What’s happening on Mist Mountain? A Walk Around in April, a very unpredictable month.
It’s funny how I am beginning to realize that there are so many connected stories and memories even in my garden. I think the stories of everyone are the glue that could mend almost anything. All three of these plants could be identified with your eyes closed just by their fragrance.
Lavender is loved by a lot of people. There are whole farms, many open to the public, growing it and selling every conceivable and not even conceivable items with lavender in them. A spinning buddy makes lavender goat cheese. Supposedly, all lavenders are edible, but some are sweeter. Personally, the smell of lavender is overwhelming. Outside with a few plants I am fine and I love the colors of purple in my garden and the occasional whiff as I brush up against them. Inside, my sinuses go bonkers. In seconds flat, I am sniffing and sneezing and gagging. One year it was the in thing to put lavender water in the spray bottles for the irons at a quilt retreat and I thought I was going to have to leave and miss the weekend. Lucky for me many of the other ladies had the same problem and the lavender water was banned from our confined space. I still grow a few bushes because they are beautiful, aromatic, bee lurers, and don’t need to be fussed over. In April, they are beginning to gain some height and looking a little more alive than their winter stick profile.
The lilies were given to me by a lady who I worked with. When we moved 8 or so years ago to Mist Mountain it turns out she was the matriarch of our only close neighbor family, so she got to come visit her lilies whenever she wishes and I think of her when i see them. Every winter they die back and disappear and I worry that they’re gone and so far each spring they start showing green again.
The lilacs hold a special place in my heart. They are my mother’s favorite and she planted several bushes underneath her bedroom window so she could smell them first in the morning when in bloom. All good things seem to come to an end. My father remarried. She reacted to lilacs like I do to lavender and the then lilac trees were chopped down.
My lilacs came from another past co-worker who bought them to me in buckets in the back of her truck where the water the starts were in proceeded to freeze solid. I took them home anyway and planted them in the frozen ground just because I had to give them a chance. They struggled for several years but are now taller than I am.
Right now they are just starting to bud once more. Note the beautiful blue sky that is making all this happen early. We don’t see blue sky much here, mostly April showers.
Seasoned 