April 21st

Well, I can no longer say "I'm almost 70" or "I'm getting awfully close to 70" or "I'm nearly 70."

I am now totally 70.

This, to me, opens up a whole new chapter of excitement. I don't really know why my brain thinks 70 is a milestone, but it does -- more so than 40, 50, or certainly irrelevant 60. 70 figures in my head as awesomely superior to all that went before. (Sorry, young people everywhere!)

A Polish friend who had just finished reading Like a Swallow asked me -- at what age did you gain that confidence in knowing who you are and where you're heading? (Because I was not full of that confidence in my childhood years or even in my young adulthood.) I was thinking about this today and at first I wanted to answer -- when my kids were born and it became crystal clear what I needed to do in life. But as the day moved forward, I thought -- maybe not even then. Maybe now, at 70!

I love my birthdays. This, too, I cannot fully understand, but I do, I really love my birthdays. (My daughters and Ed would all nod their heads vigorously at this.) It's not even the hoopla, nor having others focus on this date, sending me good wishes and happy grins (I so love happy grins). It's that the day itself comes in spring and with it we gain hope and optimism, acceptance and understanding, a feeling of sensual pleasure outside, of a refocus to do better by all who share life with you. All in the thick of emerging gardens and budding flowers on fruit trees. I mean, April 21st has just always seemed like such a glorious time to be alive!

So, that's the backdrop.

Now for the celebratory aspects: we've spread them over two events -- today's, which are gentle and contemplative, and next weekend's, which are boisterous and crazy happy (because they will involve the young families).

The morning is lovely. A little cool, but sunny. Hello, animals. Hello daffodils.

Breakfast? Well, it comes in two parts. Fruits, flowers and cards at home, with Ed.

I say "cards" because the guy sprung a real surprise -- after working his way through the whole Hallmark collection, he decided only one wont do, so he purchased and gave three. And they are very very special.

And now we head out: first, for coffee and a cheese quesadilla at Finca's. This is a Salvadoran quesadilla -- sweet and delicious!

From here, we drive to Natalie's Greenhouse. Tradition has it that I should pick up at least one flower basket from her on my birthday. Even in the first year of Covid, when we stayed hunkered down in the farmhouse, she drove over and delivered baskets for me. That was a tough year! Today, it's all easy breezy! 

It is going to be rather cool this weekend, so I can't put anything outside or even on the porch, but I intend to fill the mudroom with as many annuals as I can, so that I can start planting them in the tubs on Monday. (Most garden folks would recommend waiting until May, but I never do that. If things get wild outside, I either bring out the blankets, or haul the tubs indoors. It's suboptimal, that's for sure, but I really do like to push the flowering season to its max!)

From her place I go to Koepke's. That greenhouse is huge -- perhaps twenty times the size of Natalie's. Here is where I will find all that I need for my pots and tubs.

(I've had alyssum in all my gardens for over forty years now -- from my own seeds, from nurseries, I love it that much. So do the chickens: they eat nearly half of all the little blooms!)

(dahlias)

And now it is almost noon and we have an appointment at a pharmacy in McFarland -- to get our newly authorized Covid boosters! There really is no better way to celebrate the gifts of life than to get get your updated booster, with the grateful acknowledgement that it is so easy to give yourself this protection here. Many would do a lot for what we have and take for granted.

And in the afternoon, I pick up Snowdrop. A happy girl who likes celebrations, even gentle celebrations!

(nearly every day, she spends about five minutes on Ed's computer... today she had some grand success that I dont fully understand, but she tells me it is huge!)

In the later afternoon, She and I meet her mommy downtown for a birthday drink at Merchants -- a place of some specialness for me, as I so much associate it with my daughters' post wedding brunches. Snowdrop and I have been discussing for quite a while what she might order at this grown-up cocktail hour and of course, the Shirley Temple came up and after deconstructing it for her, I was propelled into a long talk about who Shirley Temple was, and what it means to have movies that belong to a time and place. All that ground work and in the end, she proclaimed the "cocktail" to be too sweet.

Here we are, three generations of women in her family -- one of them now 70 years old.

Day's not done yet! I return home and pick up Ed for a dinner out at La Kitchenette. This has to be the perfect spot for a gentle birthday dinner for just the two of us. Chicken Normandy, a salad. That's it. 

And finally we come home to our usual moments on the couch -- ones that always, every day, make me so happy. A few bits of chocolate, a film or show that we both agree on, oftentimes a warm quilt draped over the both of us.

Thanks to all who wrote, read, hung in there with me today and all those other days that lead up to being 70. I love your kindness and good hearts and ready smiles and encouragements!

...with soooooo much love!