The Smell of Summer

My friends came into my house almost obscured by the purple blooms- they brought a huge bouquet of lilacs.  The dining room filled with their fragrance and I was back in my grandmother’s bedroom.

It’s spring here in South Dakota and while trees are just greening up near my house, it must be another gardening zone here in Rapid City. 

Here the wildflowers are popping up through the pine needles.....

Even the dandelions are fresh and full of spring. 

the bushes are blooming..... 

Found some honeysuckle! Reminder of Virginia where it is everywhere.

and the lilacs are having a bumper year. 

 The lilac bushes, ten feet high, are rows of lush purples and whites set off by rich green leaves.  The smaller the house, the bigger the bushes. In the older neighborhoods of crowded streets, small houses sit right next to each other on small lots. But the lilacs in those neighborhoods.  A king’s garden has no lilacs to best these. Strong healthy bushes practically dwarf the houses and cast their purple hue over the entire neighborhood.

When I smell lilacs, I’m on  a narrow cot in my grandmother’s bedroom. The room is small and my bed blocks off the one closet but it’s right against the window.  The sash is cracked for fresh air and I lay on the cool pillow and listen to night sounds. Crickets sing and an occasional car passes with a swish.  The dark always puzzles me.  We drive down from Alaska every other summer and even the long drive doesn’t prepare me for summer nights that get dark. Alaska summers have daylight way past our bedtime and now it feels strange to be in bed in the dark.  But I hear the soft breathing of my grandmother and I smell the lilacs.  They crowd the bedroom windows and block the path of broken stones around the house.

Everywhere in Colorado we play we climb under or around lilacs bushes 

but it’s here in grandmother's room, 

the night is quiet, that I breathe in the lilacs and sleep.