Lilac Season

It's lilac season right now and these very fragrant flowers are available in small bouquets at all the Korean delicatessens across the city. Technically, it's part of a shrub or bush known as Syringa (Lilac) which prodces pale purple flowers every year, at least according to Wikipedia. In the language of flowers, lilacs symbolize love. I like to think that tulips are my favorite flower, but then I'm reminded of how much I like the smell of lilacs. They only last a short time and right now they are in bloom and they're the best.

My sister and I used to drive to New Jersey every spring around this time when she still lived in the city. We'd go shopping at the mall on a Saturday afternoon and have a great lunch at Friendly's and then we'd drive around until we would find a lilac patch on the side of the road where they grow wild. After locating an especially bountiful patch, we would jump out of her car and run and grab as many as we could possibly carry in our arms. We would rush back to her car after picking what seemed like enough lilacs to fill her entire trunk. Since my sister doesn't live anywhere near New York any longer, I would appreciate it if anybody reading this who knows anyone in New Jersey to please tell them to fill up their car with lilacs and deliver a boatload of them to my apartment. They make everything smell so nice. They used to have lilac soap at Neiman Marcus that my mother would get me for Christmas. I'll take a case of that too!