24 Plus and Still Gorgeous!

For as far back as I can remember,  "24 plus" was my mother's standard response when asked how old she was.  Today is her 80th birthday and in deference to her dislike of being photographed, I have NOT posted a picture.  She's had to pose for pictures at two different doctors' offices recently as part of their conversion to electronic records and I suspect she had to fight the urge to put her hand up to block the camera!  Instead of her picture, I'm posting one I took a few years back of the clematis growing on her front wall.  No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to duplicate her success, as I lamented in this post from 2009.  


She asked that it be a quiet day so we took a jaunt out to Enchanted Gardens, which is just far enough out to feel like country instead of city.  The sun was blazing and Mom's diminished vision made navigating the grounds of the nursery a bit tricky for her so we didn't spend as much time there as we usually do.  She bought a small Crown of Thorns Euphorbia, in full brilliant bloom, and we left the nursery to spend some time roving about the surrounding countryside.  That area is very similar to her childhood home of Lost Prong, which really IS out in the country ... I'm not sure it even appears on any maps.  As we drove around, she reminisced about her childhood and how grateful she still is to have had such a wonderful place to grow up.  It was a big part of my childhood, too, since we made regular visits to see her grandparents and cousins, and I too am grateful for the happy memories made there.  Thanks for those memories, Mom ... Happy Birthday!