My 100th Post!

Flowers are so symbolic. They represent hope and new life each year as they spring forth from from the ground or brown branches.

I love flowers of all kinds, but Lilacs hold a special place in my heart. When I was very young we had a few huge lilac bushes next to our house in Miller. I remember sitting on the ground with my best girl friend, Mary Ellen Warren, and stringing the flowers from lilacs and making our own leis. The leis were of various sizes and we'd place them around our necks, on our heads, on the cat, on our dolls and hang them around the yard. We'd dance around pretending to be fairies from the woods sparking new life where we'd go.

When I moved into my current house, my FIL gave me a stick with roots stuck in a bucket of water. He was given a lilac starter, for me, from one of his neighbors! I pampered that stick! I fed it root stimulator and then fertilizer. I discovered that lilacs need to be trimmed only just after they have bloomed...if you trim them in the fall you will clip off all the buds of next springs flowers. Each spring I would patiently wait to see the blooms of my labor, and to smell their intoxicating sweetness. This year I had more then enough blooms to clip and bring inside my house.

Each day my lilacs bloom I confess, I step outside and nuzzle my nose into those tiny purple blossoms. I close my eyes as I inhale and picture a little girl dancing around the yard with flowers on her head.