Home Sweet Home

Holy cow! I just got back home from my mother’s house and as I was opening the gate to the back garden I almost fainted. They home is sweet home – but this place is ridiculous. The confederate jasmine is in full honey scented bloom as it has been for a month. The sweet olive hedge surrounding Deidre’s patio is back in bloom with that luscious sweet apricot smell. The cloying scent of honeysuckle is drifting over from the bunny trail. That is three very strong very sweet smells and I have been used to them but tonight is different, tonight the gardenia has decided to open up its first blossom.

The gardenia is new to Shadows End – it was put next to the inside gate to replace a hibiscus I lost during the freeze. It has been doing very well and lately has put forth a dozen huge blooms. Well gee whiz; this is too much of a good thing. If the night blooming jasmine starts to bloom I will have to seek shelter.

I guess I should not complain – the honeysuckle blooms very sparingly since it is on the side fence in a very dim and dry area of the garden. I know it will eventually wreck the fence but I just love the smell of honeysuckle it reminds me of the vine outside my bedroom window as a small child. Now the sweet olive is probably only blooming because I am once again threatening to replace it with something a little more interested in putting on leaves. My sweet olives are twisted sticks scantily covered with leaves but every time I plan to replace them they burst into bloom.

Well to be alive you need to fully exercise all your senses and I think breakfast in the garden tomorrow will certainly be an experience in sweet smells. One of the greatest joys in simple living is breakfast in the garden.  But tomorrow, I think I will skip the jam and just have biscuits and butter.