The lilacs are coming into full bloom. It always reminds me of two things: my childhood home with banks of lilacs blooming and of a picnic that Rodger and I went on before we were married. The first memory has made lilacs my favorite flower. It reminds me so much of Mother. I remember coming home to huge arrangements of lilacs in the house. They are an unruly bunch to try to arrange but she always managed to. And oh, the fragrance that permeated the house! There is no way to duplicate that smell artificially. Some products come close but never completely succeed. Maybe it would take walking into that wonderful farm kitchen and finding my mother there waiting for me to make it 'real.' She was the one that always made things real for me.
Rodger has brought me random bouquets from time to time when he has come across bushes and I'm quite sure that all my children know of my love of lilacs. We have planted a lilac bush under my bedroom window in this house. It is in it's third year and is beginning to produce flowers. I can't wait for bouquets!
The second memory is of a picnic took place somewhere near Sundance. There were no lilacs present but it is words that I remember. Rodger was memorizing lines from a play for a performance. The play was The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The scene is scene II. The are lines spoken by John Proctor to his wife Emily. It is springtime in Massachusetts and John has been out planting the fields on his farm. The lines are:
"Lilacs have a purple smell"
"It's as warm as blood beneath the clods."
For whatever reason these lines became embedded in my memory and have been repeated by me every springtime since. He surely must have learned his lines that day, I certainly did!
The memory also conjures up warm sun on our bodies and of being in the rush of young love laying on a blanket. Ah...young love, sunshine, youth, passion, a blanket and thoughts of lilacs and warm earth. No wonder I've never forgotten it...
