She met and married Robert, the superintendent of the school system where she taught, and quit teaching to raise her four children. She has three daughters, a son, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

&dquo;You couldn&squo;t teach after you got married in those days,&dquo; Burch says.

Now Burch spends her time gardening, writing, reading, cooking and playing the piano. She began playing the piano at the age of four and tries to practice every day.

Burch still tends to a large garden of flowers at her Landrum home. When asked what types of flowers she likes to grow, she replied, &dquo;How much time do you have?&dquo;

She says she now needs help with some aspects of gardening, but still does all the planning of what to grow and where and helps her children do the actual work.

Burch owns about five acres and estimates she has about an acre of flowers planted in her yard, ranging from azaleas to daffodils. She says she has more than 1,000 daffodils planted and tries to plan her gardens for all seasons.

&dquo;I try to have something interesting all year round,&dquo; she says.

&dquo;Spiritually Grounded&dquo; started out to be a book in which Burch recounted how nature affected her life, she says. But as she was writing, it evolved into a discussion of how we need to preserve nature for future generations.

Her daughter, Barbara Burch Callahan, illustrated the first book in the series and has joined her mother in co-authoring the recent sequel.

Each chapter of &dquo;Spiritually Grounded&dquo; contains the thoughts and musings of the mother and a response by the daughter.

The book is now available only through her publishing company, AuthorHouse.

Burch published another book about 25 years ago about making leaf rubbings. She also wrote another book but couldn&squo;t find a publisher at the time.