May is lilac here

Lilacs and dew

Since they have not yet invented scratch and sniff blog widgets you are missing the best part of these flowers. They are blooming now on the northeastern side of our humble abode.

Lilacs were first planted in North America at Governor Wentworth's not-so-humble abode in Portsmouth in 1750. Hardy, beloved in spring, and easy to propagate, lilacs soon became ridiculously ubiquitous. They were named New Hampshire's state flower in 1919.

Purple Lilacs: Fragrant Favorites of New Hampshire

I was going to repaint our livingroom but instead I redecorated the blog. Atlantic Ave. is now simpler, cleaner and fairly colorless so that the photos stand out.

Oscar Wilde wrote: Memory ... is the diary that we all carry about with us. I have a quirky and imperfect memory, but I have a blog. Remember when the lilacs bloomed? Oh yes, it was the middle of May.

Poem: Lilacs by Amy Lowell

Lilacs in dooryards
Holding quiet conversations with an early moon;
Lilacs watching a deserted house
Settling sideways into the grass of an old road;
Lilacs, wind-beaten, staggering under a lopsided shock of bloom
Above a cellar dug into a hill.

P.S. I just realized the template I chose is almost a duplicate of my best gal pal blogger. Sorry about the copycat, Marie. Great minds (with Typepad) think alike?

High five to Mark at Irish Elk (at first I typed Elf) who is celebrating FIVE YEARS of blogging as of Monday. I tried to leave a congrats message but his comments are a little cranky at the moment. Thanks for making and keeping a distinctive blog abode I love to visit, Mark.

Comments

[Marie]

Ehh. No matter. That is why they are called templates. And finding Typepad templates is ever so much easier than painting a room or shopping for clothes to fit my body. The grey is good.

[Amy]

Don't say shopping.

Gray selected as it is the color of the weather here most of the time.

[John B.]

I like the new look, too, for what it's worth. Of course, I liked the previous look, too.

Somewhat serendipitously, today's Writers' Almanac (that is, Wednesday the 16th) featured a poem called "Stealing Lilacs" . . . which, apparently, is something of a problem in this great land of ours. Having no garden of my own, I had no idea. This sheltered life I lead.

[MCNS]

Amy, many thanks! Our sometimes cranky abode is honored by your visits. Cheers!

[Amy]

John B, I'd like to see someone try to steal our lilacs. I'd show 'em cranky.

Sláinte, Mark.

[leslee]

I like it. Very spacious feeling. And I like the header - I recognize that gray water. Although it is getting to be the time of more blue and green, no?