Lilacs

Today I bought some lilacs at Trader Joe's. They cost $8.99. It was an impulse buy, but a far better choice than ice cream.

Lilacs were an important part of my childhood. In May, when the lilacs would begin to bloom in King County, Washington, I would pick them in my Grandmother's yard. She had several full blown trees of lilacs. She had single purple, double light purple and double white.

I used to cut them with pliers (these things are full on tree branches) and put them in coffee cans and fruit jars and make giant bouquets of them. Sometimes people would stop and buy them. Other times I would take them home and put them on the dining room table. They smelled so nice. The smell takes me back in time.

My other Grandmother, Flora Orth also had a huge hedge of the dark purple ones on the right side of her house. They always looked so pretty and were a sure sign of the arrival of Spring and Summer just around the corner. Yay.