Just when I thought That Darn Squirrel (the 4-legged relative to The Chinese Neighbor) had dug up my Maui Buttercups, I got a wonderful surprise today! There is a big fat pip near the Maui Buttercups I.D. stake. Walking over to the Neighbors Plot garden on the other side of the sidewalk, I first plucked out a broken light bulb's screw-in end and tossed it. Typical, to have to pluck refuse from that garden. Then, perusing my heuchies (which are all coming online now with new baby leaves, except for possibly Georgia Peach) and their hosta companions, I espied a beautiful set of spring-green pips from the location of the Paradise Island I.D. stake. A walk around the rest of the Neighbors Plot gave me a false pulse of elation; I thought that my lovely Gypsy Rose had also pipped, but it was just a green leaf blown over the buried roots. Oh well, plenty of time, plenty of time.

We are supposed to get a big rainstorm tonight and tomorrow, just in time to make it a wet walk to and from the first Passover seder, but that should also be a boon to my burgeoning heuchies, bursting up in new leaf dicentra, still dormant hostas, and maybe be just the trick to get Georgia Peach's engine to turn over at last.

This year is also unusual in that my Hebrew birthday (according to the Jewish calendar) AND my secular birthday are BOTH during Passover. Can you say flat birthday cake? My grandmother, of blessed memory, used to bake me a permitted sponge cake for my birthday, but she is long gone. I think I will defer any celebratin' until after Passover, when I can have a piece of devil's food delight.