Fragrance is amazing...watch for them coming to a sky near you, winds are predicted again tomorrow through the weekend. Enjoy them as they pass by.
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Every day, or every other day or when ever I feel like it, ramblings of an artist, photographer, enjoy-er of life and the paradoxes that brings.
Cool beans, human or other
About Me
- Leau
- The Land of Enchantment
- Not quite as old as dirt, but getting there. As happy as I choose to be at any given time. Delighted to share my humble but adequate opinion at any time. Trying to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do and doing the next right thing when I screw up... Leather Lips because that's what came up in spell check once when my name was typed in and true in some seasons!
9 comments:
love, love, love lilac.
It was one of my grandmother's favorites.
The neighbor's tiny, shaded lilac doesn't even have leaves yet! If you see a big one here, it's really old. We often have an early summer spell (like say, the entire month of June) when it rains every day, and they get mildewy. Then the August drought comes just when it's hottest, and they shrivel up. This doesn't exactly leave them well prepared for the icy nights and deep cold that January and February may bring. So unless they are pampered for many years, only the luckiest, toughest ones survive. And not many people pamper anything for years anymore. Here, everyone runs to Home Depot, buys the same flowering annuals, and pretends to be a gardener. For about a month, there's frenzied activity in the front yards. Up until a generation or two ago, it was different. Our neighborhood has mandatory setbacks, to give the streets and the yards at least a little sun and air. Back when we knew our food came from the ground, people would have real gardens: ornamental in front, edible in back. Now most of the back yards are stockaded (which foolish folks don't realize makes them less safe, not more), and a good portion are concreted over for parking. Anyway, there are still a few lilacs around, especially along the sides of roadways running through small towns, or in an old, established surburban yard.
Nothing smells like fresh lilacs! Granted, no bottled scent fully captures this flower's essence, but bottling it is a miserable failure. You end up with a cloying, one-dimensional smell that makes your nose want to gulp the equivalent of a glass of fresh water. And our olfactory senses are dwindling, burnt out from the food factory's attempts to out-do each other in nose appeal. Ever notice that too-good-to-be-true smell some processed food gives off while it's cooking? Hopefully, the slow food movement will help restore our appreciation of fragrant plants. Here, scented hyacinths are blooming. I see people walk by then stop and look around in confusion, wondering where the perfume came from since they are alone on the sidewalk. I considered hanging out near them just to poach their compliments.
I digress ... when I was a kid I went to the Antelope Valley Lilac Festival and fell in love with these heavenly flowers. I had seen them in the yard of our apartment complex, but I had no idea they were widely cultivated. I was overwhelmed by their sheer abundance. The smell was wonderful, even from a distance. When I run into people here East (can't say "back east") that have never smelled lilacs, all I can do is steer them to wisteria, a - scent and color wise - a less complex cousin.
I am appropriately envious!
Albq. people are especially lucky in Arpril ... . you get flowers so much earlier than the Santa Fe people!
JJjj
shocking COLOR and I LOVE it!
No lilacs budding out here quite yet and we are getting those horrid winds too...what is up with this!!!
Gorgeous! They're not blooming here yet, so thanks for this. Happy Easter! xoxox
Oh my darling, darling girl. One of my all times favorites around here. When I was growing up my Great-Grandmamá hanged a pair of secateurs right outside her lilac trees (they were actually trees, they shaped the bushes a hundred years ago as trees and trees they stayed. But I digress, as usual) anyway, she hanged the secateurs because she got tired of people literally ripping the flowers off the branches.
She wrote in her beautiful cursive writing "Please cut some, leave some for others and don't harm the tree. You are welcome". The curious thing was that after she did that, fewer lilacs were taken.
Go figure. Thank you love, as usual we are fulfilling the sacred duty (alas over the ether) to visit each other's gardens. At least until we can do it in person. Love and hugs from here.
I know where this is! I know where this is! That's fun to know where you took this! And, boy aren' you getting sassy with those fantastic close-ups! Love it! I can just about smell them!
Oh, and it looks like you've gone completely purple on us!
lilacs are my absolute favorites!
So lovely.
XO
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