Mom's Birthday

Yesterday was my Mother’s birthday. I feel like a bad daughter because I’m not sure which one but I think it would have been 75. It was just the kind of day she would have loved. A “premium day”. Bright blue sky, rich warm sun, a hint of a breeze and a perfect 75 degrees.

I planted pansies and violas in a bucket and a pot to celebrate with her. Mom might not have liked the color combination, a bit un-natural in orange sherbet, deep plum and lemony yellow. But she would have liked the planting and the sweet antique pansy faces.

I come from a line of pansy-lovers on both sides. Mammy’s were tucked into a huge cast iron pot and the tradition continues there still with Ellen. Grammy’s were all over her cottage garden yard and came up each year unsown. So each year I plant some pansies for all of us.

I also planted the Tombstone Rose we brought from AZ. It is our gift to this fine old house. I hope it, and we find a way to thrive here in Georgia. I’m pretty sure we will.

I had some visitors yesterday. Two geckos, skinny and sluggish from their winter’s nap, eyed me briefly before continuing their sunbathing on the back porch. A black snake was draped over the crotch of a tree I’d designated for the clothes line. He was plump and sleepy and I didn’t disturb him. I hope his girth was due to a mouse or two, we have an abundance of them under the house and in the walled up chimney behind the bed.

I opted for hanging the clothes line right off the back porch temporarily. David drove up in the Jeep and exclaimed jokingly how redneck we were. I liked the way it looked. Bright cotton boxers, sweet pansies and the old rocker I bought for $2 at the auction.

We broke out the bicycles at last, a little before sunset. It’s been years since I’d ridden one, and even then not a whole lot. But it was, as David remarked, just like riding a bike. After a few wobbly moments on my part we were cruising up and down the road in front of the house. I can see longer journeys ahead and I’m glad to have this new mode of transportation.

Dinner was simple, rather picnic style. Turkey wraps with baby greens, jack cheese, pesto and fat chunks of red roasted peppers. Almost Famous Coleslaw, Texas style with pineapple, Mediterranean Rice, and crisp Fuji apples for dessert. We lingered, joking and talking at the table and looked up to find it already 9. We spent a few minutes on the porch before bed. The full blast frogs were all in tune from bass all the way up to soprano. Yes David nature is loud!


More on the $2 rocker. It’s got an odd orangey color to the little bit of stain remaining on the wood. I finally found a pillow for the seat, a Ralph Lauren bed pillowcase I’d bought at a thrift store ages ago, rediscovered hunting something else. It’s funny how the colors of the fabric bring it all together. The blue gray of the porch, the peachy orange and plum of the pansies all in a old-fashioned cottage look print. I’m sitting in it now, writing this, in the morning sun with Seth’s coffee and the pansies, enjoying the raucous bird rock opera. This is something else Mom would have liked.