Watching the amaryllis change every day is awe inspiring. The bulb has been busy since yesterday. In the afternoon the flower buds started to move apart from each other. This morning they looked like this:

The flower buds themselves don’t look much different than yesterday. But the first leaves down below grew a bit.

The small strawberry farm on the hillside opposite me planted three more patches of berries this winter. I missed preparation and planting days; they must have been really something. That hillside is steep. The strawberries won’t have to worry about sitting in water on that slope. The three patches that are up higher, all in a row, are the new ones. They now have a total of five patches. Harvesting will be fun, too. Let’s try not to roll down the hill with ripe strawberries in our hands…

Today the youngest of my grandparents, my Grandma Esther, would have been 110 years old, if she were still alive. It was always the simplest of things to figure out Grandma’s age, since she was born in 1900. Grandma lived to a good age, had a fine life, three children, five grandchildren, and a husband who was a good provider. Happy birthday, Grandma.