Birthday presents

Today's my birthday, which is totally cool with me as I like birthdays. Birthdays mean good food and presents, generally things I give myself since I'm a single woman. Hey, if I don't give them to myself, there wouldn't be any presents! A few friends have sent e-cards, which is kind and thoughtful but the same as getting a *real* card that you can hold in your hands and re-read a hundred times and paste into a scrapbook along with pictures of the cake, the dinner party, and a list of the presents. You just can't do that memory-making stuff with cards sent via the internet. But I am digressing...

I ordered my first birthday presents over the weekend--the 1st two Barbara Walker Treasuries. Amazon has notified me they have been shipped and to expect them on Saturday. The next wave of presents happened on Monday when mother insisted I come tot he Mall to look for a bathrobe on sale that a friend of mine wanted. By the time i arrived, the robes were all gone. But I went to Crabtree & Evelyn instead and splurged on some body powder and soaps in my favorite fragrance Summer Hill. Yum!

But that was Monday and the big day is today, so I went to Home Depot to find some petunias to replace the pansies which need to be pulled out of my garden and planter boxes. I got the petunias (my Mom's favorites) and then I saw them. My heart skipped a beat as I gasped at their beauty. Yes, it was a display of foxgloves in full bloom. I had foxgloves in my garden in Utah the last year I was there and they were so delicious! I've wanted some ever since I came back to TN, back I either didn't see any to purchase, or they were cost prohibitive. But today the price was right and after all, it*is* my birthday so I bought the big girls and brought them home.

The foxgloves I chose were a pale lavender and should go quite nicely with the bright lavender bee balm, dwarf shasta daisies, pink calla lilies, and blue and pink columbine already in my garden. I also picked up a wildflower that I love because of its distinctive bloom--St. John's Wort. No, this isn't the version most people think of--this is the yellow outer petals filled with fine yellow hairs bloom that you see in the wild. Yes, like the one's I used to see hanging off the cliffs in the Uintah mountains--the "real" St. John's wort. My plant has loads of fat buds, but no blooms, so it's going to be fun watching this one grow and bloom. There will be pictures to follow!