the wildlife.

Many years later, we met again as adults and it didn’t take long to realize we were going to spend the rest our lives together. Getting married at Camp was a natural. The summer of 1999 saw a lot of miles on our vehicles as we traveled back and forth to Camp to help work on the property, readying it for our big day. Traditional décor doesn’t fit ours or Camp’s style. I was sewing a lot at the time and we came up with the idea of making banners for the wedding. Big banners in bright colors. Banners of symbols that meant something to both of us: The sun, the stars, an elk, a salmon, the name of Camp, a heron and a crow. 

 

In the year following our wedding, my husband was finishing grad school. His final project was a business plan for Heron & Crow, my custom banner making business. Heron & Crow did a little business while I worked full time as an operations manager. Business plans are meant to be living documents, malleable and changeable. Over the years the business model changed considerably, though the name changed very little: Heron & Crow Gardens.