Fragrant evening

[vaneramos]

Miserably hot days can turn to some of the loveliest evenings. Dusky, sweet air gently bathes the skin. After I collected Danny from the bus depot, we went to Red Brick Café, saw the photo show, then sat at a sidewalk table eating dessert and sipping fresh brewed iced tea. It tasted pleasantly of blueberry.

Between sheer 19th Century shop facades, the narrow lane lay in soft shadow, but falling sunlight pressed St. George's steeple against a pastel sky. Chimney swifts darted and squeaked over the rooftops. Guelph needed a sidewalk café.

Driving home we rolled the windows down. Suddenly the car was flooded with deep fragrance. Queen Street hill is covered with black locusts bursting into bloom. I turned the car toward the highest point of the city, where we got out and inhaled the overwhelming perfume, similar to jasmine. Marg makes fritters from the pendant sprays of white flowers.

At last we headed down to Eramosa River Park, wrapped in deepening shadow and the complex, earthy smell of maple and willow foliage.

Comments

[butterflyminds.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely icon.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that is me and my sweetie, taken several years ago.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

black locusts' fragrance

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

Hmm; I've been wondering what the large, large-leaved and incredibly fragrant tree was on a neighboring property was. I bet that's it. (Unfortunately, the house is essentially abandoned, or I'd ask the owner.)

And I, too, love that icon and the picture from which it comes. Sigh.

Re: black locusts' fragrance

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

The leaves of black locust are feather-like, with many small leaflets. It might be horse-chesnut, which is also flowering now, but it's odour isn't usually considered especially pleasant.

Re: black locusts' fragrance

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

The fragrance of the as yet undetermined tree is very pleasant, and reminded me of something like honeysuckle or lilies (it hasn't started blooming quite yet or I'd go check) so definitely not a horse chestnut.

Re: black locusts' fragrance

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Here are some pics of black locust:

http://www.all-creatures.org/pica/ftshl-locust-bl.html

Re: black locusts' fragrance

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

I've bookmarked the site, and will compare notes to the actual tree; I'll have to check into which other trees are pleasantly fragrant...

[ink-ling.livejournal.com]

God, I need some chimney swifts ... .

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

What does that mean to you?

[ink-ling.livejournal.com]

Well, two things:

1) It's been a long time since I (to my knowledge) was around a chimney swift, or even heard the phrase used. So, on one hand, I would love to see my nostalgia for the fact of these creatures fulfilled. And

2) I have always -- for whatever reasons -- associated chimney swifts with dusk: a quiet and reflective time full of tender import to me. I can almost hear their chatter and see their swirling and darting against the violeting sky, smell the cut alfalfa in the fields of my childhood, and I feel like I am allowed a moment to stand aside the rush of our life just long enough to give it names and chart a pair of its patterns. And I'd like that -- or something like it -- now.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful association! Chimney swifts were fabled birds for me as a child. My parents were bird watchers, and I read field guides devoutly, but there were many species I never had a chance to observe until much later.

A few I recognized instantly on first observation, and a chimney swift was one of them. I was canoeing across my beloved Lake Fletcher one day as an adult, and saw a small dark "cigar with wings" fly overhead. I knew at once it was a chimney swift. I still can never see one without thinking, "cigar with wings". But the sound and sight of them "darting against a violeting sky" last night was indeed a warming experience.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Thanks to my records, I know the date of that memory. It was May 18, 1987. :-)