Last night my sister Katherine gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, so today I am a very proud and excited uncle. Until now I felt some sympathy for those with birth dates quite so close to Christmas and New Year. With my own birthday on January 12th, I know that it can be difficult to muster much enthusiasm for celebrations so soon after the festive season. January is generally cold and dark; friends are either detoxing, broke, or both.
Yet January, at the dawn of the New Year, is surely the most appropriate month to celebrate new birth. The days are once again lengthening, bulbs are forcing their way up through the ground and buds are imperceptibly starting to fatten. The hopes of another year lay before us, the possibilities endless, the slate wiped clean again. As I write this short post I am surrounded by packets of seeds, each emblazoned with bright images of what might be given warmth, air, moisture and a little tender loving care. Baby Cooper will require rather more in the way of nurturing than my sweet peas and salvias, but I’ll be willing her to grow as tall as a sunflower, as strong as an oak and as gracefully as a lily.
Top of post, the pure white flowers of Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica alba.
Congratulations! May that she inherits your passion for plants, nature and everything beautiful!
Wouldn’t that be great? The gardening gene missed my sister, but hopefully it will surface again in Baby Cooper!
I had a special uncle who was ‘always’ there for me as a child. Here’s hoping you and Baby Cooper have a wonderful, long lasting relationship. You’ll be able to read her gardening books, and she won’t care because she’ll just like being held and the sound of your voice. What a great way to start off 2014! 🙂
It is indeed. The best New Year gift one could hope for. Apparently I used to love seed catalogues when I was a baby – I guess just because of the bright colours and tearable pages!
wonderful post congratulations all round….
My birthday is new years eve….not so good but my 50 th was on millennium eve….that was great and I had a 59 1/2 during the summer of my 60th..we had fun..
I LOVE the idea of a 1/2 birthday. I may have to adopt that one! I suppose at least on December 31st you know everyone is celebrating your birthday 😉
But not really …they are celebrating N/Y….and you have cards up at the same time as xmas cards….but hey I have 2 granddaughters who only think it’s nana’s birthday and they love it….makes all the difference.
Congratulations Uncle Dan!
Congrats!! 😉
Thank you. We’ll be formally introduced on Friday!
I think January is a great time for a birthday, it is a time of new beginnings. What lovely Puschkinia.
I would love to know what other seeds you have bought. It is always so difficult to narrow the choice down and not buy half the catalogue.
Chloris
I know. I have bought several sweet peas to grow against a sunny wall in London, mainly for the cut flowers, and then white and green Nicotiana for evening perfume. I like climbing Thunbergia and Ipomea lobata for late summer colour by the seaside, but it’s very hard to narrow the selection down and I always by more than I have the time and energy to grow.