on lilacs and book groups

for one week out of every spring, the twin cities turn into lilacville. i wonder whether anywhere in north america could compete for the number and variety of lilacs per capita? it is our celebratory reward for having survived yet another long dark winter.

on a similar but related note, my book group recently celebrated its 20 year anniversary. that is also very typical of this upper-midwestern capital; deep roots, and  long ties.

a collection of lilac flowesrs

saint paul, minnesota

  • margie says:

    what i love is the number of wild lilac bushes growing along the roadsides on my drive to and from work

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    • My drive to work involves a slippered shuffle from the teapot to my desk, Margie. No lilacs at all. I’m not complaining, mind you.

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  • Liz says:

    Your picture gave a breath of spring and fragrance this morning. Where I live we have vaulted into summer. Lilacs do not grow well here. I miss them from my childhood in northern Illinois.

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    • It is such an evocative and nostalgic scent. It seems everyone has a lilac memory Liz!

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  • Sara says:

    When I was living in Mpls, I used to love to drive with my windows down when the lilac were in bloom. Man, I miss that!

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    • Just had that happen on the way home from soccer! It was just a spring evening and suddenly it was like driving through a haze of lilac fumes.

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  • Ellen says:

    My father was born in Minneapolis in May 1902 and his mother told him a lilac was blooming outside her bedroom window that day. When that house was torn down for an expressway, my uncle took a shoot to his home in Maryland. The weekend of my wedding in 1966 he planted a shoot at my parents’ home in Wisconsin. When that house was sold, I brought a shoot to my home in Toronto. It doesn’t bloom very well or have much fragrance, but I am happy to have it.

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    • That’s one of the nicest stories I’ve heard in a long time, Ellen. Wow!

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