Birthday Peonies

Peonies are the queens of gardens everywhere, reigning over their sisters in the loveliest of gowns to be found, their extravagant perfume trailing over everyone else at the party. I hope you've had the pleasure of sitting down face-to-face with a peony. They don't like to grace Southern gardens with their presence, but there are other ways of getting them to drop by. They always arrive in stores around my birthday; this year the first shipment arrived precisely on my birthday (I checked a few days before!) I left the store cradling my sweet peony bouquet in my arm with so much tenderness of feeling that I surprised even myself. They have become my birthday companions over the years, providing a celebratory display of beauty and fragrance for me to persistently stop and admire throughout the week. I think I could sit and look at them all day long!