2024 May 5 Birthday Gifts

I was born December 27th, 1984 on the 60th birthday of my grandma, Alice Welch. Grandma Welch was a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Michigan until she married my grandpa after the war. She was also a daily writer. She wrote our family weekly letters from Toledo letting us know what was going on so that we’d stay in the loop here in Cleveland. She enjoyed talking about regular daily things, birds, neighbors, baking, whatever was on her mind. We have that love for the everyday things in common. 

We both also found the timing of our birthdays “unfortunate”. It’s always cold and rainy here. We never got the fun school party. It feels like an afterthought when everyone sobers up after Christmas. One year, I asked her if she’d be offended if I changed birthdays. She said she was fine with it and called our birthdays a “flop”. 

So today is my new birthday, May 5th. It’s almost always sunny and everyone wants to be outside. It’s also a lesser Mexican holiday, when US Americans feel like partying and drinking margaritas. One year in college we rented canoes and dressed like pirates, drinking rum and being dumb; something that wouldn’t be possible in December.

Already this morning I have received many gifts. The Warbler migration is in full throttle and we have our visitors from the Gulf of Mexico back in town. This morning I spotted the Black and White Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Nashville and Tennessee Warblers, the Northern Parula and the Blue Winged Warbler. It’s not even 9:30am.

The other sweet gift is that the Black Cherry tree is blooming. My dad planted two Black Cherry trees in my backyard the fall before he died in 2013. One is still going strong after years of looking “wobbly” and going almost horizontal in the wind. I realize now, after noticing Black Cherries in the woods, they like to grow with friends to give them structure. The grow straight up with very few low branches and flower out at the top of the canopy. They attract all kinds of birds, but is humans will almost never get a bite as the fruit is up higher than a three story house.

The blooming Black Cherry, planted by my dad in 2013.

I was happy to find another baby Black Cherry growing between the chicken coop and the brush pile. I’m glad it will have a friend now, since that was the initial intention. I love that my dad’s tree blooms on my fake birthday. It’s comforting. 

Now it’s time to hit up a patio at Papasitos, a Mexican restaurant that looks like a castle on the shore of Lake Erie.