Lilac Days Are Here Again

It’s late Sunday afternoon. I’ve just put chicken in the oven for dinner and I’m sitting at the dining table enjoying the most beautiful scent of the first lilacs Gerry snipped from the bush in the backyard and brought to me earlier. There’s nothing in the world that smells as sweet as lilacs, and the first ones of the season are the best of all. They don’t last long. Perhaps that’s part of their charm. They take me back to my grandma’s tiny house in Benson, Saskatchewan, the house where I grew up in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and almost every home I’ve lived in since then. They evoke a sense of Sehnsucht (I tapped out a few thoughts about it a few years ago here) and make me homesick for the prairie. Have I mentioned that we are pondering a trip to my beloved Saskatchewan province soon?

I read on the local gardening page that someone decided when to put their tomato seedlings in the ground based on when the lilacs are in full bloom. If that’s a reliable gauge, it’s go time—at least it is n the valley where I’ll plant my tomatoes. It’s warmer at the community garden and I don’t have to worry about deer snacking on the fruit of my labour like I do in my backyard.  It’s been such a cool, wet spring it’s hard to tell for sure. In years past they’d already be planted but this year everything’s a bit behind. I’ll probably wait another week or so just to be certain.

We’re having a slow day. I’m tired after a restless night of unsettling nightmares that had me screaming out loud. They were brought on, in part, by an episode of Anatomy of a Scandal Gerry and I watched on Netflix last evening. Interesting how our subconscious mind works, surfacing things that have long been buried.

The whiteboard where we keep track of family obligations is full this week—thankfully, my personal commitments are few and ones I look forward to. Maybe it’ll warm up and dry up (as Gerry reminded me today when I was lamenting the absence of warm weather, one day it’ll hit, and—boom! —that’ll be it). There’s still that underlying concern about fires and heat grinding away in the back of our minds. I know I should just enjoy what we’re getting now. The lilac help. 🙂