Lilacs

Lilacs are dear to me because they speak to me of home. When I was little, lilac bushes grew under our windows. No one really took care of them, but every spring they were carefully pruned on the sides by kind passers by. Thus the bushes mostly grew upwards, and every year the branches reached closer and closer to our second floor window.

The first lilac blooms in Moscow showed up in the markets. Old ladies sold them by the subway stations. The lilacs in the country must have bloomed earlier than the ones in the city. There were always a few branches of blooming lilacs in a vase at my friend's birthday party around Cosmonautics Day. (We always looked for the "lucky" five petal flowers in the sea of the four petal ones.) But soon the Moscow lilacs would start blooming too, showing their bright whites and mild violets through the tender spring greenery.

It is now May, and Boston is finally experiencing lilacs in full bloom. Mid May is a bit late for lilacs to be still blooming, but it is Boston--the city that has no spring. Boston is the city where winter suddenly turns into summer, and summer equally suddenly becomes winter. Consequently just about everything, that usually blooms over the course of spring, in Boston blooms at the same time--tulips, daffodils, magnolias, plum trees, cherry trees, apple trees, dogwood trees, azalias and of course lilacs.

Every year the Arnold Arboretum holds a day long celebration for the lilacs. This year the Lilac Sunday was held today, on May 13th. Nick and I headed to the Arboretum on Saturday with the idea that we would get a glimse of the lilacs in full bloom and avoid the crowds. We got there as the sun was setting, and walked around until after sunset.