Lilac Caress

Lilacs and I go way back as far as I can remember. We had a giant lilac hedge that ran across the front of our lot in front of the house (where I loved to play and "hide-out"). We also had additional enormous bushes at each front corner of the house and one on the east side of the house close to "Ann's" bedroom window. (Funny how that goes... I probably inhabited that room as long as Ann did but the little bedrooms were always "Ann's room" and "Sue's room".)

I love the heady smell of lilacs. It always brings back sweet memories of home and the comforts that I felt there. I used to sleep with my bedroom window open and in the summer I would make my bed so that my head was by the open window (even though that was the foot of the bed). I would wake up to the luscious smells of lilacs and violets that grew on that side of the house.

What an amazing blessing to find that my new home here in Utah had several lilac bushes (and I added three more). The ones that were already here are very old-fashioned looking and very lacy and frail looking, but they get loaded with strong heady blossoms each spring.

This year the lilacs have attracted a whole flock of Hummingbird Moths. They are so lovely. Some of them had pink or lavender breasts and wings. I was able to catch some of them in the act of supping at the lilacs. Sadly I don't have a dSLR camera and didn't think about changing the settings on my digital to do some stop-action photos. (Incidentally, they are Simba's big catch this year. We've had to liberate about a half a dozen from the house that Simba brought in!)



Now they are nearly spent and I have lavender "snow" on the lawn under all the lilac bushes. Yesterday as I was mowing the back lawn I needed to make a turn that took me close to my lilac bushes. One of the branches reached out and so very gentle caressed my neck. It was so wonderful that it just made me smile.


I love these wonderful, memory-evoking flowers.