On Sunday evening, after a day where the temperature hit 90° – yes, you read that right – Don and I ventured out to the porch and sat for a while on the glider. We’d visited our local nursery earlier in the day. I’d been feeling sad this Mother’s Day, so we decided that the nursery just might bring a smile to my face, and it did. I came home and potted plants, adding some hanging baskets, and the porch was now adorned for the season.
There’s nothing prettier than the view from the glider; lush green everywhere, the sugar maple arching over the big garden bed, and the lilac bush blooming in the distance. Birds were calling back and forth, a breeze had finally kicked up, and we sighed with contentment.
This is what we wait for in the last days of winter, when spring seems an impossibility.
Of course, temperature-wise, we’ve sort of skipped spring. Yesterday was 87 and humid, today it will be 89. But tomorrow? Back into the sixties. What a bizarre season it has been so far!
I did some more work outside yesterday until the oppressive heat, along with the pollen that is everywhere, did me in. My cough came back and I realized that I have to lay low today until tomorrow brings some relief.
At the end of our time on the porch, we ventured over to the lilac bush to catch some of its heady, heavenly scent. Camera in hand, I took some more photos of the lilac at its peak. I also took some photos of the flowering quince and the wild honeysuckle (tomorrow’s post).
Here you go, lilac lovers:
Close your eyes and imagine the scent.
The tiny bush I planted over seven years ago is now just about six feet tall. This year’s bloom has been the best ever. I can’t bring myself to cut any of the blooms. I’m that way with a lot of the garden flowers. I like them in the garden.
For so many years, coaching took me away from home at this time of year, so I never take the sight of any of this for granted. It will take me away again for three weeks in June and early July, but three weeks seems like nothing compared to the ten I used to spend away from home.
I travel to Hartford on Thursday and again on Sunday and then my work on Kiss Me Kate will be done. I can’t wait to see it onstage, with the set and costumes.
Happy Tuesday.
Thank you, Claudia. And yes, I can smell them! I think I’ve mentioned here before that I grew up with a lilac bush outside my bedroom window. Lovely memories.
Yes, we had a lilac bush in our backyard. Part of growing up in the Midwest.
Lilacs! They are one of my favourites, but still too early for blooms here. Yours are a luscious colour, Claudia. Enjoy the fragrance as it wafts your way while you sit on the front porch.
Karen
Yours will be coming soon, Karen!
Ahhh lilacs….such a heavenly scent. Our bush struggles to bloom each year, so I treasure each and every blossom.
Me too. We have been rewarded this year – maybe all that super cold weather brought out the best in the lilac!
Oh, I’m jealous right now. If I concentrate, I can almost smell your lilacs from here. Mine are a couple of hours north of yours and I’m a thousand miles away. Hope mine will wait for me until I can get there.
They might, Shanna!
Lovely lilacs! The heat probably intensified the scent. Enjoy the last couple of days with Kiss Me Kate. Is the production a period piece, or has it been contemporized?
It’s period – but the period is the fifties. It’s hard to make it contemporary because of some of the text and Cole Porter lyrics.
Lovely lilacs! Travel safe!
Judy
Thank you, Judy!
Lilacs are one of my favorite flowers. Their fragrance is just heavenly.
Extraordinary fragrance!
Speechless.
Gorgeous, aren’t they?
Yes, Claudia, the lilacs are gorgeous. However, I was remarking on the photography.
I have never seen such close-ups.
You have a gift.
Oh, thank you, Nancy. You are very kind!
I am still in awe too at all the green after the horrible winter we thought would never leave. Enjoying seeing everything come to life! Love your lilac photos. They are such favorites!
Susan
Favorites of mine too. I love old-fashioned flowers.
Oh lilacs! Beautiful pics…but, I’ll have to smell my neighbor’s…hers are divine! Guess smell-o-blog isn’t working today! But, we do need pics of your dolled up porch. Our deck is getting there…too cold to work outside…it’s 49 with a frost predicted for tonight ! ;)
You need to work on your sense memory, Donnamae!
It’s going to be in the 60s here tomorrow but I haven’t heard anything about frost warnings!
Although flowers bloom year-round where we live, we still miss much of what we grew up with, lilacs foremost among them. We were married in Virginia where my husband was in grad school, at the end of April ,and I carried lilacs picked from the dooryard of an abandoned farmhouse (it was a very DIY hippieish wedding). In late May we were at my parents’ house in Connecticut in time for the lilacs — there were so many around our house . Then in July, I think, we went to Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula to view a total solar eclipse. As a bonus, the lilacs were in bloom. What a wonderful year!
Lilacs in your bouquet must have been lovely, Margaret!
We also had a lilac bush in our yard when I was growing up in the Midwest. Last night Hubby and I were on a walk and passed a HUGE lilac tree. I buried my face in the blossoms and just breathed for about five minutes! I don’t think Hubby thought I would ever leave those blossoms. Lovely.
And it was 86 here yesterday and 59 predicted today. Crazy weather.
Blessings,
Betsy
Very crazy weather.
Thank you for sharing the lilacs. Hope your cough and allergies don’t lay you low for too long.
They’re better today – cripes, this spring is an allergy nightmare!
If our weather makess it to where you live you will be chilled again. I think it is heading that way, but a lot can happen on it’s trip there. We are about 50 degrees today. Might have frost tonight. I wonder if wearing a mask ouside at this time of the year would help you. Not comfortable….but if it helps. Your lilacs are beautiful! I was th same abot cutting my flowers. In the last year I have cut a lot for my mom. I want her to enjoy my flowers as long as she can. With her cancer we don’t know how long she will be with us. Anything I can do to make her smile is worth it.
Mid-sixties here tomorrow, then back up to the seventies. But at least it won’t be 90!
You go ahead and spoil your mom with flowers. It they make her smile, they are priceless, Teresa.
I love lilacs, the ones we can grow here are hybrids, pretty and they bloomed 3 times last year, but hardly any scent! Sadly the kind I grew up with like you have just won’t grown here.
They wouldn’t grown in San Diego when I lived there, so I’m really enjoying them now. I’m glad you can grow the hybrid!
Thank you for the lilacs, Claudia. That heady scent of theirs is one of the few flower scents that you can’t get tired of smelling [even roses can wear a little thin]. There aren’t any where I live right now – something I consider almost blasphemous. This is Rochester, where we’re famous for our lilacs! The landscapers for this complex goofed up big time, IMO, Oh well, please give your lilacs a sniff [and a deep inhale] on my behalf – enjoy your day!
I inhaled just a few minutes ago! (Does that remind you of someone? – did, didn’t inhale?)
I think he did and probably still does inhale. You are so much fun.
Just beautiful..if only they would last longer..but maybe that makes us appreciate them more while they are here..
Just like peonies, Nancy. Short lived but incredible while they last.
Our lilac bush ~ which is as tall as the trees ~ was planted in the 1940’s by my in-laws. Every year it amazes me that this same bush still produces those fragrant blooms.
It is 52* outside!! We left the house this morning with the intent to do some more plant shopping, and it was so cold and windy that I gave up before I even started. I even had gloves on. This icky fickle season of spring disappoints once again. And it will be topped off tonight with our frost warning. ugh.
Too cold!
My neighbors have big old white and purple lilac bushes – they’ve obviously been there for years! Before I planted this bush, my neighbor used to bring me bouquets from her lilac bushes.
Thank you for this. We had a gigantic lilac bush back in Idaho. Our house there was built in 1913 and while I don’t know the expected life span of a lilac, I am guessing that ours could have been close in age to the house. Each year when the bush bloomed, it’s hundreds of blossoms filled the air with the loveliest fragrance. Our bedroom window was next to that bush and every morning when we awoke we would be treated to it’s beautiful aroma. We don’t have lilacs here in Texas and I miss them. I am glad that you are feeling a bit less sad now.
Big Texas Hugs,
Susan and Bentley
Beautiful photos! I just wish you had smell-a-vision!! My oldest left this afternoon but the few days she was here were wonderful! We spent time as a family and that is always special.
hugs,
Linda