My honeysuckle, once on death's doorstep, is thriving. It numbers in the top 5 of my favorite floral scents. I list them in no particular order:honeysuckle, orange blossoms, lemon blossoms, plumeria, the deep red rose bush from my mother's garden. Four of these five were abundant on my parent's property as we grew up. In spring the air was perfumed and heavenly. Honeysuckle covered one hillside. As a girl I liked to play detective. Naturally I would put long white socks on my arms to serve as gloves and head out back with paper and pen in hand. First stop, honeysuckle hill. I would pick the flowers, pinch off the bottom, pull out the pistil and suck off the nectar. Nothing was better. I loved that it was homegrown. I've always been a sucker for the novelty of picking something to eat out of one's own yard, a trait I credit to my father. I then would blow air in and out of the blossom, okay, yes I think I was pretending I was smoking. It is shocking and I am not proud of the follies of my youth. But thus it is. It seemed the right thing for a detective to do. From there I went on to solve the world's mysteries. I just sampled one of my honeysuckle, not as good as my parents' but the sweet smell will always take me home.
5 comments:
That is so cool that you grow things and they don't die. I love your smoking story. Not quite as naughty as you might think. After we were all grown my mom told us that in high school she smoked two cigarettes one after the other and she loved it. She never did it again but it was shocking. My brothers and I used to break the white cardboard piping off the dry cleaning hangers and pretend they were cigars. So you are not alone in your childhood sins. Anyway, I love the smells that bring back good memories. There is nothing better.
I hate to admit it, but I do not know the names of hardly any flowers! I like the way they smell, but could never tell you which flower I like the smell of best. I am very impressed by your expertise and knowledge of such things. By the way, I would buy the candy cigarettes with my friends and pretend to smoke them. I think, everyone must have a smoking something story!
This is quite hilarious, both the smoking and the comments. I must add scent of your family apricots to my personal list. The image is lovely; the imagination runs wild. As wild as a hillside of honeysuckle.
Personally, we had honeysuckle growing wild on our street hillside. We would sip the nectar as well. I just remember how many blossoms I had to throw down empty for just a drop of it. I believe your parents' to have been tastier. But, I did enjoy the wild freedom of the honeysuckle grown just for us, the neighborhood children.
One question...have they made a patch for this addiction? If so, where can I purchase?
The last time I sucked on a honeysuckle I was 6 and after I had already put it my lips did I notice the ants streaming out of it. I flung it to the ground and didn't stop running for a block before I felt safe enough to stop. I am laughing imagining you smoke them. I used to take the twisty ties at the grocery store and peel off the paper and then bend it like it was a retainer and wear it around in my mouth, smiling extra big. I didn't realize that retainers weren't actually cool. Miss you guys!
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