HAPPY APRIL

I don't know why, but the coming of April has always been really exciting for me. Not even consciously (until today) have I been this aware of the fact that on the first day of April, I am always VERY HAPPY about it being that day-- all day long. Weird, huh? YAY!

I had a day out with my mom yesterday. It was full of happy or ridiculous (and often both) little coincidences, too. Made things interesting. Like-- she was supposed to arrive around 10am at my home, and we'd go from there together. Only she missed the exit off the freeway. Which little extra side trip gave me enough time to actually clear off all the seats in the living room (I did laundry, folks, it meant stacks of clean-but-unfolded clothes in all the chairs), AND empty the garbage. I even fit in a shower-- although I had to laugh because her "OH NO, WHAT DO I DO" phone call came just after I got myself mostly dried off. So there I was. In the living room. In my towel. Giving suggestions on the phone. And another call came in while I was standing there. What are the odds of getting TWO CALLS while standing in front of my un-shielded living room windows in a towel?! Huh.

And then she arrived while I was excavating the passenger seat of my car. I drive an hour each way to work (as you know, because I tell you about it all the time)-- so my passenger seat is my unofficial copilot and storage space for anything I MIGHT POSSIBLY NEED while driving. The good news is that she can take all my plastic water bottles home with her to recycle. That cleared up a LOT of space, let me tell you.

So then we exchanged little "I love you, here's this inexpensive thing I know you'll love" gifts-- and we did both love them. Mine was a great used wooden mixing spoon. I've been wanting one, actually. Hers was a sachet made of organic herbs I found and sewed into a patchwork little bag (along with a whole bunch of good intentions), with a lovely spring-green ribbon to hang it from. It's about 2 inches square. Mom cried.

And finally, we were off to the Japanese Gardens! Where we'd timed our visit perfectly because everything was either in bloom, or budding out with the cutest little baby leaves ever. Turns out mom and I are both fans of tree buds and baby leaves. We took turns taking pictures of them. Which became its own little adventure. See- she couldn't really see what she was taking a picture of in her camera's view-finder. So she'd point and shoot, and then I'd look at it and tell her what she got. A few times, I actually aimed HER, and then told her when to click the button. Group Photography. We had a blast. It was good we both had our cameras, too, because we were both fine with stopping every two feet to snap another shot. All the other people around us were totally patient with us, too, which was very nice of them. I've included a couple of samples of the beauty with which we were surrounded. If you live here, you should go there.