Mother's Day Flowers

I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day yesterday. I know I did...

A potato-egg-cheese breakfast burrito and a hot cuppa joe to start the day...
Uninterrupted time in the garden to weed, pick beans, and tie up tomatoes...
The chance to finally do something resembling a pedicure...
Steaks on the grill and a cold glass of white bordeaux...

But topping all that was a walk around the property with my girl, during which she chatted the entire time and stopped frequently to point out flowers I should cut and pick the plentiful dewberries (eating about a third of them... the berries that is). About halfway through our walk she stopped and looked at me and said, "I love you." And then she moved on.

This girl will be a teenager in just over a year and already has a habit of holding everything in and keeping the hard stuff to herself until it's a really big deal. This weekend I saw an opportunity to develop these walks into an avenue into her heart, her thoughts, and her processes.

Just me and her.

We got back to the house with about a pound of dewberries for the freezer, a nice wild bouquet, and a connection that was refreshed by our simple stroll around the field. It was the best Mother's Day gift I think I could have received, and I'm sure I'll be using it again.