Friday, May 25, 2012
The smells of summer
Out biking
earlier this evening. Breathing in the smells of late spring/early summer. This
is the season of lilacs, my favorite flowers, of freshly-mown green grass, a
smell I love, of grilled meat on the barbecue, asphalt roads baking in the heat—the
smell of tar. Reminds me of the ocean boardwalk at Rye Beach Playland, also
baking in the sun. Love that smell—it always brings me back to childhood,
summers, and our annual trip to Playland that was a treat from our parents to
us and our friends. Loads of fun. Opened the door to my house, the hallway was
filled with the pungent (but not unpleasant) odor that comes from my fig tree,
which now has three figs on it. In the living room I smelled the lovely delicate
fragrant scent that comes from my mini-orange tree, which has at least six
oranges growing on it now and many new white blossoms. The fragrance attracts the
bees, who love it when they get the chance to alight on the blossoms; and that
is only when they get a chance to come into the house when the windows are wide
open as they have been the past few days due to the heat. And then of course my
basil plants, with their wonderful smell that always remind me of my aunt’s
garden in Tarrytown. When we visited her during the summer, she would make
dinner and send us children out into the garden to pick tomatoes and basil
leaves for her salad, and also raspberries (for dessert) from the bushes that surrounded her
house. I always remember the strong smell of basil from her garden.
The smells of summer are peaceful, a kind of aromatherapy for the mind and soul.
The four important F's
My friend Cindy, who is a retired minister, sends me different spiritual and inspirational reflections as she comes across them and thinks I...