The Greening

Trillium in Boyne Valley-private collection

  The trees that surround the balcony off of my dining room are starting to leaf- soft splotches of green and gold now fill out the spaces between themselves and their neighbors. Soon I will sit in a veritable tree house when I have my morning coffee on the settee every morning. I live for that space-its why I bought this house, really.  I'll have it 'opened' by the end of May- planters filled with bright red geraniums, Boston ferns that had wintered over inside placed on the railing to stretch their feathered arms into the sunlight, and baskets of herbs and edible flowers for summer salads and souffles.
  Next door to me the giant Willow Tree has lost its golden yellow tinge  and is now showing off tiny chartreuse leaflets that will  grow to sway in the summer breezes and dance wildly in the August storms. She's a massive old girl and I pray that the new neighbors see themselves as care-takers of her and don't cut her down. While I know her daughters live just outside the yard into the wetlands, I would hate to lose The Mother Tree.
  Normally I spend the middle of this month playing out there and in my flower beds. This year, however- like most of this winter, really - is a little out of whack. Rather than turning over soil and welcoming back my Hostas I'll be in a car headed south. Rather than potting geraniums and rosemary I'll be in Kitty Hawk, NC. My father who passed away the end of January had been saying that he needed to get to his beloved Outer Banks just one more time. "I need to breathe that salt air just one more time', he'd say to me on the phone while being wracked with terrible coughing fits. I would pretend to not notice the 2 minutes of his coughing and wheezing and then say 'We'll see you there in May, Dad! We'll all celebrate our birthday together (my brother and I are twins).' While I said this with a smile and an upbeat tone I knew in my heart that he would not see the Outer Banks again in this life. It breaks my heart that he had absolutely convinced himself that he would.
  Even with his passing though, my extended family chose to not cancel the gathering. We'll all go and remember my father as a group and individually. The rest of them will - I'm sure- drink a little too much (I don't drink alcohol for those of you who don't know me personally) and laugh a little too loudly. Somewhere in there my brother and I will wish each other a happy 50th Birthday that will now forever be tied with the trip my father wasn't able to make.
  When we return home from this trip ( please don't call it a vacation) I will need to hit the ground running and I am very very grateful for that. I've had too much time to spend in my own head this past winter. I'll have 5 days to open the Cafe for the season including the shopping, food prep, employee schedules and patio set up. I've spent this past week readying the shop to be manned primarily by other workers since I will not be able to be there. As usual I'm still trying to get enough employees but I do have a great core group and if no one else steps up it means that we'll all be hustling for the summer. We've done it before and we'll do it again- I like to see it as 'comrades in arms' lol. The new air b n b rental is doing well and is set up with an excellent cleaner. Aside from checking in and making sure linens are washed and put in there for her to change out that aspect of summer is taken care of. Truth be told I have wound up creating a monster of a summer schedule but at this point I'm just as far in as I would be out so Onward to September! :-)
  For those half dozen of you or so who read this you'll probably hear from me again while I'm in North Carolina...

Happy Spring