Britannia, NY

It is Ivy's birthday, and she is not remotely ashamed of the fact that it is one of her very favourite holidays. It's also a Saturday, so she doesn't even have to give herself the day off work, and she woke up very early in the morning to go out and buy ridiculous baked goods (cannoli and chocolate croissants) in Old Forge, then came home to make an offering to Kuan-Yin as part of her new daily ritual (her mother's suggestion, but Ivy is open to almost any idea by now, and her mother sets a great store by Kuan-Yin).

After that she heads out again to one of the greenhouses to buy plants--only flowers, because Ken always gives her a tree as a special gift on her birthday. She unloads things, then stops in at Cup of Tom for coffee before she goes back home.

She knows Ken is busy even on the weekends, so she settles down in the garden under one of the trees from one of her past birthdays, with a romance novel she's read about three times before and one of the croissants. It's shaping up to be a beautiful day, and she doesn't have any real plans.