Spring 2026 Recap

In spring there is always so much to do. The start of daylight savings time is celebrated in my household, even if it messes with the family’s sleep schedules for a while, and for me it marks the unofficial start to spring.

March

In March, there were kids' birthday parties, informational calls for summer camp, and a lot of gardening tasks. And to end on a dramatic note, kindergarten offers were released on 3/31.

I helped my parents with some life admin tasks and went on a food crawl on Main St. in Flushing, a place Kev and I used to frequent years ago but which has since changed many times over.

I began to make the year's first Ghost Parade mugs, opened a new bag of clay, and kept at my practice and my business. I could feel a pace down-shift coming, as other parts of my life began to get more demanding. I pushed against this of course, stealing midnight hours, taking pockets of time. It didn't help much.

Still, I would end up selling 27 pieces in the month. Great performance for this business that often feels smaller than small.

Outside, the garden was beginning to wake up, with daffodils, forsythia, and snowdrops arriving.

April

The daffodils continued to bloom into April, and the striped squill, hyacinths, fritillaries, and tulips came in.

On the pottery front, this was not a good month of production. I was grateful to see sales hold steady, but as I packed items I would notice my inventory of certain designs dwindling and running out. Mona scoops, for example; where I'd started out with several dozen, I was down to my last handful. I was completely out of Cactus Ring Dishes as well as Brea Double Espresso Cups, one a long time best-seller and the other a surprisingly popular new-comer.

Life highlights in April included taking Jasper to see the Super Mario movie at our local theater, a solo lunch at Kiki's in Chinatown after I went there to file our taxes with our accountant, Kevin taking a day off during Jasper's spring break to take him to visit the World Trade Center (after which we all met at Annie's nearby office for lunch), and a trip to Space Club in Brooklyn with both boys. They had a blast and I had a yummy avocado toast and a smoothie.

At the end of April, my in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and my SIL planned a surprise party for them. We were fortunate that she took charge of the party-planning tasks and we only had to figure out flowers and the cake. I proudly supplied garden tulips for the occasion. They peaked just in time, and I'd planted just enough for a few stems in bud vases at each table at the event.

May

By May, I'd fallen behind the one-a-day pace of production that I hold as my target. This was a couple of months in the making.

But where I didn't have the mental capacity to be creative, May became a month to fill up on inspiration.

In the garden, the irises came in all their showy glory. Over the years I've grown to love them more and more, and this year I was especially excited for their turn in the season because of several new rhizomes I'd planted last summer. They all blossomed beautifully and each exceeded my expectations. I ordered more almost immediately, rationalizing my cart as being mostly belated anniversary gifts for my in-laws and their garden.

In addition, lily of the valley, those prolific, cute, highly toxic super spreaders returned. I enjoy how emblematic they are of spring, but all the same I pulled several up as they are so vigorous and can hog nutrients from other plants that I want to cultivate. My two clematis vines and the rhododendron blossomed as well - deep magenta and periwinkle stars and puffs of pink. The strawberries that returned began to bear fruit and provided my first tiny harvests of the year. They were jewel-like and delicious. How funny that what would be an impressive bearing of fruit over several weeks this year started as a crawler that touched down in a corner of the garden from a potted strawberry plant two years ago!

May also brought a few garden surprises. My All That Jazz peony bloomed, after so many years with nary a bud. I found a clutch of giant columbine flowers, in shades of ballet pink and dusty lilac, sheltered among the evergreens that line our fence. In the barren patch of soil by my driveway, plum sunflower seedlings were soldiering on in their stubborn growth.

That inspiration I spoke about? It was abundant and joyful. Small, like the year's first trip to Ice Cream Window in Ridgewood, where I discovered a new summer favorite: pandan ice cream with passionfruit and coconut. Momentous, like the very last Muffins with Mommies Mother's Day celebration with Jasper at the school he'd been in since he was 18 months old. Long overdue, like a weekend in Rochester with several college girlfriends from around the country, gathered for the first time since we had our wedding circuit. The short trip packed with quality time left me buoyed by love. Rejuvenating, like our week in Mexico - my first time leaving the country since 2022 and the boys' first plane rides and travel out of the country. It felt like the world was being given back to me after so many years of staying close to home for both the boys and our aging Sunday girl. And surprising, like the beginning of the Knicks finals run - it was just starting to feel special as May came to a close. As the Knicks steadily consumed more, and eventually the entirety, of my capacity for attention, I also began what would, by mid-June, grow into a collection of emotional support vases that I stress-sculpted during games.

Summer was coming, starting with the most magical of Junes.

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