Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

Bringing Spring Inside

Bringing Spring Inside, COREY AMARO PHOTOGRAPH

 

 

Walking around the countryside as Spring unfolds has allowed me to see nature's secrets. The barren branches, the buds bursting, the petals unfolding… I now know where the flowers bloom wildly, and where I can pick from the unattended fig and cherry trees.

Yesterday I went to pick some lilacs.

 

 

 

Bringing Spring Inside

 

 

Then I gathered some long branches with tiny white roses.

My home has never had as many bouquets!

 

Bringing Spring Inside

 

Darker lilacs grew further up the path so I gathered some of those too for the living room.

On the way back I saw my neighbor, she asked if I was hopping fences to steal flowers. I knew she was teasing, but to be sure I shared my source.

 

 

 

 

 

Bringing Spring Inside

 

Today I saw an older neighbor, her arms overflowed with lilacs, she said, "Up the road, to the left, down the path and across the field there are wild lilacs bushes…"

I guess I am not the only one to find the secrets unfolding in wild places.

 

 

Comments

15 responses to “Bringing Spring Inside”

  1. Momof5

    Which I had some wild or abandoned lilacs to pick. I have a few bushes in my yard but they don’t get enough sun to do well. I love lilacs!

    Reply
  2. Kathie

    Our house came with a lilac bush by the kitchen steps. The flowers aren’t as deep a shade, but the plant (already mature when we bought the place) has thrived on benign neglect for probably at least a half-century! We don’t cut bouquets to bring indoors, but its convenient location allows us to view it easily when it’s in bloom (which should start in a few more weeks here).

    Reply
  3. Diogenes

    Corey your place looks lovely. Lilacs are wonderful right?

    Reply
  4. Mardog

    They are! One of my favorites.

    Reply
  5. Marilyn

    Gorgeous lilacs!!! Gorgeous home!
    I love these unattended surprises.
    The more flowers the better.

    Reply
  6. tammyCA

    My favorite flower..lilacs! I grew up with a long hedge of them in our yard & oh, the intoxicating scent of them in spring! I miss them so much as I live in a climate they don’t grow in. 🙁

    Reply
  7. Judi

    When we were kids in Illinois, there was a vacant lot next door. There used to be an old farmhouse there, but nothing remained but the foundation. In the spring, we gathered lilacs from the bushes until we couldn’t carry anymore. And in the summer, there were raspberries and blackberries on the property as well. Wonderful memories! And the smells!

    Reply
  8. Patti L

    this bring to mind a time when my grade school daughter brought me a bouquet of lilacs she picked as she walked down the road after the school bus dropped her off. She hated the scent of them, and was allergic, but she knew how much I loved them. One of those cherished moments I will always remember at the mention of lilacs.

    Reply
  9. Chico Sue

    Oh, the lilacs! The sweet, sweet lilacs! Nothing speaks of Spring more wonderfully than lilacs! How lucky you are to have them. They are so rare in Chico, California.

    Reply
  10. Ourfrenchoasis

    Here too my house is scented by the wonderful smell of freshly cut lilacs. Like you, I collect flowers whilst out walking and I always feel slightly guilty when I walk back down a path carrying wild flowers, I know they truly do not belong to anyone, but there is always that little niggle!

    Reply
  11. Julie Loeschke

    I can smell them from here in Montana. 🙂 Our won’t be out for a while yet.

    Reply
  12. Rebecca from the pacific northwest

    Wild lilacs! wonderful. They always make me wonder who originally planted them (I think of them as a domesticated plant.) Like wondering who planted the pear trees on my parent’s land out in the country in Oklahoma, where only a remnant of the pioneers’ cellar was left, and the pear trees that still produced wonderfully.

    Reply
  13. Irene Thomas

    I am reminded of Mary’s Altar each May at St. John Fisher School, Chicago. Mary’s statue was surrounded by peonies and lilacs each spring. Here in CA, a few people are able to grow “real” lilacs by watering them with ice water each winter. They are puny things. I’ve never seen a peony growing here. Gorgeous, it’s just fun to think about them and talk about them. Thanks for your photo, and the memories,
    Corey.

    Reply
  14. monika

    Spring is the scent of rain caressed lilacs to me!
    Every spring, and only in the spring, I wear Frederic Malle’s En Passent, which is the most beautiful and delicate lilac perfume. It is my spring ritual 🙂
    I love how your older neighbour shared her secret source, and how seasonal life is in Europe!
    Here, there is snow season, and barbecue season, and they often overlap. spring is fleeting — we will be in the mid 20s later this week, while at the end of last week, we were being threatened with snow flurries. Hard to mark seasons when they are so blurred…

    Reply
  15. Merisi in Vienna

    Gorgeous lilacs, they shine in your home, and I’m sure your rooms are now filled with the same fragrance that’s wafting all over town here in Vienna right now!

    Reply

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