Another Birthday Full Of Blessings

A birthday seems a particularly good time to be aware of the many blessings in your life.  

This week I turned 57 and I was privileged to share the occasion with my wonderful partner and fiancee Andrew, my 84 year old Dad and other family and friends.  Aunty Girlie is now 94 but she rang me to wish me a happy birthday just like she has unfailingly done every year since I was a child.   How special is that! Aunty Eileen brought me the last of the roses from her gorgeous garden (photo below) to go with the lovely bouquet from Andrew (also featured below) and Baileys-flavoured birthday cheesecake he had made for me (how many more reasons do I need to marry this guy?!!!).  I was pampered with treats and gifts - but their love is the best gift I could ever receive. It has no price.

Mother Nature didn't want to be left out of the party so she continued to deliver a great bounty of grapes, peaches, pears and more - plus two super-sized Granny Smith apples!  The pullets have all begun to lay hen-sized eggs so we're getting 12 - 16 eggs a day now - omelettes anyone? 

I am horribly spoiled..........but I guess I could get used to it. 

Now that I'm getting a bit longer in the tooth I can see many things over a longer perspective of time and truly it seems life is all about seasons.  I've endured the bitterness and despair of many winters but even then I came to learn of that "invincible summer" that Albert Camus spoke.  "In the depth of winter I discovered that within me there lay an invincible summer".   No matter how brutal and hard the winter is - still -  tiny seeds, plants and trees make it through.  The landscape of our lives changes just as theirs does.  It is good - and a privilege for which I am thankful - to be able to celebrate.

 Here I am on the day having fun with the man I used to call the "man of my dreams" but for nearly four years now I've been calling him "my beloved".  How lucky can a girl get eh?