My Perfect Birthday

My husband took this photo of me last week on my birthday. We went on one of my favorite hikes and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. The air was clear, the hills were green from all the rain this winter, and there were flowers everywhere. These yellow flowers are coreopsis, and we were lucky to see them because they're only in bloom a few weeks a year.

The main thing this photo says to me is, "Buy a new hat!" Because even a non-consumer can't afford to eschew fashion or style entirely. This ugly hat has been featured in far too many pictures, and its days are numbered. I think a visit to REI for an entirely new hat is in order. I don't want to buy a used hat, there's too much sweat involved. And I don't have time to "keep an eye out," this is an emergency situation.

Aside from the lack of style, my birthday was perfect.

After tea and homemade granola, we drove out to Malibu through the greenest hills I've ever seen in Southern California. Our hike was a 5-mile loop through canyons, meadows, fields of flowers, a view of the ocean, and even a pond that had been dried up for the past several years.

Just about the time my feet were getting tired, we came to the end of the hike, when it was time to have dinner at our favorite beachside biker hangout, Neptune's Net in Malibu. We shared peel 'n eat shrimp, fried calamari, and a beer, and watched the dolphins swimming by.

On the way home, just as it was getting dark, we stopped at a roadside stand for strawberries (a guy selling them out of the back of his van). I bought 3 containers of local berries for $7, and then he gave me 4 more containers FREE because they were almost overripe.

At home, my husband asked me if I wanted a special birthday drink, but I really just wanted a glass of wine so we opened a bottle of Fess Parker, in honor of the TV-star-turned-winemaker's recent death (in his 90s).

My husband gave me a card with a simple sentiment so direct and honest it made me cry, and a DVD of Season 6 of The Mary Tyler Moore show (it was our favorite when we were little- we both wanted to grow up and move to the big city).

Then we watched a terrible 1970s comedy. It was great, in that way only really bad films can be.

So, in addition to spending the day with my favorite person, my birthday was studded with so many of my favorite things:

Taylor's of Harrogate yorkshire gold tea!
homemade granola!
hiking!
flowers!
seafood!
dolphins!
strawberries!
wine!
Mary Tyler Moore!

And except for the MTM DVD, it was entirely non-consumer.

Luckily for me, my birthday falls during my favorite season: spring. What are your favorite non-consumer spring activities? Please tell us in the Comments section.