Dandelions and Daydreams

Wildflowers are always the first, hopeful signals of spring. In Georgia, the first flowers of spring are usually the daffodils and the peaches. A walk through the woods in late March will reveal and abundance of blossoms. The beauty pageant of wildflowers will continue through the summer and into the fall with each new week trying to outdo the week before in both color and fragrance.

One of my favorite haunts is the periwinkle farm. At some point in history. this place had a cabin with a fireplace at each end. I can almost hear the echoes of children’s laughter ringing off the hilltops. The keeper of this homestead loving planted her garden (you can actually still see the level spot where a vegetable garden once stood). To add a bit more beauty she planted a few daffodil bulb here and some periwinkle there. There was a pink flower bush over near the well (I’ve only caught it in bloom once). The hillside was terraced for farming, but it’s been so long that the farm has grown over with pine trees.

Most of the time, old house sites make me sad. The fallen down houses are forgotten, ignored. Even if I leave an old falling down house, I want my mark on this world to be flowers that bloom every spring reminding everyone that winter is over. Whoever planted the periwinkle at this home site definitely left her mark on the world. The periwinkle continues to spread and cover more area. Some day the whole area will be covered.

I love the smell of honeysuckle flowers. When I was growing up, the dog pen was right beneath my window. The honeysuckle found the chain link fence and the well fertilized soil to be ideal growing conditions. Every summer, when I slept with my window open, the sweet sent of honeysuckle would blow into my room.

The vines almost pulled the fence down at one point, but the trouble they caused was well worth it. The smell of honeysuckle flowers were much more pleasant than other smells usually associated with dog pens.

Now, I sit at my desk with honeysuckle candles burning. The sent takes me back to my childhood when I laid on my bed and dreamed of what my future husband would be like and how my life would be when I grew up.