A birthday note to my daughter

Newborn Christy and crocuses

I had wanted you so much and waited for you, and forty years ago on March 13th, you finally arrived, bringing with you the thrill and joy of my firstborn, my special baby girl. The previous fall, I'd planted crocuses, thinking to myself these little flowers will be up and blooming before our baby is born. You were due on March 2nd, and the crocuses were due about the same time, I thought. But March 2nd came and went ... no baby and no crocuses. Instead, we had a 13-inch snowfall that March 2nd, and with the frozen road conditions, we were very happy you decided to wait a while. Eleven days later, you were born, sending your mom over the moon! The day we brought you home, as if in celebration of your birth, the crocuses were up and blooming! There seemed to be a connection between you and these beautiful early spring flowers -- to this day you love them, and to this day I think of you whenever I see crocuses blooming.

First day of first grade

So again it is spring, and for the 40th time I have had the pleasure of sharing with you the beauties of this season and the time of your birth. The crocuses are blooming, and so are you! What a gift for me to see you in your adulthood, realizing who you are more and more each day. I acknowledge and respect your sensitivity to plants, animals, and humanity, and your deep sense of loyalty. I celebrate your love of music, birdsong, laughter, old friends, good books, and delicious food. I am so grateful for your wisdom (often communicated through your wry humor), which has helped me on many a needful occasion, and for our continuing-to-grow mother-daughter friendship. Happy Birthday to my firstborn, my beautiful daughter!

Your beloved Aunt Bobbie helped celebrate your 40th

And so did Mike and I

Trout lilies blooming!

Even though the calendar doesn't agree, to me spring has truly arrived when I spot trout lilies blooming. The speckled leaves of these lovely, low-to-the-ground spring ephemerals seem to arise overnight, followed just a couple of days later by fattening elongated buds that burst into yellow bloom, brightening the brown ground underneath leafless deciduous trees. My front yard is enriched tenfold by these humble plants that can spread into carpets over the years. I have seen carpets of trout lilies on the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Nature Trails, and I am grateful to NCBG for making it a core part of its mission to teach the public how to conserve and cherish such natural treasures as the trout lily and the myriad other wildflowers that make our state a tapestry of great beauty.

A trip to Pine Knot Farms

A clump of hellebores in the Tylers' home garden

Multicolored hellebore blooms, effortless living art,
float the day away in the Tyler garden

Pine Knot Farms is a family-run nursery in southern Virginia -- literally 3 or so miles from the North Carolina state line. They propagate a wide variety of hellebores and their companion plants. On Friday, March 6th, I made my annual trip up for their Hellebore Festival Days, which usually occur on the last weekend of February and first weekend of March.

Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls' in winter form,
espaliered to shop wall at Pine Knot Farms

One of my favorite places, the sales nursery, loaded with tempting plants

I go to Pine Knot each year to buy plants for my garden, yes. But the true highlights of my visit are seeing Dick and Judith Knott Tyler's own wonderful garden surrounding their home (home and nursery are right next door to each other), checking out the Wisteria frutescens 'Amethyst Falls' that has been espaliered to a wall outside their shop (its leafless winter form is wonderfully curving and intertwined), and seeing all the different hellebore bloom colors in their big greenhouse.

I came home with a small host of new hellebores, a special cyclamen (I've been planning to try and start a colony of these beautiful dainty plants with wing-like flowers, variegated leaves and gently curving stems), some snowdrops, a couple of miniature daffodils with grasslike leaves, and an Edgeworthia (a gift for my sister, Bobbie).

I have my work cut out for me!

A new hellebore for my garden, from the Pine Knot greenhouse

A wonderful new deep blue hellebore from Pine Knot

One of these sweet cyclamens came home with me too

The north wind did blow

... and we got snow! This morning's fluffy cover and its accompanying silence brought that special beauty and peace that only snow can bring, mostly in comforting shades of blue, white and gray. Still, the bottle tree, the cardinal, and the cat birdhouse brought some subtle notes of color. And near the garden gate our snowy Kwan Yin kept her warm, steadfast watch.

A birthday note to my son

Luke, 9 months

How can it have been 31 years since that night when you emerged -- in the wee hours of February 24th -- big and healthy and beautiful? I remember laboring hard to birth you in our home, with midwives, our family, and friends in loving attendance. But never has hard work been so richly rewarding to me as when I gave birth to my children. You were and are my beloved son, and I am so very proud of you.

Now you have your own family who have brought so much more joy into my life. I am really grateful for the deep goodness of you; for the challenges we have faced together; for the opportunity to have guided and watched over you as you grew up; and for the wonderful family you are creating with your beautiful Susannah. Amelia and Isaac are happy, smart, curious, fun and loving. I am a happy grammie! Happy Birthday, Luke. May all your days be happy and fulfilled.