Happy Birthday JZ!

Standing on the ancient stones of Tikal. "And oh how they daunced... the little people of Stonehenge!"

Today is Julie's birthday.

We've spread the celebration out over the past 10 days with other events (including Phoebe's birthday), a trip to Cowtown, and friends visiting from near and far. These little distinct commemorations have been more like small, semi-precious stones strung on a necklace than like a giant diamond ring.

For gifts she wanted plants for the garden, so we scored (but she hand-picked) several special rose bushes. Her sister Barb sent along the perfect complement to the roses, a really great garden gnome.

Mother Nature even marked the day by bringing us a momentous thunderstorm at dawn--just the sort of thing those new roses need--buckets of rain.

Artist, writer, singer, photographer, gardener, mother, partner through thick and thin, fixer of broken animals, deep thinker, Science Chimp, and naturalist extraordinaire....

Happy birthday dear, sweet Julie.

Leading a Swainson's warbler field trip in West Virginia. Image by Jeff Gordon.

Belting out an Aretha tune with The Swinging Orangutangs.