My musings about lilies and roses attracted this comment from a reader who remembers the natural flowers of his youth, as they were found around the farm. He awakened in me similar memories, so I am moved to bring our short conversation to you and to add some memories of my own regarding such sweet realities.
First, let's listen to Patrick.
Paul,
One of the very first things I noticed when I moved to CA from MA was the lack of the sweet and wonderful smell of roses. The front of our home had roses bigger then a softball but when I put my nose up to it to smell it I was devasted to find there was not an inkling of that wonderful smell of a rose.
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| LADY SLIPPER |
Then I went around the house to smell the other beautiful flowers but they too were odorless. Then I remembered one of my very favorite flowers and how wonderful they smelled. Of course it is now extinct but the memory lives on. I mention here that great flower called "lady slipper." We had lots of them in the woods around my dad's farm in South Hadley. It has not happened to me in a long time but every now and then I get a whiff of that Lady Slipper flower and I just smile with joy.
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| CROCUS |
This made me think of a flower that is one of the marvels of cold climate regions. It is the very first flower to appear by the edge of brooks and creeks even if all the crusty snow and ice are still present. It is sweetly and richly endowed with an aroma that is impossible to forget. I remember that when I was younger, in my teens mostly, when I was in boarding school in New Hampshire, this was my favorite flower. It was then that I came to hear the poem that Edward Dion, a two-time valedictorian with an emphasis in English, and brother of EFR Dion, had written about this flower, the Crocus. I know that it was a sonnet, but I never was able to find the entire work for my nostalgia file. Be that as it may, I was never able to forget [nor was I willing to let it go] the opening lines:
"Hail to thee oh Blossom fair!
God's sign to man
That hope is nurtured in despair."
I suppose that these wondrous creatures still decorate the early Springtime hems of the meandering brooks and creeks. I also suppose that because of their daunting environment, the engineers haven't been able to take their gift to the planet away from us.
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| LILY OF THE VALLEY |
Patrick's trip down memory lane sent me on a trip too. MJT Dion had a favorite wild flower of her own. It is called Lily of the Valley and it is also richly and sweetly aromatic. It too lives and thrives in places that most engineers don't bother to visit. Lily of the Valley too, are a wetland phenomenon. They do not crave great gobs of sunlight, preferring instead shady, wet kinds of places, like places where you would also find ferns and skunk cabbage and creatures like that. I have tried on at least two occasions to make Lily of the Valley adorn my surroundings in southern California. Nothing doing. it's too bad too. One sprig, like you see here, is enough to keep the whole house smiling with perfume from this generous midget. Maybe I'll try one more time. I think I have a place in my yard in San Diego that wasn't available the first two times I tried. I'll smuggle some back into the state next November to see what happens. I'll let you know.
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| LILAC |
I can't let this trip down memory lane go free without giving some space to MJT Dion's absolute, indisputable favorite flower, the Lilac. Come to think of it, EFR Dion was head over heels for this redolent flower as well. In fact, I really think that he named his first female child with a famous popular song in mind, "Jeanine, I dream of you in Lilac time." That's only a suspicion. In front of people he always said that it was out of love and respect for his favorite cousin, Jeanne. No matter what the story might be, the incontrovertible fact is that we always had a Lilac bush in our yard. Our mother was as protective of that bush as a tiger mama is of her cubs.
This is another one of the plants that many of us would like to have in our environment in Southern California, but it is well nigh impossible to make it thrive, at least in the sea-level regions. I have heard that it is possible to find it in the upper elevations of Southern California. My trips to these places are very rare. After all, I did not come here to spend any time in 30 degree weather. I do admit that when we lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for about six years, we did discover a thriving Lilac in a yard on our walking route. Yeah, it was a real one...aroma and all. Belle, before she got to be famous as the Voice from the Kitchen, fell in love with it too. Then, we moved back to sea level, lilac-less Southern California.
I hope that those of you with memories of these things have had your fill of nostalgia with this. It is that time of year too. Oh well, enjoy the pictures and, if you live in Southern California, tell the stories to your children.
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