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There is a spirit to this month that March does not have. March is the in-between, the letting go of winter. April is the arrival. The world has made up its mind and everything — the garden, the light, the air itself — feels fresh, clean and more alive, chartreuse pollen aside. Even I, who love winter dearly, cannot help but feel it. It is hard to let go but it is the nature of time.
April is easier for me to welcome than March. By the time it arrives the weather has shifted, there are less and less cool mornings, and the days are warmer, there are buds on the trees and color is popping up everywhere. There is nothing left to do but open the door and let spring in.
What I Am Looking Forward To in April
The peonies. I have been watching for them since the first warm day in February. It starts as a tiny red nub pushing up through the layers of mulch and pine needles, barely visible, easy to miss if you are not paying attention. Sometimes I even go out and move the pine needles aside just to see if they are still there. I am anxious to see if they survived the cold winter. From that first little nub to the fat bud to the glorious full bloom is one of the great pleasures of my gardening year. Thankfully the deer have never been interested in them.
All of my peonies are pink and fuchsia — big beautiful blooms that last just long enough to make you treasure them completely and miss them the moment they are gone. They are worth every minute of the wait.
Easter. I host Easter at our home and it is one of my favorite days of the year. The table, the food, the flowers, the family gathered around. New life, new beginnings, the reminder that after every winter there is a spring.
Warmer days and open windows. April gives you those days — not too warm, not too cool — when you can throw open every door and window in the house and let the fresh air in. Those days are few and far between here because between spring and summer is the fifth season — pollen season. Nevertheless on the days that we can, we open the house and it takes a breath, breathes out the stale air of winter and breathes in the fresh clean air of the new season.
Spring cleaning and refreshing the house. There is something satisfying about the April edit. Moving things around, putting things away, storing the last straggling Christmas tchotchkes, bringing in a little something that feels of the season. A bunch of peonies on the kitchen table. A lighter throw on the chair. A new cup and saucer for my morning chocolate. The house shifts and so does my mood — we are both lighter and brighter.
On The Blog This Month
This month I have two posts I am especially excited about. The first is a cornerstone I have been wanting to write for a long time — my philosophy of classic dressing after fifty. Not trends, not rules, just the realization of what actually works for my life and my body and why it took me this long to get here. If you have ever stood in front of your wardrobe feeling like you have nothing to wear despite a rail full of clothes, I think this post will resonate with you.
The second is the recipes that have shaped my life at the table. Nearly six hundred recipes on this blog — and yet there is a handful I return to over and over. The ones for the holiday parties, the summer evenings, the small dinners with friends. I am gathering them all in one place at last. I hope you will pull up a chair and stay a while.
And there is a letter I have been meaning to write for a long time. It is for the woman who has been last on her own list — for years, maybe decades. If that is you, it will be here on April 1st. I hope you will read it.
What I Am Wearing This Month
April means putting away the heavy sweaters and reaching for something lighter. Dresses and skirts, soft colors and fabrics. A trench coat for the cool mornings. A flowered dress or two for Easter and all season long. Good flats or a pair of slingback sandals on the warmer days.
The plaid does not go away — it never does — but it gets lighter. A cotton plaid rather than a wool one. The same me, just a little less bundled. You can see all of my Spring picks on ShopMy.
What To Cook This Month
April at the table means Easter first and spring the rest of the month. Here is what I am making and what I am sharing with you this month.
Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Egg Easter Brownies
Homemade fudge brownies packed with Reese’s Peanut Butter Easter eggs and Reese’s Pieces, then topped with a few more for good measure. After all, one can never have too much peanut butter. These are the brownies you bring to Easter brunch and come home with an empty pan. If you feel like making two kinds of brownies for your Easter table try this recipes well.
French Carrot Salad — Carottes Râpées
The salad I have been eating in Paris for thirty years and making at home ever since. Finely grated carrots, a bright lemon and Dijon dressing, fresh flat-leaf parsley and nothing more. It sounds too simple to be worth making until you make it and wonder why you have not been making it your entire life. It only gets better the longer it sits. The recipe is here.
Sheri and I are back this month sharing seasonal sweet treats and Cindy and I will be sharing our inaugural Seasonal Table savory dish.
If you don’t feel like baking this Easter why not make my Candy and Cookie Board?
What I Am Reading This Month
On my April reading list — two books for two very different books.
If you want something that asks you to slow down and pay attention — pick up The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. A woman alone in nature through the seasons, noticing everything, it will change the way you look at the world. She won the Pulitzer Prize for this book. It is the perfect April book — a meditation on renewal, on the natural world waking up, and on what it means to truly see what is right in front of you.
If you want something escapist — and who does not dream of packing up and moving to France — A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. I have read all of his books and this one started it all. A man and his wife buy a farmhouse in Provence on a whim and spend a year discovering the food, the wine, the eccentric neighbors and the beauty of a life lived more slowly. It is funny and warm and makes you feel you are sitting at the table with them.
You cannot go wrong with either.
A Small Joy
The morning you walk out to the garden with your hot chocolate and find the first peony nub, or find that overnight the first nub has grown 2 inches. Nothing to look at yet, but soon. And yet everything.
What does April mean to you? Are you a peony person? Tell me in the comments — I would love to know what you are looking forward to this month.
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You might also enjoy:
Who Am I Now? How Midlife Didn’t Change Me — It Reminded Me
The Bower Bird Home — How I Decorate and Why I Will Never Be a Minimalist
March — The Promise of a World Waking Up
On My Radar~Spring
Hi Elizabeth,
I bet everything you do towards Easter is well thought through and a pretty table set just beautifully.
I’m so looking forward to reading your blog on April 1st. In the mean time you are keeping me in suspense.
Katherine, you are always so kind. I try my best and hope that they look and taste as beautiful I think they are. My brother is a prolific and much more talented baker than I, last year at thanksgiving he made a cake and I made the pie. Mine was over spiced, his under spiced, we decided together we had the perfect dessert.
Have a lovely weekend.
I have peonies that were given to me by my grandmother over 50 years ago, some I dug up at my mothers after she passed away, a beautiful fushia peony that I got from my mother-in-law, and a rather rare one that i got from my sister=in-law. And like you, I cannot wait to see them bloom year after year. A family peony bed!
I have peonies that were given to me by my grandmother over 50 years ago, some I dug up at my mothers after she passed away, a beautiful fushia peony that I got from my mother-in-law, and a rather rare yellow one that i got from my sister-in-law. And like you, I cannot wait to see them bloom year after year. A family peony bed!
Sherry, this brought tears to my eyes! A family peony bed is the best peony bed ever! How wonderful to have your grandmothers peonies and your mothers and one from your sister in law! I can only image the joy you feel when you see the first nubs poking from the ground, a little hello from your loved ones. I would love to see photos when they bloom.
I am also curious, have you ever planted peony seeds?
Have a wonderful day and thank you for sharing your stories.