Today is my day for B I R T H D A Y   G R A T I T U D E  and we’ll start with my favorite song ever in the history of the world . . .  MUSICA!  Good Morning Crocus, ♫ Good Morning Daffodils, Hello Tulips, ♪ Hi there Miss Hyacinth! Hello fresh spring air,  you smell so good! ♫ Hello Sunshine ~ Hello GIRLFRIENDS!  ♫

T O M O R R O W   I S   M Y

So many things  to be grateful for and I thought today would be a really good day to talk about them.

Let me first say that if I put every one of my blessings in this post, reading it would become a full time job because they pretty much go to the moon.  But I have to start somewhere!  My favorite magazines have arrived and for my own birthday present to me, I’m taking them to lunch this week.  Me and them, alone, at a corner table, with a knife to hold them open so I can eat Sesame Noodles and read at the same time.  One of my most favorite luxuries, reading all alone in restaurants (a sidewalk cafe on the Champs Elysees?  Oui!)

And him, my shadow, he’s more than a luxury, he is my must-have.  And the very best present I could ask for, he and Girl have been playing this last week, chasing each other up and down the stairs, you can hear their feet running back and forth upstairs, ambushing each other, jumping off the beds.  It’s wonderful!  So good for Girl and just what I was hoping for her when I brought Jack home.  I hope it lasts. Jack is 2 1/2 years old and this is a first!

Spring has come to Martha’s Vineyard!  The early morning light is exquisite.  Pristine, fresh, clean, and a miracle if ever I saw one. Especially after this winter!

I have huge amounts of gratitude for Mrs Bowditch who lived in our house from 1949 until 1980 and was so good about planting for spring bloom. I got to meet her once.  She’s been my inspiration.♥ I hope she knows I’m taking good care of her house for her.

Our daffodils are in bloom.  Thank you!

We have nature’s address, it’s out through the woods along a dirt path that takes us here . . . no leaves on the trees yet, but the sun is lovely and the breeze smells wonderful, and you can hear the waves.

Crocus! Pure miracles.  First there is snow and then there are crocus!

I’m grateful for talented Kellee who made me this kitty last year. xoxo

And for little children who write me beautiful letters with borders.  Thank you Little Children! xoxo

I’m grateful for these, my own research department, my diaries . . . Yes, I know I’ve been MIA from our dear blog, and I’ve missed you!  But every time I’ve tried to do an update (and I have tried!), I think “Oh, just let me add this one more little thing to my new book and THEN I’ll go do a new post” . . . that’s when I fall into “the zone” and have to say help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.  But no one comes, so what can I do?

I can’t save myself, and honestly, I really don’t want to.  I like it in there.  I’m driven in the best possible way.  I wake up and RUN to my paper and pen before all my morning fresh-from-dreamland thoughts disappear.  I have 418 pages of our new book written, Girlfriends.  Of course, probably 50% of it is what English people would call “a crapjob” ~ but that’s OK, first I have to get the whole entire thing down on paper, and we’ll worry about crap removal later on.  I promise, it will be distilled, only the juicy bits will be left when I get done.  It’s almost my birthday and  I feel so grateful to have this passion.

And then this . . . digging through my photos, I found this one.   I am SO grateful for these two cutie-pot-pie Leos in my life, the Blog Daddy, John Patrick Stewart Jr. (hi Dad!) and my partner in crime, Joseph Buckminster Hall.  ♥

And I’m so grateful I was ever a part of this group of little people. ♥  ♥  ♥

I love sharing my birthday with Gladys Taber.  I love being born on the same day as someone who was a light to the world. ♥

I’m excited that Joe and I will be at the Friends of Gladys Taber meeting in Connecticut in June — I’ll be speaking and signing A Fine Romance and we get to tour her house Stillmeadow for the very first time!

And right after that, I come home to this . . . these are my high school girlfriends (last fall in California) . . . and they are ALL coming to stay in my house for four days in June! I’m grateful I have this to look forward to!  We have stories, we laugh, we have fun!  They are like sisters to me.  I have some house fluffing to do!  (And with my “passion” in full bloom plus old man winter to sweep out the door, this house needs it! 🙂

I’m thankful for this, because this means YOU. ♥

Counting the blessings of my last year, one of the best of all was going out to meet so many of our Girlfriends.  Look how cute Lucy and Ethel are!  I’m telling you, this was a ball!

A Fine Romance was such a blessing ~ it took me here ↑ (both of those horse pictures are still on the door of my studio, one from Jessie and one from Sydney) . . . and it took us all here ↓♥  To Beatrix Potter’s house in the Lake District.  M A G I C A L , I almost can’t believe we were there.

And tomorrow, on my actual birthday, I get to go to lunch with my best girlfriends here on Martha’s Vineyard ~ making me grateful for a Spring Birthday ~ the perfect excuse for a girlfriend lunch.   And then we’re all going to the nursery together!  Our nurseries close in the winter, so this will be a treat, our first visit this year!  Sometimes my California girlfriends wonder why I would want to live in a place that has such a cold winter, and this is part of the reason.  It’s  thrilling to go to the nursery for the first time, seeing the first flowers, smelling the warm sun on grass.  It’s a miracle every year.  The more miracles, the better. ♥

And this weekend, I’m going to write us a new Willard!  Oh yeah, I think you deserve a birthday present too . . .  make sure your addresses are all up to date.  It won’t go out for about a week and a half, I’ll be sure to let you know.

One more wish, my birthday wish for you is that you go through your days gracefully growing more beautiful and wise, never missing a sunset or the opportunity to count your blessings, I hope that’s how we stay forever young. ♥ xoxo Love you . . . ✥Wham, *❊ BAM,✱ whoosh,✶* sparkles *♫*✱•*¨*•.☆.♪•*¨❋**••*¨ ✱*•★.* ♪* ✱ •*¨✸*•.★.♫•*¨☆✱*•*♥. . .  feel that?

D O N ‘ T    F O R G E T    T O