The Hollow (the most sunken of the sunken lanes around these
parts) had a strong whiff of cow parsley today. The weather has warmed a bit,
and the cow parsley is suddenly blooming in profusion. The smell is one of the
earliest I remember from boyhood, when I would hike along lanes and across
fields en route to some lake or river to go fishing. That makes it, to my
perception at least, a bridge across the years. It makes it timeless, and I
like timeless things.
The May blossom has also appeared, and with next week
forecast to give us our first taste of summer, the local landscape should be –
as Tennyson put it – ‘white with May’ by the end of it.
2 comments:
Have you seen Agnieska Holland's adaptation of The Secret Garden? Its one of my favorite movies. The spring and summer scenes, well all outdoor scenes, are beautiful. I imagine English springs and summers to look like that.
Do you know if hollyhocks are very fragrant? And if so, what do they smell like? I mean, what other flowers do they smell similar to?
If it's the same version I've seen, I agree. The little girl is superb. She represents the bud of feminine strength, about to burst forth and blossom. And the English countryside can be very beautiful in the spring and summer. I live among it and appreciate it.
Can't help you with hollyhocks, I'm afraid. I tried to grow them once but they didn't want to know me.
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