It’s my birthday and I can hike if I want to

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For over thirty years, my favorite thing to do on my birthday has been to go on a hike in the woods with loved ones. I started this ritual years ago to get family who didn’t seem share my intense enthusiasm for the great outdoors. Hey, it’s my birthday and no one could refuse my simple request. Quite frankly, I have been blessed with a fabulous day to be born ~ May 4th. There is nothing better than having a birthday in May, when everything is breaking out of its winter slumber and painting the woods with a rainbow of colors. Years ago, I commented how lovely the day was and a friend said, “It’s always beautiful on your birthday.” And folks, 95% of the time it really is; ever so often there are more clouds than sunshine, but I really cannot remember it ever raining.

This year, we visited one of my favorite trails, Upper Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, NY. Although, a few of flowers had already bloomed, we caught just about all my favorites.

Check out all the lovelies along the trail.

Wild Geranium

Bloodroot sans flowers

Dutchman’s-Breeches

Forget-me-not

Sharp-lobed Hepatica

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Trillium

Wild Ginger with flower

Bird’s eye view of Wild Ginger

Large-flowered Bellwort

What do you like to do on your birthday?

It is too early to start mowing

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As I was sitting outside soaking in the magical spring weather, I heard the sound of a lawnmower. The first thing came to my mind was, “Shit, not already!” I surveyed our lawn, already a beautiful lush green, and decided that it wasn’t that high yet. What is wrong with these people! It is the end of April and still cool in the evening. It can wait.

A week later, I heard the lawnmower again. The sound makes me very anxious, because once I start mowing; my life is committed to mowing 3 hours a week, every week until the fall (we have a rather large lawn, unfortunately). That’s a lot of time and fossil fuels (we have too much lawn for a push-reel mower) committed to keeping the lawn shorter than 4 inches tall. So of course, I start thinking of reasons why I should and can put mowing off. The first reason that came to mind seemed very reasonable. Mike did not check out the mower to make sure it is in good working condition. Therefore, it really didn’t make sense for me to start it up, because I couldn’t fix it, if it needed fixing. Heaven forbid if it broke while I was mowing.

A couple of days later, I heard the same lawnmower again. This time I noticed the beautiful buds on the Redbud tree, they were starting to open up. Then I surveyed the lawn for violet ~ there were starting to emerge too. Well, that was a no brainer and my best excuse for not mowing. There is no reason to mow a lawn until after the violets have been harvested from the lawn for at least five or more salads. Sure, I can go into the woods to harvest them, but nothing is better than harvesting flowers and herbs from your lawn. And you cannot harvest flowers and herbs after you have mowed over them, yuck! So folks, I have the best reason (besides using fossil fuels) for not mowing our lawn for a little while longer. I need to harvest my “lawn” first. It’s good to be a forager!

A salad made last spring ~ now that's the perfect reason to not mow the lawn.

My first spring salad of the year ~ now that’s the perfect reason to not mow the lawn.