In central Maine, Spring is slowly showing her pretty face. Soon, Spring will rush through May as though to make up for lost time. But right now all is tender and new.

While doing yard work, I came across these little fern heads. While the ferns might not be at their prettiest, they are certainly at their sweetest, and this is how I love them best. New life unfurling.

On Saturday, Dee, Clif, and I headed south of the border to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to meet our daughter Shannon and her husband, Mike, for Shannon’s birthday. Now that they live in Boston (for years, they lived in North Carolina), we can get together regularly at places that are more or less halfway between us. I always enjoy these get-togethers, and when it’s a birthday, I enjoy it even more.

Shannon chose a cute little café called Popovers on the Square that specializes in—you guessed it!—popovers. We arrived just after breakfast and just before lunch, a lull when the café wasn’t busy, and we were able to snag a half-circle booth that gave us some privacy.

The food was tasty and plentiful.

We talked and ate and talked and ate some more. There were presents—Clif and I gave Shannon a gift certificate to Stonewall Kitchen, one of our halfway points in York, Maine. From soap to jam, the Stonewall Kitchen store has many temptations, and Shannon will have a good time poking around the store.

By noon, Popovers was hopping, and people were waiting for a table. Time to go, but not too far, across the street to a coffee shop, where we could talk some more. (We are a chatty family with movies being a big topic of discussion.)

Finally, around 4:00, we hugged and said goodbye.

Next gathering? Mother’s Day in York. First, to a Chinese restaurant, and then, if the weather allows, to a park or beach, where we will set up our chairs and have cookies and tea. (Perhaps Shannon will slide in a visit to Stonewall Kitchen.)

I began this piece with a fern, and I’m going to end with another kind of Fern, surely one of the cutest cats in Winthrop.

We were given a cat bed, and Fern has claimed it as her own. If her brother Kai seems too envious, we will, of course, get another one. Just like human siblings, Kai and Fern sometimes squabble. But for now, so far, so good.