What a birthday!

Well, my sixty-second birthday was quite a show.  Anna brought these great little pennants from Paper Source to open the celebration and also made me a birthday cake.  There was a major stack of presents, and beautiful flowers from my dear husband.

Look at some the lovely gifts I got--a panini maker from Jim,  a wonderful bag filled with rubber stamps, ink, colorful cards, stencils, coasters, and ecological sandwich bags from Anna, a gorgeous pashmina from Dan, and a beautiful bag from my dear friend, Diane (Flora's grandma).

From our friends, the Penlands, I got this amazing carnivourous plant,

this lush fern,

and these snappy, pink geraniums.

Of course, the very best present was having my dear children and my darling husband with me to celebrate the day.

On turning 61 years old

"Like most others who reach the modest age of sixty-one, I have hardly noticed it. Still this morning for the first time in more than twenty yeas I felt a twinge of rheumatism, a gentle reminder on this birthday that I am no longer a "spring chicken." On the whole the years have passed rapidly. Some of them, it is true, have dragged, but mainly they have hurried as if anxious to finish the job as soon as they possibly could. So quickly have they sped that I hardly realize that so many have been checked off, in fact I have scarcely thought about it as they went by."  ~ Clarence Darrow

I'm a big subscriber to the "you are only as old as you feel" school of thought and I've never been vain about my age.  That is probably a result of looking much younger than I was in my first quarter century so I always owned my age.  So 61 isn't a big psychic change from 60.  It's been a lovely day.  Jim and I had breakfast on the screened porch while it was still cool.  I sewed for a time and then he took me out to lunch at Lucky 32.  We had delicious cold cucumber and avocado soup to start.  He had a small steak and I had catfish.  Wonderful food, stellar service, and a stylish environment.  I spoke with my parents and the children on the phone and right now, I'm going to put my feet up and do some reading.  Happy birthday to me.

                                     (Pie art by Dan's friend, Jean in Granville, Ohio.)

Now We are Six--ty

The End
When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five, I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.
~A.A Milne, Now We Are Six (1927)

Milne didn't provide us with Christopher Robin's reflections on sixty and I don't really have anything pithy to say about it myself, but I do think Billy Joel came up with a great thought two months ago:

"I'm not a looking-back kind of person. What I've realized about turning 60 is I'm not just one age, I'm every age I've ever been. Sometimes I'm 11, sometimes 16, sometimes I'm 25, sometimes I'm 38, sometimes I'm 42, sometimes I'm in my 50s. I'm all over the place. And it comes in handy, especially in this line of work." Source

Thank, Billy, I agree. I may be sixty, but it's still rock and roll to me!


Photo by my dear husband who also gave me the lovely yellow roses.