Lilac perfume
Earlier this year I had the idea that if I did some extra watering for the row of lilac bushes that line my front yard, they might flower more. I soaked them over night twice. This week it has also rained and the lilacs are BURSTING with flowers. When I go out to the car, it is really intense.
It takes me back to high school. I went to a Catholic Girls school that sat on the top of a hill surrounded by a golf course. The school was surrounded by lilacs that were 12 feet tall. In May, we would have a procession for the Blessed Virgin Mary and carry bouquets of lilacs to the altar where her statue sat in a grotto. It was a ritual that always touched me. So the scent brings all that back…those days when high was less complicated.
I was often in trouble because I was not exactly one to follow the rules quietly. But the nuns, or at least some of them, got who I was and thought I was endearing. My English teacher junior year let me do an independent study. I did it on the meaning of pornography, so I went and read all sorts of very complex novels. There I was at 15 reading James Joyce. She never batted an eyelash and just demanded that I think critically and write well. Saved my life. I finished the geometry book by the end of September and the math teacher just gave me a new problem to solve everyday and did not require that I attend class. I went to the library, did the problem and then read stuff. I think she knew what she was doing.
Funny how all that comes back with a scent.
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Themocracy
I love the image of all those lilacs in bloom, and their happiness with the extra water. I smiled at your description of yourself in high school, I’m guessing many of us can relate. When I walk around my neighborhood recently I get a light scent from something in bloom. It always reminds me of childhood visits to my grandmother in California.
I know what you mean about the memories evoked by scent. I think those are the strongest triggers for me. Lilacs take me even further back to my childhood when life was very, very simple. But they have to be real lilacs. LOL The fragrance isn’t the same in a bottle or candle.
Lilacs are my favorite flowers. We had purple and white ones at our summer house, and in Providence there was a bush in the yard in back of us and the branches hung over the fence.
The lilacs in my yard are going all out this year, especially the white one, which looks really good for the first time since I moved in. It’s exploding in flowers.
Oh I just love Lilacs! That fresh flower smell brings back my own memories of high school. They bloom so quickly around here, right after the Cherry Blossoms lose their petals the lilacs burst out and if you blink, they are gone. I caught them this year growing along the museum walls. It always feels like a special treat.
You were very fortunate to have two special teachers. Many people never even get one. I, myself, had two special teachers and what a world of difference they made in my life just as yours did. I sometimes wonder why I have been so lucky in some ways and I still don’t have an answer to that.
I wish I had your knack for geometry. I think it’s a whole different way of thinking that I could never really grasp. I never knew anyone could do the whole book in a month. I did finish a class in three weeks in college so maybe it is just a matter of how your brain works and your motivation. But your being able to do that in geomatry blows me away because I couldn’t do it in nine months.
I think it is nice that you have lilacs in your front yard because it’s a way to make yourself feel good and remember certain things from your past.
I don’t quite remember where my grandmother’s old roses were, but I know she had them when I smell them in someone else’s garden.