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The price of free

I came in when I heard the thunder but was intentionally not going to write.  Couldn't live up to that commitment when Pryor Baird & the Deacons started playing Little Red Wagon. I can't find a YouTube link so I'm substituting with  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEmvBdRLg4k  and I'll leave you to find this driving rhythm.  If you're thinking I've heard Little Red Wagon done by___.  Yeah everybody done it.  Some versions are so slow and deep delta bluesish that you gotta figure heroin was on the menu.  This is I think you'd call it more Chicago blues with a staccato driving beat. No matter what you call it my hands started slapping the desk and that led to slapping this keyboard. For some technical reason beyond my imagination the stereo has flipped past the rest of the CD and gone on to John Mayall Plays John Mayall.  It's John Mayall so I'm not going to argue.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3BK8-Mmn1s&list=PL94gOvpr5yt2BTHyFMsHRkvcce0XIS43y
  The thunder was clearly premature as even tho' it's black outside the rain.... Well this is Colorado so the rain might finally show up Thursday. Mostly I hurried in as I worried I needed to bring in the tomato starts. I've got 15 good looking plants right now.  Not leggy and about a foot tall. 7 or 8 will go in the garden in two weeks with the rest being put out front on Mothers Day for sale.  I'd happily give plants to any neighbor that wanted them but the inner Libertarian decide a few years back charge two bucks.  It pays for a bag of seed starting soil and I think too often if something is free it's not thought of as valuable.  Now zucchini in July, yeah - how many will you take?  OK here's the rain, good downpour and blow!
  I don't have a transition for this and it really leads no where but the smell of purple has been on my mind.  Lilacs, lilacs have been blooming the last few weeks all around the neighborhood. Now honestly in my garden flowers take a distant second place to veggies. Our lilacs were back by the garage when I moved in and while I give them some care their only purpose is to hide the compost pile from alley view.  Compost piles might in some neighborhoods draw the ire of the neighbors. In our neighborhood it would have to be a real slow day for code enforcement to even notice.  So my use of the lilacs to "hide" anything is about as real as our cat running down the hallway to avoid the predators but it lets my mind give them a purpose in the garden.
  Last week while out walking the dogs the smell of purple just rushed up my nose.  There was a huge hedge of really full and beautiful white lilacs. I knocked on the door and asked if I could cut some of the lilacs.  The guy looked at me like I was from Mars.  So I pointed and said "the white flowers" he said,"sure" in a why would you want those tone.  Lilacs don't get the respect they deserve.  Maybe that's the link here.  I offer it as a connecting link because I know those lilacs were there long before the currant owner. I doubt anyone has ever watered, fertilized, fussed over, or spent money or time on them. - Yet they are a stunning hedge and each spring they make the neighborhood smell like purple.
  OK, the purple thing is simple. Growing up we lived on Corona st in Boston.  The house had a 20 ft hedge of lilacs (I was little and perspective might have been off but I swear 20 ft).  I was learning my colors at the time and for some weird reason would confuse orange and purple.  But the spring smell nailed it down for me.  Don't ask me the smell of red but purple hmmm!
  Unlike lilacs people fuss and fret over roses.  Nothing against them per se (or perhaps whatever is the opposite of per se!) but our roses are out front 'cause they won.  When Deb bought the house the previous owner upon moving out clear cut the front yard (after selling it!?!) She cut down all the trees except the maple and shaved the roses to the ground. When I moved in Deb had added some things but the roses looked like they had sprung back from some root stock (graft) that was never intended to give showie roses.  I mowed them without mercy for 3 or 4 years.  Life was too short for fretting over roses especially eh ones.  I guess I had a year of weakness or perhaps the mower blade just said no more but we've got two rose bushes out front. The last dozen years I've bowed to my rose overlord and each spring trimmed out the dead, weeded around them and given them some Starbucks coffee grounds.  I'm sure there is a great positive life lesson here. You'll have to forgive me as yesterday was the trim and weed the roses day thus I'm less Pollyanna and more of the 'guy who wrestled with a rose bushes' view.  Gardening is that way.
  Rain's over, Deb's back from minding her girlfriends cat, and Blues Traveler is grooving to their own unique blues sound so my typing rhythm is off and I'll stop there.  Doug A.  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blues+traveler+straight+on+till+morning+full+album

Comments

  1. I enjoyed this a lot Doug. The smell of purple. Back in the day I had a few John Mayall albums... and the first thing I think of when I think of Corona St. Is the lilacs. I think maybe they were 20 feet.

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    1. Memory is tricky but attach it to a smell and it is strong. Thanks for commenting!

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  2. I love lilacs and my sister Christine says that they remind of me because they usually bloom around my birthday. Yet hers, over there in the 600 S Lincoln area bloomed mid-month April causing her pause. Global warming? It is nice to know that in your neck of the woods, they are blooming just in time to cut me a whole bouquet. It is too bad we left on Wednesday to come home where there are none to be found.

    In Sioux Falls lilacs were used extensively for hedges to block the freeway sight and noise as well as other things. The whole town was full of them.

    As to the smell of red, I think that is tomatoes. Fresh ones, at least, to me at least. And green and pink is watermelon. Since you smell purple, did you know that fives are green?

    BTW, this is my pen name - BR

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That smell should make Sioux Falls a spring destination! Fives? Like currency fives? You shouldn't sniff your money you never know where it's been! Thanks for commenting

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