In Idaho, we don't pick peas until July 4th.
But in the Southern Utah desert, peas can be planted in January
and they are long gone by the time July 4th rolls around.
Because I just finished picking the last batch of peas from our garden,
I've been thinking about other things that I used to do when I was younger.
And today being Memorial Day
I've been thinking about those lilacs and tulips and iris and remembering their fragrance.
Mother and I would collect the lilacs, tulips and iris from her garden. She had an array of old buckets and tin containers in which we would fill with water make fragrant flower arrangements to put on the graves of our grandparents and other loved ones. We would travel to the Fairview, Richmond and Logan Cemeteries. No matter the cemetery we visited, we would meet up with cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors and many friends. My.....how my life has changed from those bygone days. However, when I smell the hard-to-find lilacs and iris here in the desert it "takes me home" again. The effort we put forth in honoring the grave sites of our loved ones helps us to feel close to them, to think about them and remember. I've been thinking that a trip north is in order.
