It seems like lilacs are in the news – tomorrow being Mother's Day, it's also apparently Lilac Sunday. There was a long piece on public radio show Living on Earth yesterday morning about how climate researchers use lilacs, because they're budding and blooming earlier and earlier.

At lunch yesterday, the little florist's shop at work had lilacs or was using lilac scent as a part of a naturalistic display. As I walked past, there were a bunch of deliveries set out ready to go in the hall, probably for Mother's Day gifts. It was a little overwhelming – it's funny how closely linked scent and emotion are.

The first few years I was away at college, the lilacs that bloomed everywhere in Eugene, especially in Pioneer Cemetery, in the early spring made me feel terribly homesick. I used to cut across the cemetery every day the few years that I was a student, because it was between where I lived (various places) and class (various courses). Also, it was really lovely in the spring, and was used like a public park. On any given (non-rainy) day, you might encounter a bagpiper pacing back and forth practicing, or a group of Aikido practitioners in traditional jackets and wide pleated trousers. It wasn't a sad place at all – some of the tombstones were interesting or highly decorated, and because people must have brought cuttings from their home gardens, it was more like a lightly forested park with trails and overgrown landscaping. The lilacs were clustered over in the section where there weren't so many tall pine trees, and lots of people on campus would stroll or job by there on the old access road to enjoy them in the spring.

Then this morning on NPR's Morning Edition, there was another piece on lilacs and their evocative, homey scent and their usefulness to botanists and even gardeners to herald the arrival of spring (and planting). Lilacs again! They're everywhere! So I went out front to check, and sure enough, the two Persian lilac bushes are starting to bloom.

Thus, Mother's Day/Lilac Sunday is actually rather hard for me this year, because Mom had several old lilac bushes, either in her yard outright, or leaning over the fence by the back door from the neighbor's yard, and she loved the scent of them in the spring. She also used to threaten to cut switches from the old lilac bush outside her "den" windows, when I was naughty, or ir I dilly-dallied on my way home from school.

The switches were never really used, but they were an effective deterrent.
I prefer to focus on the heavenly smell, anyway.

Via: Flickr Title: Lilacs By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 12 May '07, 6.58am CDT PST

The lilac bushes in front of the house are starting to bloom. The scent will really kick in after a few more warm days, and the whole ground floor will be filled with the aroma when the front door is open on a sunny day.

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