This is what water, wind, and time and toil reveal

[sovay]

My mother is seventy-five today. She calls it being as old as three black bears. Last year, my father organized her a surprise party including friends and family from out of state; this year, I came over in the afternoon and gave her a reprint of Dorothy B. Hughes' Ride the Pink Horse (1946) and watched my father decorate almond cupcakes with whipped cream and fresh-made strawberry syrup, which neither my mother nor I would exactly have called a strawberry shortcake, but it was delicious. My brother and his family will come for the birthday observed at the end of the week. I finally got the chance to go for a walk with a camera for the first time in months. The camera then naturally died, but I got a harbinger of spring out of it first. The second photo comes courtesy of my father's phone.





My parents are now reminiscing about "Eve of Destruction." My father used to play it back-to-back with Phil Ochs' "Crucifixion." They are pretty sure it's still on vinyl downstairs.

Comments

[drinkingcocoa]

What a beautiful picture of you!

[yhlee]

Happy birthday to your mother!

[julian]

a) Happy birthday to your mom!

b) goodness, your camera dying is Just Not Fair.

c) what very colorful pictures, in their own specific ways. (It's also a warmly kind photo of you.)

[nineweaving]

Happy birthday to your mother! Wishing her (and all of you) a year of celebrations and gatherings.

Nine

[thawrecka]

Happy birthday to your mother! And those pictures are lovely.

[shewhomust]

Happy birthday to your mother! And our record collection greets your parents' record collection.

[cmcmck]

Happy birthday to your mum.

That's another lovely picture of you!

[mrissa]

My mother is not yet as old as three black bears--two and three-quarters black bears perhaps--but she also has very strong associations with "Eve of Destruction" and taught me to sing it early.

Also I am so glad that you understand what strawberry shortcake isn't, and can enjoy several things that it isn't without mislabeling them. I am often distressed when someone promises strawberry shortcake and delivers something that has nothing whatsoever to do with shortcake. I really like shortcake.

Anyway happy birthday to your mother.

[princessofgeeks]

\o/

[caszabrewin]

Happy Birthday to your Mum. My dad's birthday was the 9th. He passed back in 2018; but, felt his spirit fairly strong today. What a pretty spring day.

[asakiyume]

The light in that photo! You are lambent! You are softly radiant!

Happy birthday to your mother. One of your names can now be "descended from bears." I think of the blessings that descent empowers you to give out. "May the presence of three bears support and defend you."

[sartorias]

Really pretty photos--I like the warm golden light in the second one.

[selkie]

How has it been as many years as it has and I never put together that our mothers share a damn birthday?

(I couldn't comment on DW last night from my phone and then I fell asleep.)

Also, the photo of you remains superb and its angles favor your inner dapper.

[minoanmiss]

Happy birthday to your mother, who sounds totally awesome! *cheers and throws strawberry shaped confetti*

[ashlyme]

Happy birthday to your mother! You look spiffing.

[gwynnega]

Happy birthday to your mother!

[a_reasonable_man]

I sent your mom birthday greetings! Good to see you outdoors on a sunny day.