Best of the Beets

Best of the beets

My nose carries me away.  Over and over a sweet fragrance in the garden derails all the other Things I get to do today. How could one know that this innocent, dark red vegetable, wintered over and going to seed, was part of the conspiracy to make me forget the task at hand? 

One garden bed still held the remains of last season.  For weeks I'd promised the "Fortex" pole beans that it was their turn to be planted.  But their ground space was full of wheat and beets gone to bolt.  Reaching down to pull them out brought me to realize that the honeysuckle-like scent was just an ordinary beet putting on its best.

Elegant as well as fragrant

Fresh-Air High

Picture is slightly more pink than my eye sees it on the bush

My soul expanded so fast I nearly lost consciousness.  That's what a breath of 60 degree, exquisitely-fresh air on a spring, pure-blue-sky morning does to me.  Add to it the intoxicating fragrance of these lilac blossoms, and I'm high on life for the next two days.

Do you know the type of lilac?  Leaves are about 2 1/4" long.

What is bringing me back to earth (occasionally) is wondering what type of lilac this is.  The flowers are small--the trumpet part is 5/8" long, four petals that extend 1/4" across with a hint of pinkish purple before the flower opens.  After it opens, the flower is off-white with only the slightest suggestion of the pink/purple of its youth and with the most dazzling fragrance in the garden.  One tiny spray of this lilac will soon sweeten a good size room and slowly love the whole house into heaven.

I don't need to know its name to love it with all my heart.

There are other Things I get to do today besides breathe and be carried away by bliss, so I touch earth from time to time. I'm certain that on a scale of one to ten, however,  today I'm a 12. Find yourself a flower to smell.  Dance with it to heaven.